Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker

Thanks to that Simpsons joke I can't stop myself thinking of this comic as 'The.' So, this is 'The volume 1!' A group of friends vanish during a fateful birthday D&D session, only to reappear two years later, one member (and one arm) down unable to talk about where they were or what happened to them. Decades later, broken and haunted and middle aged, they are sucked back into the magical fantasy world of Die where they have to play the game to get home again. Written with savage affection, drawn with lush and epic genius, this is a pretty amazing book, even for someone like me who never really got into D&D but was always vaguely fascinated by it.

Lo que parecia que iba a ser una simple historia de un grupo de gente que acaba en un mundo de fantasia jugando a rol, se convierte en una deconstrucción del genero fantastico y de los juegos de rol en si mismos. Una meta historia que descompone los tropos de ambos mundos (rol y las historias de genero) y crea un mundo autoreferencial ideal para sentirse como un adolescente de nuevo pero con toda la oscuridad y profundidad de una historia adulta. Y sobre hacerse adulto y las fantasias de cada uno habla este primer tomo.

Gillen describes Die as goth Jumanji, which is a pretty fair summary. The art, by Stephanie Hans, is painterly and gorgeous and is by far my favorite part of the book.

Imagine, if you will, a group of friends who shared a horrifying trauma many years ago. They’ve drifted apart in the intervening years, but something draws them back together and throws them into the mix of a new and developing trauma. Needless to say, they are cranky about it.

In the first volume of Die, we meet that group of former friends, now splintered apart and living emotionally damaged existences. Once, when they were young, they played an intense and dangerous game that pulled them into another universe with real and lasting consequences, including the show more disappearance and presumed death of one of their number.

Many years later, they reluctantly decide to get the gang back together after the delivery of a die belonging to their lost friend. This artifact transports them back into the game that changed their lives and forces them to reckon with the many ways this alternate universe has changed and moved on since they went home and tried to resume their former lives.

This first volume is bleak and cynical and sets up the horrifying consequences of something that should have been nothing more than a game. The characters are all flawed and searching for something they lost or never had. It’s a fascinating world, and I can’t wait to read more. show less

Die is a pitch-black fantasy where a group of forty-something adults have to deal with the returning, unearthly horror they just survived as teenage role-players. It's a deliciously dark Phantom Tollbooth/Jumanji like journey that is heartbreaking, frightening, and entertaining. It's also a deconstruction of the roots of RPGs (that explores the perceived dangers of fantasy as escapism). The artwork but Stephanie Hans is absolutely stunning - being dark and vibrant simultaneously. I really can't say enough about this graphic novel except GO READ IT NOW.

Holy mackerel, I was just casually browsing the materials in the Hugo voter packet and got drawn into this. As usual, I went in unprepared, which means the horror aspect of the comic took me by surprise. Usually, I can't handle horror well - I'm not into blood and gore, I'm anxious and depressed enough as is, no need to pile onto that when I'm trying to relax. But this wasn't scary horror, it was more, well, sad and unsettling. It didn't give me nightmares but it did sort of burrow it's way into my brain.

I love the artwork, I love the worldbuilding, although it also makes me uncomfortable but in this case that's a good thing, a fitting thing. I very much like the shift from the characters in the real world to DIE, I love the different show more classes and the dice they're connected to. I'm not really feeling any connection to any of the characters yet, but I'm strangely fine with that. I'll definitely read the other three volumes so generously provided in the packet! show less

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Die graphic novel series. I got this book as a gift for my birthday.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this even more than I thought I would. There are a lot of characters introduced very quickly but they are all fairly distinct so they are pretty easy to keep track of. It’s a bit confusing to start but not too bad. This is about a bunch of adults that get sent back to the horror world that they accidentally got trapped in as teens, only to find out that their missing teen friend is now the master of this world.

I loved the crazy world here and the creativity behind it. The illustration style is well done and the story is engaging. All of the characters are strangely dark and somewhat sinister but show more still vulnerable because of the strange situations they are thrown into at this time in their lives (now that they are in their 40’s and supporting various jobs and families).

I loved that their characters’ powers were also strangely dark (for example a Grief Knight who is only strong if he’s incredibly sad and a Dictator who can dictate other people’s emotions). I also really enjoyed how these characters are working to break the game so that the Gamemaster can’t predict their actions. The description of this series as a mash-up between Jumanji and Dungeons and Dragons is very apt.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this enough that I recommended it to my husband to read (he’s more of a manga fan) and I plan on continuing the series. I really enjoyed the characters, the world and the way the story is progressing. This is a fast-paced and fun read that I would recommend to fans of horror/fantasy graphic novels. show less

This is the first volume of a new series about a group of kids who in the 1990s are sucked into an RPG world for two years; it picks up 25 years later when they're pulled in again as adults. I think that description makes it sound kind of dull, but it does some genuinely interesting stuff with the form and function of the fantasy RPG in the space of six issues (though I wonder if I would realize that without Gillen's essays in the back telling me what he's trying to do). The art by Stephanie Hans isn't really my jam: like a lot of painterly comic art, it looks nice but struggles to communicate the fluidity of motion I would argue is essential for good comics. I think it's trying and largely succeeding to do something interesting, show more though, and the series had enough potential that I would continue to read it. show less