much of the humor may fall flat.Creer, Jeff. Order of the Stick: 4.5 out of 6 , The Official Time-Waster's Guide, August 18, 2005. Retrieved March 10, 2008. However, the comic is just as often seen as being accessible to casual readers without such gaming knowledge due to the strength of the main cast's portrayals and abundance of character-based humor. The comic has been praised for its "shrewd writing" and "increasingly intricate and cleverly scripted adventures", as well as its execution. One webcomic critic has called it "one of the few very simplistically drawn comics that can pull [off] an extensive storyline." Particular praise has been given to the scenes depicting the siege of Azure City, which has been called "a war worthy of Peter Jackson." The comic's stick figure art has received mixed reviews. Some critics praise its "surprisingly expressive art", with PvP cartoonist Scott Kurtz adding that the comic would not be as funny or have as much heart if the characters were drawn in any other style. Time magazine and Black Gate praised the comic characters for their expressiveness, even though they are drawn as stick figures. Lev Grossman of Time said that Burlew sometimes "imbues them with a weird epic majesty". Others denounce its simple geometric characters as "merely functional" or (as fellow webcomic creator Jackie Lesnick put it) only "good for someone who isn't really an artist". Burlew has defended his art style several times in public statements, stating he has no lack of proficiency at drawing, but intentionally developed a clean and simple style to help the reader focus on the humor. He has pointed out that the primary goal of comic art is to communicate the actions of the characters, which his style does as well as any other. Burlew has addressed similar criticisms within the comic itself several times, either by contrasting his usual art with more realistic drawings or by simply putting self-deprecating dialogue regarding his style into the mouths of characters. Surveys of webcomic site traffic held since May 2007 have consistently placed The Order of the Stick as one of the 10 most widely read webcomics in existence. Burlew has estimated that he has about 650,000 dedicated readers and up to one million additional casual readers. Every day, thousands of the comic's readers participate in the comic's official forums, which feature discussion of The Order of the Stick and