The die was thrown – comic book review “Die: Fantastic Disappointment”

Stories about the transfer of heroes from our “ordinary” reality to a fantasy world can be found in every medium. Sometimes in a classic form, like in The Endless Story with Bastian, who at one point ends up in the fairy-tale land of Fantasy, but there are also more unusual circumstances, such as the Throne in which Kevin Flynn is pulled into a computer or the kids from Jumanji swallowed up by a board game . However, stories where the characters are thrown into a role-playing game are extremely rare – apart from Die, I only associate the animated Dungeons & Dragons, which, by the way, are an inspiration for the writer. Gillen deserves credit for that.

He says

It was supposed to be another evening with an RPG session for a group of friends: Salomon (“Sola”), Dominic, Angela, Chuck, Matthew and Isabelle. The problem is that the game that Sol brought (allegedly “for adults”) turned out to be more than they expected. Six teenagers are drawn into a world known as the Bone . They manage to get out after two years by defeating the land ruler, but the portal to the real world closed prematurely, cutting off Angela’s arm and leaving Sol on the wrong side.

Twenty-five years have passed since these events, during which the heroes did not reveal their secret to anyone. Unexpectedly, they are transferred back to the Bone, but their opponent turns out to be Sol himself, who has taken over the role of the Master.

K20

Kieron Gillen took no shortcuts. When placing the heroes in the RPG world, he did not decide on any existing system, but created his own from scratch (downloadable for free from his website!). It is interesting because the realities to which the team moves are far from a typical fantasy land. The bone is a cube-shaped world (surprise!), Full of dieselpunk and references to World War I, where Angria fights against Great Prussia. Additional opponents are the mysterious Fallen, characterized by Gillen himself beautifully as “orcs auditioning for Tetsuo: Man of Iron.”

The classes of characters are also unusual – appropriately bent, because they were created in the minds of teenagers, and yet they work well in a twisted world: dictator, knight of despair, neo (i.e. a character who is a “cyberpunk” – sic!), Master, godbrother and … fool.

MHROK

The problem is that all of the above is given in a deadly serious way, with a dismal narration from Dominick off. The heroes are so badly damaged and devoured by inner demons that it is impossible to like them. Although they are supposed to form a team, they don’t really have any close ties. Despite the fact that they are treated by NPC characters as saviors, they can resort to deeds that the greatest villain would not be ashamed of. Such a solution is not a bad idea in itself, but the level of the drama tends to be emo in places – like the aforementioned despairing knight summoning a mighty sword, but only if he is properly depressed. It is also in vain to look for elements of horror here, although Die is often referred to as such. Not everything that is gloomy is immediately terrible.

Let it not be that I’m just complaining. I must praise Gillen for the interestingly created relationship between who the heroes are in reality and their people from the world of Bones. An example is the rainbow plot of Dominic, who, while creating his character, was the only one who decided to use the opposite sex, better suited to his identity. What was meant to be just a role play during an RPG session became an opportunity for him to become a woman. This motive is only signaled, so I hope it will get a proper development. I also liked the moral dilemmas of some of the characters, for whom the return to Bone was not so bad for other reasons. Although in the “real world” their paths took differently, and such Chuck became a widely read writer,

French painting

Fans of lines and contours may enjoy the taste, as Stephanie Hans painted the vast majority of the frames (only the flashback has a more traditional dimension). This style is more common for covers than for interiors, which gives Die a unique dimension. On the Internet you can find admiration for the setting created by Hans, although I am not able to fully share this enthusiasm. Yes, the painted frames have an amazing atmosphere, especially since the color palette perfectly matches the script with its gloominess. All of this works great for views and action scenes. It is worse when the panels focus on talking characters, whose faces lack detail and therefore look strange.

The whole thing has a fairly standard edition with a soft cover. The add-ons include not only alternative covers (excellent!) And character sketches, but also essays from Gillen and Hans, showing the creators’ love for their work. A great translation was provided by Paulina Braiter. However, I do not understand why the original title was left behind – after all, it could have been beautiful “Giń” or even better “Mrzej.”

Fantastic disappointment?

It is possible that my ignorance of RPG means that I cannot capture all the flavors and fully appreciate Die . At the same time, I am sure that even if I were a fan of role-playing games, I would still have a problem with the excessive seriousness and drama of the whole. The work of Gillen and Hans may not be the most interesting fantasy on the market (and the competition is quite big lately, oh big), but it is so original that I would love to see where this story is going.