You find: a dagger +1, and a bronze Gary Gygax statue in Lake Geneva

The canonization of pop culture has begun. Just ask anyone who has dressed up as a fictional character for a non-Halloween event, or anyone that’s purchased a fake product made real. Several cities even have statues commemorating fictional characters, ranging from Tokyo’s Godzilla statue to our very own Bronze Fonz. Now, Lake Geneva—no stranger to strange statues—has authorized the land for a bronze statue immortalizing its most famous son, Ernest Gary Gygax.

Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson created Dungeons & Dragons in 1974. They also founded TSR, the company responsible for the game from the ’70s through the ’90s in Lake Geneva. The game started as an outgrowth of war games and wore its Howard and Tolkien influences on its sleeve. It spread via word-of-mouth from Wisconsin throughout the world, eventually expanding into other media properties, like novels, comics, cartoons, and a pair of films. Check the basement of anyone that was a kid from 1978-1985, and chances are you’ll find some version of a D&D box set moldering away.

Gygax died in 2008. A gaming convention, GaryCon, soon sprung up, and talk quickly turned to a statue commemorating the D&D creator in Lake Geneva. The Gygax Memorial Fund, run by his widow Gail, has been working on this project for three years.

“I designed the initial concept with Gary,” Mrs. Gygax tells The A.V. Club. “Then JP Robson of EMC2 Landscaping helped articulate my further request of a dungeon element. He incorporated a gateway with steps […] and a set of polyhedral dice leading towards the dungeon.”

Role-playing games became an important part of the ’80s “Satanic Panic,” even spawning a ripped-from-the-headlines-ish TV movie starring Tom Hanks. The vague whiff of evil stuck with D&D for a long time, despite efforts to debunk the myths. With the rise of Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings, the fog has lifted somewhat, but that doesn’t stop the vaguest of connections from occasionally bringing out the torch-and-pitchfork set.

As for the statue, it’s hardly controversial. “Gary and I discussed the basic design—his bust on a castle town plinth—shortly before he passed,” says Mrs. Gygax. “I originally requested a location at the western end of Library Park. The Parks Board granted me a location in Donian Park—a lovely site.”

Dungeons & Dragons has a continuing impact on pop culture. Many of the kids that grew up playing D&D are now part of the Hollywood machine: Vin Diesel wrote the foreword for the D&D coffee table book released in 2004; Mike Myers revealed that “Lothar Of The Hill People” was born out of a D&D game as a teenager; Stephen Colbert discussed D&D as an important part of his improvisational foundations; and Dan Harmon devoted an entire episode of his beloved Community to the subject. Gygax himself appeared on an episode of Futurama.

The Gygax Memorial Fund is currently accepting donations for the completion of the Gygax statue at its website.