And Now For the Forgotten Realms

Forgotten Realms No. 17 by DC Comics

Apologies for my long period without updates. Actually work has been relentless of late, but I have managed to read a bit during my free time. I am still in my D&D binge.

When I was a boy I bought almost all the first edition books printed by TSR. 4th edition D&D is more of a tactical battle game played with minis, but I do long for the days spent around the table with my junior high school pals as we played through campaigns of 1st edition.

Well, I have also been tracking D&D comic books. Recently I picked up issues 17-19 of DC's books based on Forgotten Realms. For today's send-me back Sunday I will briefly discuss these precious comics. Boy are they fun!

The protagonist is Priam Agrivar, he is your typical fighter dude, a paladin who fits into the stock character type, hot headed, reigning blows first, tanking all the way, asking questions later. The antagonist is Lord Labelas, a powerful being who apparently has possessed another character, one of good alignment named Vartan. Labelas is a fun villain, he is a god and seems evil or chaotic. It is fun to see him deal with his internal struggel as Vartan is friends with Agrivar and the other characters in the book. There is a ship called the Realms Master which transports the characters from one magical fantasy realm to another.

The cover to issue 17 is very revealing. It is the striking image of Labelas as a puppeteer with the other character rendered as puppets while the evil god tugs at their strings.

This issue culminates with a fantastic battle between Labelas, Minder (a dude who appears to be made of stone) and Agrivar. These stories spring out of the imagination of writer Jeff Grubb, and artist Dave Simons. They are vintage D&D, from the setting of the Forgotten Realms, to the strange creatures the adventurers fight, to the standard D&D races, half-lings, wizards, elves. This one has all the fantasy tropes familiar to most readers, but with a D&D flavor. Fantastic!!!

Issue 19 is titled "Picking up the Pieces" and features a story detailing with the aftermath of Labelas' fight with the adventurers from the previous two issues. There is a guest penciler rendering the heroes, it's Rag Morales, the celebrated comics artist who went on to draw many other memorable DC series. He does a superb job on this comic as well. As a gamer I remember how happy I was reading comics based on characters form "World of Warcraft." I get the same vibe and feelings from reading these classic D&D comics, except it's more old school, and even the wizard spells like magic missile and other familiar D&D elements are incorporated well into the story.

I am going to track down more of these books and read them. I suggest you guys do too, especially if you like fantasy.