Pathfinder #1

by Jim Zub, Andrew Huerta (Artist)

Paizo's incredible award-winning, best-selling fantasy world, fiction line and tabletop RPG is now the ultimate fantasy comic from Dynamite Entertainment! Valeros can rely on only his sword arm and his friends, the mysterious and beautiful sorcerer Seoni and silver tongued quick-witted elven rogue Merisiel, but nothing can prepare him for the dangers that lurk ahead. The scattered and chaotic goblin tribes of Varisia are changing, growing in power and unifying in ways no one has ever seen before. At the heart of this strange evolution is an ancient evil looking to establish itself anew.

Genres: Fantasy, Comics

39 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 15, 2012

About the author

Jim Zub is a writer, artist and art instructor based in Toronto, Canada. Over the past fifteen years he’s worked for a diverse array of publishing, movie and video game clients including Disney, Warner Bros., Capcom, Hasbro, Bandai-Namco and Mattel.

He juggles his time between being a freelance comic writer and Program Coordinator for Seneca College‘s award-winning Animation program.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the plot, and the use of the gaming ideas in the back of the book. But, seriously, why is she dressed that way?

[Lady Entropy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm still in disbelief that the writer of my favourite Wayward wrote this tripe. Cliché, boring, predictable, it shows why roleplaying games don't translate well into comicbooks: the strength of RPgs is their interactivity and the skill of their players, and usually story is left as an afterthought - D&D-clones like Pathfinder moreso, as they focus mostly on the traditional "Go to X place, beat a monster until it drops its lunch money". But stripped off player agency and creativity, it shows how often its stories and settings are just middling-level material.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pathfinder pulled me into the worlds of both comics and tabletop RPGs. I was out of state on a business trip and Googled a used bookstore to have something to do on the weekend, and found a store with $1 comic books. When I came across several volumes of this fantasy series, I decided to check them out. I'd heard of the game but wasn't really expecting much from the comics. I was pleasantly surprised.

This introductory chapter of Dark Waters Rising, the first arc of the comic series, introduces you to the main cast. My immediate favorites were Valeros, the human fighter, and Merisiel, the elven rogue. The story opens with them battling a pack of rhyming goblins and afterward they head to a tavern to drink ale and brawl with other patrons. The characters all have distinct voices and you can appreciate the class-based gaming elements evident in their fighting styles.

[DavidO · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork is good. The story is dull. There's some RPG info at the back...makes it feel like the comic section is superfluous.

[Jonathon Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

The comic itself is decent, but the real treat is the second half of the book, which turns the comic into a mini Pathfinder module.