Burlew developed the basic elements of his stick figure art style at the age of twelve while drawing a comic called Mr. Demon for his lunchroom friends.
Instead of purchasing lead miniatures, he used graphic design software to draw simple stick figure cutouts in the style he had developed as a youth.
[17] Burlew was able to take advantage of the attention and popularity he got from the Setting Search contest by launching his "Giant in the Playground" website and the comic The Order of the Stick.
Burlew realized that he had created a successful story when several friends in an online D&D game spent an entire session berating him for writing a scene in which a villain impales a main character.
Shortly thereafter, he reported that pre-orders for the book had been so successful that he was prepared to quit his job as a graphic designer and commit himself full-time to comic and game writing.
In November 2005, new strips of The Order of the Stick began appearing in Dragon Magazine,[21] significantly extending the potential reach of the comic.
Burlew also drew a short-lived webcomic for the Role-Playing Game Association (RPGA) website, Five Foot Steps,[23] that featured more traditional cartoon art instead of stick figures.
In January 2012, Burlew launched a Kickstarter[24][25] campaign to get The Order of the Stick: War and XPs back into print, which eventually raised enough money to reprint the whole book series.
[30] Due to his illness, Burlew reiterated on his website on July 10, 2011 that The Order of the Stick webcomic is produced on "a random schedule ... depending on [his] ability to work.
[33] In a December 28, 2012 Kickstarter update post, Burlew stated that physical therapy had given him limited use of a pen back and was now able to sign autographs.