The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited! (The Adventure Zone, 2)

A fun follow up! Funny, over the top, quirky, and clever; this nerdy graphic novel series is my new favorite thing. A trio of ridiculous adventurers have found themselves on a new quest. They must find a dangerous item before it falls into the hands of a nameless enemy. Things get complicated when they end up stuck on the train that the relic is on and someone gets murdered. Who did it? Why are they relying on a 10 year old for help. Why is there a giant crab attacking them? Wonderfully illustrated and filled with fantastic banter, I can hardly wait for the third installment!

I am deeply in love with these books. Pietsch’s artwork and Clint’s writing transform the story into a pitch-perfect adaptation of the podcast, and I couldn’t be happier about the way the second one turned out.

Honorable mentions deserve:

• Taako messing with Leon the Artificer. Classic Taako.
• Fantasy Costco where all your dreams come true! Garfield is the creepiest little shit. He’s also clearly the actual Garfield in disguise.
• The little bit with “Unless… …Unless?”
• Lucretia seeing Taako with the Umbra Staff broke my heart in the most delicious way possible.

I also love the little glimpses of the overall story starting to peek through. I devoured the whole thing in, like, an hour, and then went back to the show more beginning again immediately, because it has to be properly savored. Can’t wait for “Petals to the Metal” to punch me in the feels all over again! show less

I only read the first volume of this because it was a Goodreads Choice Awards graphic novel nominee last year. And now I'm reading the second volume because it is in this year's Goodreads Choice Awards. As I vowed to myself with Monstress, this is not an error I will make a third time.

This murder mystery set on a train is dull, slow and not funny. I guess you really need to follow the podcast to get anything out of it.

A classic train job mashed with a murder mystery, and the best Greatest Boy Detective! Angus McDonald is definitely one of my all time favorite TAZ characters, and he's great here.

Turning these into graphic novels after the Balance arc is finished also allows for hints of what's to come, what's going on behind the scenes, and ironing out early installment weirdness as they got into their groove in the podcast. Garfield the Warlock is still a mysterious being and we don't know what he looks like (kinda, in nods to fan theories sure, but still unknowable)

Neverwinter is Eversummer here, presumably for the same avoidance of Wizards of the Coast names.

The Adventure Zone: Balance is one of the most compelling and emotionally profound stories I've ever experienced, and I'm so glad it's finally getting adaptation into new mediums. I wish it could've been animated like Vox Machina, but I digress.

Cary Pietsch's illustrations bring The Adventure Zone to a new level of charming, and it leaves me excited to see how the adaptation tackles the soon-to-be emotional heights of Petals to the Metal and The Crystal Kingdom!

This was a great sequel and a fantasy ode to Agatha Christie, probably. If you like the first comic, I think you'll like this as well. Again, you don't have to listen to the podcast, but I do feel it helps enrich the comics. I'm still listening to the podcast and I'm at the start of this comic, so I look forward to all the extra content the podcast is going to provide. If you like the comics, definitely check out the podcast!

Great art, funny story, just as good as the first. The McElroys can do no wrong.