I am pretty sure anyone who pays attention to the D&D Fanpage on Facebook may be aware of #0 comic that was released on 11th of August (and #1 released in November)
So lets discuss, firstly has anyone managed to get their filthy paws on it ?
and secondly lets chat about D&D comics and comics and D&D in that order and no particular order.
yep I got my dirty paws on it and I have to say I did enjoy it, in a very brief kinda way. I think I got through the whole thing in well under 10 mins...which isn't a bad thing as the style of writing I found to be very humorous in the main part. I think the stories are obviously just getting going and it's going to be fun journeying along with the characters in both the PoL story and the Dark Sun. But yeah, I think this whole project is based around the idea of FUN, and I think it'll be worthwhile.
For the first story: The art was decent, but the style didn't stick as true to the 4e look I got used to from the core books. The story was ok for an introduction and I liked the homage to the original player's handbook.
For the second story: The art was cleaner, but the style too cartoony. The visuals were too comedic even while the story and dialogue were very serious. It was a difficult to connect the story to the images, which is a tough thing to say about a comic book.
I really like the art; some have complained about it not looking like the core books, but for the most part, the core book art was bad (nobody looked decent). The dialogue is crisp and down-to-earth; I really enjoy that it doesn't try to go the Shakespearean English route (the route where even commoners sound sophisticated). These are adventurers, after all.
First story was laugh a minute, memorable quotes every second panel. Plus a great in-game reasoning on why the world has huge dungeons. Definately buying it in November.
Second story was iffy. The style of the art (especially the facial expressions) made it hard to figure out what was going on. Aki the Banjo Carrier and the Tiefling Slaver seem interesting, but if the story is going to focus on Gurdivak and Rubi... eh. The first issue better wow me.
I'm definitely adding both to my pull list, though I'm slightly saddened that Dark Sun is only going to be a mini.I'm kinda curious though about waht Fell is - a Fighter or Warlord? I'm leaning towards Warlord, mostly because otherwise it's a team of 3 strikers and 2 defenders ...
Also, I really really really hope the old Spelljammer series is one of the ones they're going to do a trade/omnibus for, especially since it got name checked in the letters column, and that it's one of the first to come out.
www.idwpublishing.com/
Wish Jeff Grub would come back and write for the comic line.
All of that said, #0s are rarely indicative of the quality of an ongoing comic series, and more often then not don't even have an effect on the plot of the main title. I'm still optimistic that the #1s are far better than what we saw in the #0.