Writer: John Rogers
Artist: Andrea Di Vito
Colorist: Aburtov and Graphikslava
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Released: 11/2010 (collected 7/2011)
Review by: Tim from Last Week
John Rogers is one of those writers that you know, but don’t know you know. He handled the first script for the Transformers movie. He was a creator on The Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon (a favorite in the From Last Week household!). He created and executive-produced TNT’s Leverage. In comics, he was co-creator of Jaimie Reyes, DC Comics’ “new” Blue Beetle. He has also written for BOOM! Studios (Cthulhu Tales, Zombie Tales).
Andrea Di Vito has been working in comics since the early 2000s. His first regular art gig was on The First, followed by Brath (CrossGen Comics). Then he moved on to higher profile jobs, including Thor, Annihilation, and Nova (Marvel Comics). Di Vito has also worked on assorted G.I. Joe titles for IDW Publishing.
On the first page, we are dropped right into the action (don’t get too excited: it’s just a tease, to whet your appetite). Dealing with zombified orphans (“…nobody’s gonna miss ’em”) seems like a good place to start! Then, flashback to earlier that day. A pre-existing party of adventurers is signing up a new member at the local bar. The team is set (but not stable): Adric Fell (human, leader), Kahl (dwarf), Varis (elf), Bree (halfling), and new member Tisha (human/tiefling). We get to see them razzing each other, just before the action starts.
Zombies break through the floor, and we get to see everyone in action trying to stop the horde of zombies. It turns out the zombies were following tunnels under the town. But, it seems that the zombies aren’t really zombies, and that leads to the gang getting arrested for murdering a bunch of townsfolk. The group is about to be sentenced, but an old friend of Fell’s, Copernicus Jinx, arrives to explain the situation. It seems darkness is seeping into this realm, and infecting people.
As Fell and the team try to escape the now-infected constabulary, Jinx tells Fell that his daughter (who also has history with Fell) had already gone to investigate this disturbance at the Orphanarium. The team splits up to try to solve the mystery and save lives, some going into the tunnels, and some heading for the orphans. The tunnel crew finds that a strange being invoking dark forces below town. The orphan crew arrives to find that the orphans have already been “turned,” and Jinx’s daughter, Juliana, is defending herself from an onslaught of mini-zombies. A large explosion occurs below the orphanage, and we leave the story, there.
Reading this comic, I reacted similarly as I have to other D&D comics, over the years (more on that, later): this isn’t a D&D story, it’s a sword-and-sorcery story that happens to have the D&D logo on it. I’m still not sure if that’s a bad thing, or a good thing. Although I played Dungeons & Dragons when I was younger, I was never deeply into it, and I have only read D&D stories in comic book form (yes, someday, I will read all of the D&D related novels). As such, I do not have a deep connection to the worlds and motifs of D&D, and that may be the reason that I do not “feel” it.
However, I do have to say that I enjoyed the camaraderie between the adventurers, and could imagine being at the table with a group of players, having similar conversations in and around the gameplay. At the same time, I generally enjoy stories about otherworldly evil/darkness affecting the “regular” world, so I think this could be a fun story to explore. Though I am still not sure how effective this comic was as a D&D story, I do need to credit Rogers with giving us a taste of what could be a good sword-and-sorcery story. Maybe that is more important…
I’ve enjoyed Andrea Di Vito’s art in most of the titles mentioned above. Between his CrossGen Comics work and his work on Marvel’s Thor, Di Vito really made a name for himself in sword-and-sorcery comics. However, I sometimes find that his art is a little too heavy for some adventures. To a certain extent, most of his characters look very strong and powerful, but I like a little more variation between dwarves and elves, for example. But, I expected certain things in Di Vito’s art for this comic, and I got what I wanted. Dynamic characters, action, and good story-telling. While I am not sure this is my favorite Di Vito art, it is still pretty good. I am hoping that his characters evolve, visually, over the course of the series.
The granddaddy of tabletop gaming, Dungeons & Dragons has had an on-again-off-again relationship with comic books. DC Comics published a line of D&D comics in the 80s. KenzerCo published D&D comics in the 90s. In 2005, Devil’s Due Publishing was adapting R.A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf stories. In 2010, IDW Publishing obtained the license, and is still publishing D&D comics today. This series ran for a little over a year, and had 16 issues. Those 16 issues have been collected into 3 trade paperbacks. Volume 1 (“Shadowplague“) and volume 2 (“First Encounters”) are priced $19.99, and volume 3 (“Down”) is priced $17.99.
Dungeons & Dragons, and other great comics, can be found at Johnny Destructo’s Hero Complex located at 4456 Main Street, Manayunk, PA 19127. Visit him on Facebook!
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