Ready your armor, sword, and sleeping bag—the Table Titans are headed to summer camp! Come along for the adventure in this graphic novel series about a middle school Dungeon & Dragons club from Eisner and Harvey award-winning cartoonist Scott Kurtz.
Table Titans Club members Val, Kate, Alan, Andrew, and Darius are psyched to spend the summer at Camp Owl Care. At this live-action roleplay paradise, the gang will work together to overcome challenges, unravel riddles, and safely swash-buckle their foes. Nothing the Table Titans can’t handle together!
. . . Or not? The club arrives and learns that they’ve been randomly sorted into houses for the camp LARP quest. They must compete against their fellow Titans for reward and renown!
As the camp-wide feud heats up, it seems like the Titans will have to make a choice: sacrifice their houses’ standings, or say goodbye to their tight-knit friendship. Will the Table Titans Club survive the summer?
Set in the same universe as the Eisner Award-winning webcomic PvP, Scott Kurtz’s artwork blends zany, fantastical visuals with slice-of-life humor. For fans of fantasy and coming of age stories alike, Table Titans Club perfectly captures the heart of tween friendships.
Interpersonal relationships were difficult in Table Titans Club, and while Val is getting along better with Alan, Andrew, and Darius, Kate is especially prickly as the group heads off to Camp Owlcare, a LARPing camp. Val is very excited about every aspect of the camp, and is fully embracing the experience by being in costume at all times, but is devastated when she is not put in a cabin with the rest of her friends. Since quests are undertaken with these groups, it's important to get along with the others. Some campers, like Maria, are nice, while others, like Lilith, aren't happy with anyone or anything. There are different competitions for archery, swimming, relay racing, and going through a labyrinth, and Val is not always happy with her cabin's progress. When she sees a troll near the dumpsters, she is sure it is real, and gathers the Table Titans to investigate, especially after the obstacle course is vandalized. Val wants to make Kate less angry, and finally convinces Alan to bring her character back by using his wish school, but also encourages him to apologize for the remarks that hurt Kate's feelings. The secret of the troll comes out, and camp is generally a success.
The illustrations add a nice level of goofiness to this engaging camp story, and there is a little touch of fantasy with the possibility of the ogre being real. The counselors are all a bit goofy, which works well to balance the darker themes of friendship problems.
The friend drama between Kate and Alan spills over in a natural way to the rest of the group. Val is understandably upset when she is not with any of her friends, but she does manage to connect with other campers.
There are quite a number of graphic novels similar to Table Titans, including Durfey-Lavoie's Just Roll with It, Stevenson and Agarwal's Alexis vs. Summer Vacation, Ostertag and Bouma's Dungeon Club: Roll Call as well as the great graphic history, Sattin and Steenz's Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games. A few other novels have plots involving Dungeons and Dragons, including Boyce's Dating and Dragons and Formato's Roll for Initiative, so fans of the game should have plenty to read.
ARC review: So fun to be back with the Table Titans and meet some new characters. I’m a sucker for summer camp stories and this one did not disappoint.