Tag Archives: die

Die #11 Kicks Off a New Arc and Gets a New Printing

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Die #11, from bestselling writer Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, is being rushed back to print by Image Comics in order to keep up with overwhelming demand. This issue kicks off the third story arc in the wildly popular, dark fantasy series.  

Half the party is ruling a whole empire. The other half is on the run. Neither has it easy. There is nothing easy in this game, especially when the stakes get shockingly real. The most epic arc of Die begins as it means to go on: messily.

Die #11, second printing will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, July 29. 

Die #11, second printing

Mini Reviews and Recommendations For The Week Ending 6/27

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Sometimes, the staff at Graphic Policy read more comics than we’re able to get reviewed. When that happens you’ll see a weekly feature compiling short reviews from the staff of the comics, or graphic novels, we just didn’t get a chance to write a full review for. Given the lack of new comics, expect this weekly update to begin featuring comics that we think you’ll enjoy while you can’t get anything new to read – only new to you.

These are Graphic Policy’s Mini Reviews and Recommendations.

Logan

Die #11 (Image)– Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ Die is back with the first rumblings of an epic war between factions and ensemble drama of the split party sandwiched between. Ash and Izzy have taken on ruling roles in the world of the game, but the crown lies uneasy while the other characters struggle to come up with ways to get them to leave the game. Hans has a gift for big fantasy landscapes to go with the intense conversations with designs and costumes that define character. The conversation between Ash and creator-turned antagonist-turned-prisoner Sol is both powerful and mundane, and it’s about a popular band from the 90s. Die #11 is at its best when the lives and motivations from the cast’s “real world” existence seeps in, and Gillen wisely uses this connection to raise the stakes and differentiate the build up in this issue from yet another fantasy war book. Overall: 8.1 Verdict: Buy

Once and Future #8 (BOOM!)– Kieron Gillen opens Once and Future #8 with one of the funniest lines of the series as our protagonist Duncan’s grandmother Bridgette, who told him that all the Arthurian legend cycles are real, is skeptical about the existence of Beowulf. Boy, is she wrong, and artist Dan Mora gives the Geat hero an aggressive physicality to go with Tamra Bonvillain’s flame colors and Gillen’s poetic dialogue. As far as antagonists go, he’s a shot in the arm while Merlin plays the string pulling, behind the scenes role. However, Once and Future isn’t all action and cool split screen panels as Duncan and Bridgette struggle to repair the relationship post-ceremonial wounding, but that gets put on hold for Beowulf. Overall: 8.4 Verdict: Buy

Wicked Things #2 (BOOM!) In the hilarious, fast-paced, Wicked Things #2, John Allison and Max Sarin focus on teen detective Lottie Grote trying to maneuver the British legal/penal system and prove her innocence. It doesn’t go too well (Her British equivalent of a public defender isn’t very helpful), and this leads to a new normal for her and the book. Allison does a quick and brilliant bit of world-building by using Lottie’s appearances as a teen detective in Scary Go-Round to inform how the police react to her character in Wicked Things, and it adds to Lottie’s legend. You really want her to solve this case. As usual, Sarin’s art is a delight, and Lottie’s reaction to prison food and Claire’s disdain for the other teen detectives that were up for Lottie’s reward must be seen to believed. Sarin’s surreal side also comes out when Lottie’s kind mother and angry older sister visit her; nothing like a classic storm cloud over one’s head. Overall: 8.9 Verdict: Buy

Well, there you have it, folks. The reviews we didn’t quite get a chance to write. See you next week!

Please note that with some of the above comics, Graphic Policy was provided FREE copies for review. Where we purchased the comics, you’ll see an asterisk (*). If you don’t see that, you can infer the comic was a review copy. In cases where we were provided a review copy and we also purchased the comic you’ll see two asterisks (**).

Check out the Hugo Award’s “Best Graphic Story or Comic” Nominees

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Hugo Awards

The nominees for “Best Graphic Story or Comic” for this year’s Hugo Awards have been announced. Normally, the winners are announced at Worldcon but with the event this year canceled due to COVID-19, it’s unknown when the winners will be announced.

The nominees were announced on April 8 and were decided from 1,584 valid nominating ballots with a total of 27,033 nominations. Members nominated up to five works/people in each category, and the top six works/people in each category were shortlisted as finalists.

Check out all of the Hugo nominees and the comic nominees below:

  • Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker, by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles (Image)

Purchase: Amazon – Kindle – comiXology – TFAW – Zeus Comics

  • LaGuardia, written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford, colors by James Devlin (Berger Books; Dark Horse)

Purchase: Amazon – Kindle – comiXology – TFAW

  • Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image)

Purchase: Amazon – Kindle – comiXology – TFAW

  • Mooncakes, by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker, letters by Joamette Gil (Oni Press; Lion Forge)

Purchase: Amazon – TFAW

  • Paper Girls, Volume 6, written by Brian K. Vaughan, drawn by Cliff Chiang, colors by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher (Image)

Purchase: Amazon – Kindle – comiXology – TFAW – Zeus Comics

  • The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 9: “Okay”, by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, colors by Matt Wilson, letters by Clayton Cowles (Image)

Purchase: Amazon – Kindle – comiXology – TFAW – Zeus Comics

On top of the comics above, Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel are nominated in “Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form,” and Watchmen: “A God Walks into Abar” and Watchmen: “This Extraordinary Being” are nominated in “Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.”

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site

Graphic Policy’s Top Comic Picks this Week!

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Midnight Vista #1

Wednesdays are new comic book day! Each week hundreds of comics are released, and that can be pretty daunting to go over and choose what to buy. That’s where we come in!

Each week our contributors choose what they can’t wait to read this week or just sounds interesting. In other words, this is what we’re looking forward to and think you should be taking a look at!

Find out what folks think below, and what comics you should be looking out for this Wednesday.

8 Bit Apocalypse (Abrams Press) – A look at the creation of Missil Command with interviews of major figures and a look at that era of video games.

Alpha Flight: True North #1 (Marvel) – It’s Alpha Flight, nuff said.

Battlepug #1 (Image Comics) – The webcomic is back as a new comic series. It’s been years since Knmundian save the world with his Battlepug but a new threat has them back for a new adventure!

Die #7 (Image Comics) – One of the best comics out today, it’s a must for those into roleplaying games.

Doomsday Clock #11 (DC Comics) – We’ve been waiting for the latest chapter of this series which has gotten better the longer its gone on.

Everything #1 (Dark Horse) – Everything is a new mega-department store that may have more to it than just the goods you want.

Going to the Chapel #1 (Action Lab: Danger Zone) – We’ve read the first issue and it’s solid. A wedding goes off the rails due to a robbery. Think Tarantino via comic books.

The Goon #6 (Albatross Funnybooks) – One of the most fun comics out there today. A great mix of action and humor and every issue has delivered and then some.

Legion of Super Heroes Millennium #1 (DC Comics) – The Legion is coming back and it all starts here!

Lois Lane #3 (DC Comics) – The series has been top-notch taking advantage of why Lois Lane stands out as a character. Excellent writing and solid art combine to make the series stand out and us wanting an ongoing.

Midnight Vista #1 (AfterShock) – Oliver and his stepfather are abducted by aliens and years later a grown adult Oliver returns… and remembers everything.

Something is Killing the Children #1 (BOOM! Studios) – Mysteries about kids getting killed seem to be on the rise in comics but we’re intrigued for another one.

Spawn #300 (Image Comics) – The series reaches the major number of 300 and we’re excited to see what’s inside for this historical moment.

Triage #1 (Dark Horse) – An interesting sci-fi series that has a nurse waking up in an unfamiliar world with two doppelgangers, one a young and snarky superhero and the other a hardened rebel military leader.

Web of Black Widow #1 (Marvel) – Black Widow gets the spotlight in this miniseries which focuses on her past.

The Wicked + The Divine #45 (Image Comics) – The beloved series comes to a close and what a finale it’ll be.

Die #6 Heads Back for a Second Printing Before the First Hits Stores

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Image Comics has fast-tracked a second printing of Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ Die #6 a week ahead of its release. 

The upcoming issue is scheduled to hit stores on Wednesday, August 7 and—due to increasing demand—will ship sold-out at the distributor level. 

The popularity of the hot new series, Die, has grown at breakneck speed with multiple sell-outs and reprints of every issue. 

Die is a pitch-black fantasy where a group of adults have to deal with the returning unearthly horror they barely survived as teenage role-players. The series is perhaps best described as “Goth Jumanji”—but that only captures a sliver of what you’ll find in this series where fantasy gets all too real.

Die #6, second printing (Diamond Code JUN198682) will be available on Wednesday, August 28. The final order cutoff deadline for comic shop retailers is Monday, August 5.

Die #6, second printing

Die #4 is Rushed Back for a Third Printing

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New York Times bestselling creator Kieron Gillen and artist Stephanie Hans’ series Die is being sent back to print yet again. This time Die #4 will be rushed back to print in order to keep up with demand.

Die is a pitch-black fantasy where a group of adults have to deal with the returning unearthly horror they barely survived as teenage role-players. The series is perhaps best described as “Goth Jumanji”—but that only captures a sliver of what you’ll find in this series where fantasy gets all too real.

Die #4, third printing (Diamond Code MAR198647) and will be available on Wednesday, May 29. The final order cutoff for retailers is Monday, May 6.

Die #4 3rd printing

Around the Tubes

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Die #5

It’s new comic day! What’s everyone getting? What are you excited for? While you contemplate that and wait for shops to open, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web.

Newsarama – BD Wong Cast as The Flash’s Godspeed – BD Wong makes everything awesome.

Newsarama – Big Hero 6 Renewed for Season 3 – Woo hoo!

Reviews

Talking Comics – Die #5
Talking Comics – She Could Fly: The Lost Pilot #1

Review: Die #5

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Die #5

The ending of the first arc of Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ Die is loud, flashy, and creates a completely new premise for the series while still riffing on RPGs and never growing up. It starts as the third act of a high concept fantasy film before turning into some fourth wall breaking The Lego Movie meets Chronicles of Narnia metafiction, yet darker and then goes full hog horror.

In Die #5, the main party of Ash, Chuck, Matt, Angela, and Isabelle have to defeat Sol, the Grandmaster so they can go home to their homes and lives in the “real world” because the game only ends when whole party unanimously wants it to end. But it isn’t that easy. Some characters, like “The Fool” Chuck and divorced school teacher Isabelle, actually enjoy traveling a multi genre encompassing fantasy landscape that in this issue alone is a little cyberpunk, a little Wizard of Oz, and has a Dungeons and Dragons approach to divinity. And, then, there’s the whole dark ending part that establishes the new stakes and antagonists for the series. Gillen and Hans really fuck with whatever fantasy genre/RPG tropes expectations you had for the series.

As Die goes from a hazy flashback to the “real world” to Glass Town, Eternal Prussia, and various fantasy landscapes, Stephanie Hans’ gift for color palette and creating an immersive fantasy setting is on full display. Statues, temples, gods, dark corridors, a bit of old school hacking, and yes, dragons are all in her repertoire, and the way each character uses their class abilities is quite distinct too like the red flash whenever Ash does dictator things. It’s a world that you could definitely imagine a straight, dark fantasy series with touches of cyberpunk taking place in, which makes Gillen and Hans’ rejection of the premise so radical.

Hans’ work has real emotion too from the smiles and soft yellows of young Dominic Ash and Sol as they play with a cool Lego castle in the opening flashback to after various pyrotechnics, Ash and Sol throw down in the world of Die. Their relationship is the beating heart of the series so far, and even though Sol is a total asshole, who ripped his friends from their mostly happy lives to play a game, it hurts when they fight and converse in the issue’s final moments. With black narrative captions from Clayton Cowles, Ash steels herself to take out Sol and go home, but her internal conflict is the complete opposite of her confident “team leader” style dialogue. Her actions in this issue definitely have messed Ash up as a character as the series progresses.

In Die #5, Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans create an intriguing fantasy world and RPG system and then topple it, both visually and in the plot. They take the premise of never leaving Narnia and dial up the darkness and horror that is baked into that idea. Also, having middle aged people in a fantasy RPG setting makes for some interesting characterization although this issue is predominantly action-driven.

One last thing, you should definitely check out the essay Gillen pens at the end of the comic. For reasons.

Story: Kieron Gillen Art: Stephanie Hans Letters: Clayton Cowles
Story: 8.5 Art: 9.0 Overall: 8.8 Recommendation: Buy

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Die #5 is Heading Back for a New Printing

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Image Comics has announced that New York Times bestselling creator Kieron Gillen and artist Stephanie Hans’ Die #5 will be rushed back to print in order to keep up with demand for the story arc’s jaw-dropping conclusion issue.

Die is a pitch-black fantasy where a group of adults have to deal with the returning unearthly horror they barely survived as teenage role-players. The series is perhaps best described as “Goth Jumanji”—but that only captures a sliver of what you’ll find in this series where fantasy gets all too real.

Die #5, second printing (Diamond Code FEB198781) and will be available on Wednesday, May 1. The final order cutoff for retailers is Monday, April 8.

Die #5, second printing

Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ Die #2 and Die #3 Get New Printings

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Image Comics has announced that New York Times bestselling creator Kieron Gillen and artist Stephanie Hans’ Die #2 and Die #3 are both being rushed back to print in order to keep up with growing demand for the series.

Die is a pitch-black fantasy where a group of adults have to deal with the returning unearthly horror they barely survived as teenage role-players. The series is perhaps best described as “Goth Jumanji”—but that only captures a sliver of what you’ll find in this series where fantasy gets all too real.

Die #2, fourth printing (Diamond Code FEB198467) will be available on Wednesday, April 24. The final order cutoff deadline for comic shop retailers is Monday, April 1.

Die #3, third printing (Diamond Code FEB198468) will be available on Wednesday, April 24. The final order cutoff deadline for comic shop retailers is Monday, April 1

Die #2, fourth printing
Die #3, third printing
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