President and founder of Hard Eight, Gary Jackson designed and created Hackmaster (a parody of Dungeons & Dragons ; in the very early Shadis scripts, the game the group plays is apparently called Dung & Dragons, but renamed HackMaster shortly afterwards). His name combines those of Gary Gygax and Steve Jackson, two noted RPG designers. Gary Jackson has always been two things--first and foremost a gamer, but second and not distantly behind that at all: a business man. Some of Hard 8's best and worst products were the design of Gary, including the One-Legged Dwarf Kits. Gary has a son by the name of Timmy (Timmy Jackson in full), who also is involved in the family business. However, Timmy is somewhat young, and a lot of the ideas he comes up with are met with spite and disgust. Gary Jackson allegedly died in issue #53 in a plane crash. Because of controversy surrounding the new edition of Hackmaster, Brian and Bob got into a vehicle and drove up to Hard Eight to confirm. Despite their shock and horror at his "death," the two rubbed several of their dice on Gary (believed to endow good luck, they in fact cursed the dice). Suddenly, in issue #149, Gary emerged from hiding (after having faked his own death to avoid gambling debts) and began involving himself directly in Hard Eight's business again.