Joe Daly

Dungeon Quest is one tripped-out mamajama of weirdo Dungeons & Dragon’s reverence and mockery.

This review is for all three volumes in the series.

The story starts out odd and gets odder and odder as it goes. And odder. I’m gonna say it’s like Dungeons & Dragons meets Twin Peaks meets Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure meets soft gay porn while stoned out of its mind. You’d think such a thing wouldn’t have an audience. Would you? Okay, maybe it has an obvious audience. Well, show more obviously me, because I think it is wicked awesome and revelatory in its freakitude and brings back great memories. Of playing D&D in Twin Peaks with my bros Bill & Ted while high and watching gay porn. What? Just kidding about everything except the D&D part.

The black & white illustrations are beautiful with detailed backgrounds, dramatic lighting, and excellent form, movement, and facial expressions. Daly also has an excellent grasp of pacing and storytelling. If you like strange comic books and tend to the bizarro, you can’t go wrong with this series, which is being released as entire graphic novels and not individual issues. Three books out so far, can’t wait for the next one.















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As I often do, I picked up this graphic novel at random. The name intrigued me, as it implied AD&D gaming sessions, and also the figurine on the cover, which did not fit the name at all. It seemed more Pre-Columbian, Toltec maybe, except for that very big Brainiac head.

The head in question belongs to the titular character, Millennial Boy, who, being bored one day, decides on the spur of the moment to go on a quest, eliciting friends and collecting supplies and equipment on the way. His show more adventures have a Gen-X, slacker vibe, mixing the fantastic and the mundane. Instead of dungeons and feral wilderness Millennial Boy and his companions trek through vacant lots and back alleys, encountering petty thugs and Molelocs (a cross between orcs and moles.) It’s haphazard and good-natured in the way of underground comic artist R. Crumb. Millennial Boy is snarky and cynical — at times I expected him to betray or take advantage of his companions in pursuit of his own goals — but he’s actually a stauncher companion than you’d think, and someone whom you’d want along on a mythical quest, even if he is too assured that he knows the best for everyone else.

The artwork I found enjoyable. There is some nudity, chiefly penises, but it’s employed in service of the story. For example, Lash Penis, who serves as the generic Fighter of the group, is wounded and enters a Pool of Healing where he encounters a oneness with the universe. I was expecting, given the snarky tone of the story, some ironic punchline for this episode, but it was played straight, and oddly affecting because of it.

I’ll continue to follow these characters on their odd yet endearing quest. show less

This is one of those graphic novels that really captures psychedelic moods, but at the expense of story and characters. I never really connected with the main character, Palmer, because he seemed easily manipulated by conspiracy theorists and didn't seem to grow as a character. Also, there was a lot of toxic masculinity/sexist and racist behavior by pretty much all of the characters but nothing really came of it. I'll probably forget this book quickly because I didn't really understand it, show more if there even are things I am suppose to understand after reading this. show less

Dungeon Quest is one tripped-out mamajama of weirdo Dungeons & Dragon’s reverence and mockery.

This review is for all three volumes in the series.

The story starts out odd and gets odder and odder as it goes. And odder. I’m gonna say it’s like Dungeons & Dragons meets Twin Peaks meets Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure meets soft gay porn while stoned out of its mind. You’d think such a thing wouldn’t have an audience. Would you? Okay, maybe it has an obvious audience. Well, show more obviously me, because I think it is wicked awesome and revelatory in its freakitude and brings back great memories. Of playing D&D in Twin Peaks with my bros Bill & Ted while high and watching gay porn. What? Just kidding about everything except the D&D part.

The black & white illustrations are beautiful with detailed backgrounds, dramatic lighting, and excellent form, movement, and facial expressions. Daly also has an excellent grasp of pacing and storytelling. If you like strange comic books and tend to the bizarro, you can’t go wrong with this series, which is being released as entire graphic novels and not individual issues. Three books out so far, can’t wait for the next one.















show less