Dungeons & Dragons Classics, Volume 1

Dungeons & Dragons Classics #1

by Michael Fleisher, Dan Mishkin, Jan Duursema (Illustrator)

The classic DC Comics Advanced Dungeons & Dragons series returns to print for the first time! This action-packed volume collects the first eight issues of the fan-favorite series by writer Dan Mishkin and artist Jan Duursema.

Genres: Fantasy, Comics, Graphic Novels, Dungeons and Dragons, Forgotten Realms, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

204 pages, ebook

First published May 3, 2011

About the author

Michael Lawrence Fleisher's comic-book writing career spanned two decades in which he authored approximately 700 stories for DC, Marvel, and other comics publishers. His work on series such as The Spectre and Jonah Hex is still highly regarded, as is his work on the Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes. After a widely reported libel case his comic output declined, with his last published comic assignment appearing in the UK anthology 2000AD in 1995.

Reviews

[Sean Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once upon a time, talent and storytelling chops were often less crucial qualities than earnestness and enthusiasm when it came to working in comics, music, movies and other pop culture mediums.

That magical time was called the 1980s.

How else to explain this eight-issue collection of Dungeons & Dragons comics, which details the exploits of a lackluster quintet of characters whose ability scores would make a seasoned gamer groan and whose names are equal parts cringe- and giggle-inducing: centaur warrior Timoth Eyesbright (I mentally inserted a “y” at the end of his first name every fricking time I saw it); drunken sot/fallen paladin with withered hands Agrivar (more like Aggravating); dwarven fighter Onyx the Invincible (who, ironically, is as white as they come); half-elven mage Cybriana (if that’s not a horrible wannabe 80s pop star name, I don’t know what is); and, last but certainly not least when it comes to cringe-worthiness, former gladiator Vajra Valmeyjar, whose diminutive (“Vaji”) conjures images of open-for-business mystical lady nether regions rather than a fearsome Amazonian warrior.

D&D-based stories are challenging to tell even in the most skilled storytellers’ hands, because it’s a little bit like trying to tell someone about how great your fantasy football team did last weekend—unless you are in the same league, people would rather rip off their own fingernails than listen to you (or maybe that just happens when I tell people about my fantasy teams). When the writer and artist aren’t quite in that upper echelon of storytellers, however…

I’d recommend this only for those old-school gamers in need of a heady dose of nostalgia, a drug that, I confess, has driven me more than once into the arms of a movie, book, or album whose associations with a far less complicated time in my life far exceeds the quality of its content. (Shut up—Nelson’s “After the Rain” is a great song, and, as everyone knows, I’ll happily extol the virtues of Saved by the Bell any day.)

(To be fair, though, I’m kind of glad that period of time existed—sure, the quality may not have always been top notch and you might have had to read about a character who could just as easily have been named Clitty Clitorioso, but relative to the cynical, self-absorbed, ironic undercurrent that often pervades today’s pop art, the idealistic naiveté of a generation that believed in goodness and righteousness without hesitation, reservation, or any sense of self-consciousness seems pretty good right now, you know?)

Let’s call it 2.5 stars rounded up because, mmmm…nostalgia.

[Ramón S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The First four numbers are great, I love the art of Duursema all the time. But the rest of the numbers are pretty boring and lame

[Frans Kempe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the two stories. The first story is about a couple of heroes that defeats a evil wizard that want to release his kin to the world. It gives also a backround story to the main characters and Agrivar, who is a main hero in another comic, his drunkenness is being explained. The other story is a quest to help a ghost, a decent story.

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Fleisher makes a wonderful story of an oddball collection of a half-drow sorceress, a centaur, a perfectly ordinary dwarf, and a fallen paladin working for the goddess of the moon (who lives as a bar maid) to prevent an invasion of demons from another dimension. If that sounds like a completely batguano crazy premise for a D&D game then you have successfully found the appeal of the classic Dungeons and Dragons comics. It's a shame this comic was cancelled due to behind the scenes issues between TSR and DC comics.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume reprints the first 8 issues of the DC Comics D&D series from 1988, which to my knowledge is the first Dungeon and Dragons comic series published.

It's a decent fantasy series set in the D&D universe, but you don't have to be a hardcore D&D fan to enjoy the series as I have limited D&D knowledge and still liked it. If anything, hardcore fans may wish this was a little deeper. The stories do include stats for new characters, monsters and locations for players who want to incorporate them into their game campaigns.

This volume features an introductory story that brings the character together, as well as a story line where the bones of the greatest jester to ever live are being stolen for evil purposes and our heroes get involved to stop it.

The art from Jan Duursema is good but it is standard 80s/90s DC style. Overall I liked this, but I wonder if it may be a little too much D&D for non-fans, and a little too less for the serious fans.

[Dwight · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first read these as they came out in comic form, I loved them. They weren't greatly representative of AD&D the game and relied too heavily on the setting but some of the stories were enthralling. I was always excited to acquire the next issue.

Now, all these years later, it was time to revisit this comic so close to my heart.

This graphic novel contains the first eight issues covering two plot lines. The first plot is amazing and stands the test of time while the second was a little over-the-top and less engaging.

The artwork throughout is sensational and would be top notch even today but not all thwriting can say the same.

The change of cast (adventuring party) from the first story to the second hurt it and whomever made that choice should have their hand slapped.

Still, this volume is worth it for the first half. Enjoy!

[Derek Moreland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wait, wait, hold on, this is...really, really good? The art is pretty strong, all things considered, and the second story in the volume, "The Spirit of Myrrth," is actually really funny and clever? Im... excited to dive into the next volume?

I did not forsee that.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some odd, and hence interesting, stories make this a standout from the usual fantasy books. But the dialogue is clunky and the art is only OK.

[Jason Pym · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty bad. Every IDW comic I've seen has had terrible writing and art, yet the company seems pretty big and picks up a lot of licensed titles (Transformers, Sonic the Hedgehog). They have to have put out something that's not defective...

These are more Forgotten Realms stories from the early 1980s, which must be part of the same series that gave us the Jeff Grubb comics (if you liked Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms Classics, Volume 1 by Grubb, you'll find this readable). But these overstep the line for me into excruciatingly awful. There's a big hair, glam-rock style centaur. The main story is called The Spirit of Myrrth, about a jester ghost with knock-knock style jokes. Even though it's published a few years before The Killing Joke, it's odd to see they use the phrase 'the killing joke' and have people die in the smiling death rictus that the Joker endlessly uses.

But... It did make me realise something.

I never understood Dungeons & Dragons after the basic series (The Red Box, Holmes and Moldvay etc). That was simple, a party of adventurers going down into a dungeon, killing stuff and getting loot. No frills. But from AD&D up to today it seemed to turn into something else, much more big and flashy. And reading this comic I think I finally get it, the primary colours, big and stupid and entertaining... From AD&D on I think what Dungeons & Dragons is going for is the Saturday morning cartoon vibe. It's glitter and chrome, cheesy one-liners and big hair. It all makes sense now. I think if you played D&D as if it were He-Man or She-Ra, it would all work as un-selfconscious fun. It also makes sense of the OSR, what they are trying to go back to....

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would venture to guess that this was the beginning of the D&D comics of old, because Agrivar's and Kyriani's origin stories begin here. I've already read the other set of Classics with Agrivar in it. Funnily enough, it doesn't explain why Agrivar only appeared in the first story arc - there are two story arcs in this volume.

This comic series certainly did not age well at all. The first story arc tells how the party of five wound up together. Their names are... somewhat cringe-worthy in this day and age, but probably very awesome back when I was a kid. It tells of their first adventure together, being guided along and protected by Selune (whose depiction and origin story was completely at odds with the 2nd and 3rd editions that I'm more familiar with) to recover an artifact belonging to her and defeating an old enemy of hers.

The second story arc is where Agrivar just goes off on his own (and none of his former teammates even mentions him). It features another quite over-the-top and completely-ignoring-mechanics kind of adventure centered around the Musicians guild and jesters (of all things!) in Waterdeep.

You can get a kick of nostalgia of how D&D was back in the first edition, but if you're looking for superb storytelling or great characterisation, you won't really find it here.

[Benjamin]

Not a lot to say on this one. It's ... fine. It comes before the Forgotten Realms classics, but I didn't have any problem following that comic without this one. (The only real connection is one character.)

It's a pretty typical group of adventurers facing a pretty ordinary group of monsters. Though the second story arc does have a slightly bonkers aspect: sure, there's the search for a treasure and wererats--you know, the usual. But the story revolves around a group of jesters who are planning on unleashing death on the city just to get a better position as an independent guild. It's pretty odd. The scene of them casting a spell by setting up a bunch of punchlines is not something that I've seen before in D&D.

[O'Rety · Rating 1 out of 5]

Story is as ridiculous as it gets and the art is clearly done by a professional with experience from other genres who maybe just learns (judging from the progression of later volumes) how to give fantasy a proper treatment.

Fortunately, it only gets better. However, it's still "getting better from one star" getting better :)

[Jeff Jellets · Rating 3 out of 5]

Look … a dwarf in puffy pants riding a centaur!

In the late 1980s, Dungeons & Dragons was reaching the height of its popularity, moving from a cult favorite role playing game to books, cartoons, and video games. Of course, with all these licensing opportunities on the table, it must have seemed a no-brainer to try comics as well and DC released about a half-dozen D&D inspired titles. Sadly, though I was a huge D&D fan back in the day, I don’t remember the comics capturing much of my attention, but thanks to the swell folks at IDW (who now have the D&D license) and Humble Bundle, I was able to fill my iPad with a bunch of classic D&D tales and head back down that path of adventure (or really … the path of nostalgia … we’re not talking Game of Thrones-style plot twists here).

Anyway, these aren’t half bad.

Writers Fleisher and Mishkin weave a decent enough story for a monthly serial: a group of fantasy adventurers gather together to combat evil monsters, take on a few here-and-there quests, and seek the occasional bit of loot. While the plots are not wholly without inspiration – I love the idea of an evil guild of musicians – there are also not quite above average. Likewise, the art of a ‘very-early-in-her-career’ Jan Duursema (who will deliver a truly epic Star Wars: Legacy series about 25 years later) is good, but inconsistent. Flashes of excellence fall here and there, but this is obviously still a time when the artist is perfecting her craft. The monsters, for example, aren’t particularly inspired. Likewise, the character designs are hit-or-miss. The paladin Agrivar, for example, certainly has the requisite regal bearing for a holy knight, while on the other side of the coin, is the dwarf thief Onyx. The creators may have been trying to avoid the stereotypical dwarf attire – long beard, chain mail, helm and shield – but instead we get orange and green puffy pants and a brown skullcap with a red scrub brush atop it – unobtrusive attire for a burglar I’m sure!

IDW does a nice job on the digital collection. The colors are particularly vibrant and, as a nice little bonus, the publisher included the original text pages from TSR scribe Jeff Grubb, which offers the D&D stats for all the comic book characters – just in case anybody is still actually playing third edition D&D and needs a puffy pants-suited dwarf NPC. The only real letdown are the double-page splashes; they are, unfortunately, cut into two separate pages.

Bottom line … if you have never read a Dungeons & Dragons comic, my first recommendation would still be to try John Rogers’ utterly superb 2012 series Dungeons & Dragons: Shadowplague; it's still the best introduction to the genre in my opinion. But, if you are an old time fan and ready to reminisce a bit, Fleisher and Duursema’s Dungeons & Dragons Classics is not at all a bad choice for a lazy afternoon.

[Edward Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories that made the 11-year-old me remember the terrible sessions we used to have where everything was something crazy (giant skeleton of a jester who tells bad jokes that kill people, etc.) and the cringe factor was high. We have a drunken paladin, a dwarven fighter-thief, and his centaur barbarian best friend who fights alongside an elven girl who is 1/4wood elf, 1/2 drow elf and all wizard (or was it sorcerer before they had them?) Oh well, throw in an escaped slave pit fighting woman who seems to be able to overcome any obstacle that is thrown at her and you have the most lobsided min-max party of twinks in the realms.

11-year-old Ed smiles.
42-year-old-Ed cringes.

4 out of 5 for this trip down memory lane (-1 star for making remember how bad some of these adventure were ala Stranger Things)

[LordSlaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read, even better than I anticipated. The stories and artwork were very nicely done. The whole experience was very evocative of playing a homebrewed D&D adventure. The heroes and villains, the Waterdeep setting, the monsters, the magic, the plot, all elements of the tales gave me the deliciously nostalgic feeling of sitting around a table playing 2nd ed. and calculating THAC0. At the end of most of the issues were character sheets for the characters, stat sheets for the monsters, or background text about Waterdeep or its guilds or some other story aspect. That was a neat touch. The four-part story (issues 5-8) "The Spirit of Myrrth" was particularly well-done, clever, inventive and funny. A volume I picked up for a quick, mildly entertaining diversion turned out to be more engaging than I thought it would be, a delightful surprise.

[David]

This is the very beginnings of Dungeons and Dragons comics in the late 80s. It introduces a team of compelling characters, but they don't quite come into fruition yet. In fact, in some ways, this series is more notable for it's spin-offs such as Forgotten Realms and Spelljammer. Thus far, these characters also seem to work best when they cross over with those of the spin-offs. I think that the series did get better as it progressed. It harkens back to a great era of D and D. It also reveals the jarring origins of some very significant characters, Priam Agrivar and Kyriani. The others remain to be more fully explored. While it would have needed a different time slot due to content, I do think that these comics would have made for a better D and D cartoon that the one that was produced.

[Oron · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I hadn't dabbed in D&D as a kid, this might be a different experience.
The story feels old, not in a good way. the jokes are xtude and sometimes embarrassing, and some of the dialogue is unintentionally funny. But it's still nice for fans of the ganre. The first story was nice, the 2nd was too jump-the-shark-y for me
I got load of these in a bundle, so every now and than I guess I'll pick one up.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5: A fun throw-back the silly, melodramatic comic style of yore that still features recognizable Dungeons and Dragons monsters, spells, classes, tropes, etc. I really enjoyed the first story and the arrival of heroic characters taking on the evilest of evils. The second story came close to wearing out the welcome with underperforming jokes and repeating the character beats every few frames.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art is quite good. The cast is interesting and likable with distinct personalities. The foolhardy centaur is probably the most unique.

The first story arc is better, a standard quest adventure which has lots of action and AD&D monsters.

The second arc was talkier and more boring, not much of a quest but more of a mystery. Not that many monsters and kind of convoluted.

[Damian Herde · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d read some of the issues back in the day, but hadn’t ever had the complete set. Nostalgia prompted me to read this volume, but it hasn’t aged well.
The style of comics from the 80s has thankfully ended, and the rough art, constant exposition, and average storytelling are no longer the norm.

[Mark Pidgeon · Rating 3 out of 5]

good characters

The first four issues were a great introduction but the second half of the book wasn’t as strong. The skeleton did look cool and love how they kept the AD&D content at the back of each issue

[Quinton Baran · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable return to books that I read many years ago. The art is adequate and the story the same.

[Steen Ledet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first arc is great but the collection is marred by the silly and unnecessary second arc.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I prefer the Forgotten Realms Classics, but this is still highly entertaining and offers more context to the sequel series (which I unwittingly read first).

[Dylan Sharek]

I enjoyed it! The first story wss quite good. The second was pretty lame. Both have great art and are really representative of a special time in fantasy.

[Jeremiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acquired through Humble Bundle as a digital download.

[Luke Costin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very old school, very cliche and unfortunately in the day and age, not very good. It has some classic 80s comic art if you are interested in that but not a whole lot else.

[Jason Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of comic books from the late 80s about Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. A little bit of nonsense that drips 80s sensibilities. Big hair, muscled warriors and questionable plotting.

[Edd Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Mediocre 3/5 Graphic Novel Volume

[Kent Pearson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stealing from Monty Python?

The plots were weak. The drawing OK. I guess I'm use to the more modern styles of graphic novels. But enjoyed the old style D&D references.