Rogers, Irvine, Di Vito, and Bergting.
Years ago, when the Vom Marlowe was but a tot, she played D&D. And before anyone leaps down her throat, she would like to be very firm and forestall complaints from all and sundry gameboys. Yes, it was D&D. Not AD&D. Played from a skimpy pamphlet and some funny looking dice we had to mail order. So there.
Gaming creds out of the way (no, I still cannot remember what the devil Thaco is, thank you kindly), I shall move onto the actual comic.
This is not a good comic. I shall admit this upfront. It has a dragon on the cover (or at least on my cover, I understand there are several). The human hero has shoulder muscles the size of a Toyota Prius, the colors are a tad murky, the ink is a bit thick, the plot is simple, and the jokes are silly. And yet… And yet…
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Go figure. Also it was only a dollar, which I’m sure helped.
Do I need to explain the story? I suppose I do.
A male human fighter, a dwarf with an axe, and a female halfling thief walk into a bar dungeon. There’s some swordplay, some kind of nifty warg-werewolf-troll things (green and wolfish), some slavers and a dragon. They find their buddy the male elf and meet a female elf-dragonish person who wields fireballs or some kind of magic. Nifty. Together they fight crime!
That’s about it, really.
The thing is though, that I found it all rather charming. It’s a cheesy premise, but let’s face it. Most comic premises are silly and cheesy. The execution is gleeful; it doesn’t take itself too seriously and it embraces the tropes that make it good.
Check out this bit:
Well, I thought it was funny. Just call it a shortcut, heh heh heh.
Ahem.
But as I said, it’s not like this is a particularly good comic. The drawings are basically anatomically correct (if you allow for whacked out hero proportions, that is), but sometimes…
A stronger line of ink between the dragon and the fighter holding the shield would have made for a better differentiation between the panels. I mean, it’s cool that the dragon frames it, but I read it and first thought that the green thing was on top of the dragon. Yes, I puzzled it out, but still. And the dragon himself has a certain level of floppy cuteness which does not appropriately increase the dramatic tension.
Although honestly, if I saw a plush dragon toy with floppy spines like that, I’d buy it instantly, so perhaps it’s just clever marketing instead.
I bought this comic some time ago, and I admit upfront that I have been putting off reviewing it. It’s a bit tough to throw up a review of, well, a D& freaking D comic in a blog that spends time talking cogently about Derrida, but I have no secrets from you all, dear blog readers. You already know my tastes are strange and outre.
Can I recommend this comic? Well…. Do you know who Drizzt is? Do you like quippy hack and slash? I will name no names! But you know who you are. (Or, perhaps more likely, who you’re not. )
But remember. If you want to give it a try, it is only a dollar.
And yes, I am proud to say that I am awaiting the November issue.
I’ve mentioned that I was absolutely obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons for years and years, right? I even got Dragon magazine for years; read the Dragonlance books, the whole nine ochre jellies.
I think they’ve dropped the AD&D now and it’s back to D&D. They’re on like the fifth rule system or something. Damn whippersnappers, always changing things….
Ditto on the whole nine ochre jellies.
The first comic book I ever bought (which started it all) was a Dragonlance comic from DC (issue #3). I was intrigued that they were putting out D&D comics again, but… not intrigued enough to think they would be worth reading.
THACO = to hit armor class zero. You calculate your to hit roll based on that number the armor class of the opponent, one lower roll for each number the armor class is above zero. One higher roll for each number the armor class is below zero.
A few too many typos in that comment. Oh well.
*beams at you both*
Noah, I did not know you were a D&D fiend! That’s awesome, though. Man, I miss gelatinous cubes. Good times, good times. Even if I did frequently lose characters to giant rats…
Derik,
Ha! I knew someone would know what thaco stood for. I think I imprinted on those early rules and have never been able to fully adapt to newer versions. If only I had known about Dragonlance comics. I’d have bought them in a heartbeat. I adored Dragonlace. *happy sigh* In fact, I am embarrassed to admit that I listened to a Dragonlance tie-in novel on audio not too long ago. Good stuff, if terrible.
Oh, man, were the dragonlance books horrible. I went back to them some years later, which was not a good idea. Some of the worst written fantasy books I owned, I think, which is saying something.
I can also admit that the Dragonlance chronicles books (whatever the first one was called, it has Autumn in the title) was the first book I ever bought on my own in a bookstore (with money my parents gave me, I’m sure).
You know, I do lament sometimes that there really aren’t any really good fantasy comics. I would totally read a decent high fantasy comic. Probably there are some French ones I’m unaware of, but there’s really nothing in English that isn’t Conan, and there doesn’t seem to be much manga in the genre that isn’t some kind of techno-fantasy.
The manga Inu-Yasha is pretty good (by Rumiko Takahashi.) And there’s Bone, which lots of people like. I thought Red Sonja from back in the day was supposed to be okay…?
Dragons of Autumn Twilight.
*hangs head in embarassment*
My copy had a purple-turquoise-black jelly raised sticker shaped like unicorn on it.
You know, I read some kind of interview about how they wrote that book. If it read like a retelling of gaming table adventures, then it’s because that’s exactly what it was. Turns out that it jumped the shark (imo) when the original Raistlin quit playing Raistlin.
I’d totally read a good old fashioned high fantasy comic. I tried Inuyasha in anime, but couldn’t get into it.
Never tried Inu-Yasha, though I’m not a big fan of Takahashi’s style. Bone is too… goofy and kid focused for me (I did read the whole damn omnibus book though).
I have enjoyed some of the old Conan comics, but they are a very specific and limited form of fantasy. There’s very little in the way of characterization or character interaction to them.
Wikipedia on Inu-Yasha:
“The series follows a time-traveling middle school girl…”
Well they lost me right there.
Someday someone will make a long-form comic adaptation of Gene Wolfe’s Book of the Old Sun, and it will be the best fantasy, nay, the best epic comic ever. You’d need a few thousand pages to do right by the books and have the storytelling suitably decompressed. Tsutomu Nihei (Blame) can be the figure artist, on top of layouts by Katsuhiro Otomo, and Gerhard (Cerebus) can be in charge of backgrounds, with Otomo’s assistants working on them as well. Who wants to help me put together the financing?
My daughter just read the first Dragonlance (yep, still had it from childhood). She liked it and started the second (That’s “Dragons of Winter Night,” naturally)…but she seems to have stalled for the moment.
I played D&D once as a kid … all I remember is that I rolled some dice and then I got killed by an orc.
From this trauma came my deep-seated hatred for all tabletop fantasy games.
Eric- Maybe some Anne McCaffrey novels are in order for your daughter? (although I guess I don’t know how old she is…) In seventh grade I read just about every Pern book, was desperate for more, and unfortunately tried “Kaz the Minotaur”, part of some Dragonlance spinoff series, which needless to say was a poor, poor substitute…
Yeah…I’ve tried that but whenever I suggest anything, it’s automatic resistance!
Derik: Banya was a pretty solid and enjoyable fantasy manwha from Dark Horse, a few years back
Also…what about Elfquest? Is that any good? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it….
Also,there is at least one legitimately brilliant fantasy comic, viz. Dungeon by Sfar, Trondheim et al. It’s by turns funny, exciting and moving. I very strongly recommend it.
Also also, Cerebus had some strong fantasy elements throughout its run, at least in the first 200 issues.
Don’t think Elfquest would agree with you, Noah, though it would probably read fine if you’re in your teens and have only read superhero material.
Hey, Sean, did you ever read that horrendous comic adaptation of The Shadow of the Torturer? I only read the first issue and it may have died after that for all I know.
Suat-
I had no idea an adaptation of it existed… just found scans of a few panels and it looks awful, very much in the “as many words as will fit in this panel” school of adaptation. I suppose one problem with adapting it would be the many “secrets” that are hidden from us, the reader, simply because they’re commonplace things for the narrator so he doesn’t spell them out for us- many of those surprises would be spoiled by a visual depiction… it would have to be quite the tricky adaptation.
I was stupid enough to get excited about a comics adaptation 20 years ago and pre-ordered the comic sight unseen. I vaguely remember it moving at a fairly brisk pace and Severian actually gets right up to the duel with flowers thing by the end of the issue. Or maybe I’m misremembering the whole thing. Whatever. The Bruce Pennington cover does more for the novel than that whole comic. At least it gave “flesh” to something like Terminus Est.
Well, well, well, the gamers come out of the woodwork. A sight to behold!
It’s cool to see how large a section of our generation of comics people (whether we now discuss Derrida cogently or not) all got our start with D&D :)
Here’s my own tell-all.
Thanks, Jones, I’ll look up Banya (used copies for $.74 on Amazon).
I’ve only read the first Dungeon book, which seemed very comedic. I gather some of the other series of it are less so.
I tend to forget Cerebus as “fantasy” because the most fantasy parts (the first book) are also the parts that are least interesting.
Derik-
I tend to think of all the books through Minda (issue 200) as pretty grounded in fantasy, if only because the elements from the first book keep coming back, entangling the narrative, and eventually wrapping themselves up. In fact, that seems like the major criticism that was leveled at the series at the time, that it was never just one thing- High Society isn’t just a political thriller, it’s a political thriller with a talking animal with a fantasy swordsman who’s sidekick to a superhero parody… anyway, even though it’s ultimately unclassifiable, “fantasy” would be the closest genre that could encompass the rest.
(well, taking two seconds more to think instead of type, I guess there are at least two books in that span I just named that have no fantasy elements, perhaps coincidentally my favorites. hm.)
Have no fear, have no shame! Name names! My name is Mordicai & I think DnD is awesome.
Sean (sorry lost this one for awhile): Sure, the fantasy elements are there for quite awhile, but… I don’t know, by the time I get to Church and State I’m not reading it as fantasy anymore, at least not the kind of fantasy I’m complaining about there being a lack of in comics. But, yeah, I guess I overlook the fantasy because the other elements take over so much.
My dream fantasy comic would be Jack Vance’s ‘The Dying Earth’ adapted by Mike Kaluta.
Alex-
I’d read that in a heartbeat, as long as the material wasn’t compressed too much.
If you like the Dying Earth you should really check out Shadow of the Torturer (Book of the New Sun)- Vance was Gene Wolfe’s primary science fiction influence, and the two books have more than a few things in common.
Sean, I read Shadow of the Torturer when you were in diapers!
I actually met Jack Vance once. Well, “met”– I was too flabbergasted to say anything except ‘Good afternoon’.
Alex-
I have it on good authority that I never wore diapers, and was a self-sustaining human being, and science fiction reader, as soon as I was born.*
I don’t know why I assumed you hadn’t read the book, since you brought it up in the context of the conversation about SotT…. :) Anyway, I love both of them. Do you have any science fiction recommendations that give you some of the same feelings or flavors as those two works?
* might not actually be true
Hmm…that elegiac, melancholy, dreamlike milieu?
Leigh Brackett’s Northwest Smith, C.L.Moore’s Jirel of Joiry?