Die, Volume 1

Fantasy Heartbreaker

Paperback, 184 pages

English language

Published Jan. 6, 2019 by Image Comics.

ISBN:
978-1-5343-1270-8
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4 stars (21 reviews)

The Wicked + The Divine writer Kieron Gillen teams up with artist supernova Stephanie Hans (WicDiv, Journey Into Mystery) for her first ongoing comic. Die is a pitch-black fantasy where a group of forty-something adults have to deal with the returning, unearthly horror they only just survived as teenage role-players. If Kieron's in a rush, he describes it as "Goth Jumanji", but that's only the tip of this obsidian iceberg.

Collects issues #1-5 of Die.

1 edition

Review of 'Die, Volume 1' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This fell a little flat for me. The art is absolutely gorgeous, but the narrative just never clicked; the characters are trapped in a dark fantasy land and want to go back because they worry about the loved ones and responsibilities they left behind, but other than reminding the reader they exist from time to time, these consequences aren't really explored (in these 5 issues at least). If a character is worried about the groceries they bought and left on the counter, I'd appreciate a panel showing me they're beginning to spoil or at least the expiration date lol

The edginess also turned me off from the comic. It portrays the antagonist and (partial?) designer of the world as an eternal teen that's into edgy/dark fantasy themes and tropes, and positions him in contrast with the other characters who have gone on to become adults with different tastes at the …

Review of 'Die, Volume 1' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Reading DIE is the equivalent of going on a school trip, but none of your friends made it and you're stuck with only people you dislike and can't get along with. It's supposed to be fun, but it isn't.

I appreciate the gorgeous artwork and fleshed out world (hey, the entire world is literally a giant die), but the story is trying too hard to be ambiguous, and the characters are insufferable. All the characters are gloomy middle aged adults that hate their lives, they rarely ever talk unless it's to whine about something or take jabs at eachother, and they act like children. Even the main character seems to be a person that loves being the leader despite being hated and kind of an apathetic asshole.

It's a shame, because I really wanted to love this comic, but by the end of the volume it just felt like a …

Review of 'Die, Volume 1' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I've heard that the author set out to create a more realistic "adult" take on the old Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning cartoon, and if that's the case then they succeeded. It's just too depressing for my taste.

The story itself is not badly crafted. A tale of five broken people forced back into the situations that broke them.

Review of 'Die, Volume 1' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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 disappearance and presumed death of one of their number.

Many years later, they reluctantly decide to get the gang back together after the delivery …

Review of 'Die, Volume 1' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Every time I remember that The Wicked + The Divine is nearly over, I start to get upset. Thank goodness I’ve started reading Die. Unlike Wic + Div, which I read in single issues, I decided to be patient and wait for the first volume. I will always be torn between the quick gratification of having single issues of a comic to read on the (sometimes semi) regular and the satisfaction of getting to read an entire collection of issues at once. I suppose that’s why I continue to do both. Die is about a group of 1990s teenage D&D players who vanish for 2 years into their game. 30 years later, now all grown up, they get sucked right back in again. Depending on your perspective, this is either the worst nightmare or a dream come true for tabletop role-playing gamers. Either way, it’s wonderfully dark and jaw-droppingly stylish …

Review of 'Die, Volume 1' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A beautiful, melancholic exploration of the purpose of fantasy and what it does to those who indulge in it. Issue 3 is a brilliant reframing of the Lord of the Rings, and this series will likely be worth following for more of that. The essays in the back are worth reading as they shed light on many of the details of the world that these characters inhabit. I fear this one is going to dig its claws in.

Subjects

  • Comics & graphic novels, fantasy