lit a candle 3h agoI just found my old On the Edge cards in a box last week and now I read this. 1994, Trident, Inc., his name right there on the history I never knew I owed to a comic shop in Saint Paul.
Their story
Robert Guy Brynildson, known as Bob, was an American retailer and the owner of The Source Comics and Games in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a comic and game shop serving the Twin Cities. Through the store he also played a part in tabletop game publishing, joining with Atlas Games in the…
Robert Guy Brynildson, known as Bob, was an American retailer and the owner of The Source Comics and Games in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a comic and game shop serving the Twin Cities. Through the store he also played a part in tabletop game publishing, joining with Atlas Games in the 1990s to form Trident, Inc. He died of lung cancer at his home in North St. Paul on 8 October 2026, at the age of 69.
Brynildson was born on 22 January 1957 in Hudson, Wisconsin, to Gerald and Barbara (Lovaas) Brynildson. He grew up in Isle, Minnesota, near Mille Lacs Lake, where he developed a love of reading and learned to fish, hunt, swim, camp and drive a boat. In 1969 the family moved to Cannon Falls, Minnesota. There he took up the study of military history and the new hobby of role playing games, becoming one of the original organizers of Dungeons and Dragons in the town and holding tournaments in the family basement.
He graduated from Cannon Falls High School in 1975 and began studying at the University of Minnesota that September. At the university he met Kim Fluharty, and the couple married on 2 September 1978. After one more year at the university he joined the United States Marine Corps, serving from 1981 to 1984 and reaching the rank of sergeant. Their first son was born while he was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and their second son was born after the family returned to Minnesota.
With his business partner Jerry Corrick, Brynildson owned The Source Comics and Games, a shop selling new comics, back issues and games. In the early 1990s, when the game publisher Atlas Games did not have the money to publish its collectible card game On the Edge, Corrick and Brynildson partnered with it to form a corporation called Trident, Inc., which brought the game out in 1994. The game historian Shannon Appelcline records that Atlas was eventually folded into Trident, and that Brynildson, Corrick and The Source continued to support Atlas with their retail experience and business perspective.
Brynildson died at home in North St. Paul on 8 October 2026 after lung cancer. The Source announced that it would close on Saturday 17 October for the funeral of the man it called its Source Family Patriarch. His funeral arrangements were handled by Oakwood Funeral Home.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), Oakwood Funeral Home obituary, Source Comics and Games. Wikipedia ↗
Photos
1Bob Brynildson
by People Forever
My brother played that game obsessively in the 90s, had no idea it traced back to one store