Die Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker

By Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans

THE WICKED + THE DIVINE writer KIERON GILLEN teams up with artist supernova STEPHANIE HANS (THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, 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 critically acclaimed obsidian iceberg. Collects DIE #1-5

• Language: English
• Publisher: Image Comics, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781534314894

Book preview

Reviews for Die Vol. 1

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Six teens in the 80s are thrown into a dark D&D world.and only 5 come back 40 years later they are back again and they have to deal with survivor guilt and getting back power they thought was forever gone.

[krau0098 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[unsquare_1 · Rating: 5 out of 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 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.

[fred_mouse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting premise, but 'grown adults have to deal with the stupid things they did as teens' is not the horror trope I'm looking for.

[villemezbrown · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Jumanji: Welcome to the Dungeon. "We've got gloom and games..."As with The Wicked + The Divine, Gillen delivers a perfectly fine high concept story and teams with a great artist, he just cannot come up with characters about whom I care one iota.