Die Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker Kindle & comiXology

This didn't work for me and I gave up after getting about half-way through.It begins by introducing a confusing cast of characters (there's at least six and some of them have multiple names for no good reason). Visually they're not that distinct because of the dark and blurry art style.The rules of the game world they're in aren't explained very well. There's no explanation of why they end up there, or what the stakes are. Can you actually die in Die-world? Or get hurt? Or is it just a VR sort of simulation? The characters seem to alternate between taking it very seriously, and not taking it seriously at all. They seem to speakonly in wisecracks and one-liners. So the writing tries to be both a Saturday-morning kids cartoon and a serious piece of drama. Very confusing.It made it hard to care about the outcomes of their struggles or what the point of it all was. The art is of course beautiful and it's a shame it was wasted, in my opinion, on a poor story.Maybe it'll get better for those that stick with it, but it's not for me.

DIE has much to offer and deserves more than one-read through: the writing is excellent, with much consideration given to the characters and world-building. The tone of the dialogue is spot-on most noticeably in the inter-relationships of the main characters who find themselves together again in middle age and forced once more to enter the fantasy realm that brought so much calamity upon them. I would say also that volume 2 which is currently being released in episodic format is even better, for example exploring the mystique and early work of the Bronte family and tying it into the story. A must read. The painted art also deserves much praise - beautiful stuff indeed

I really enjoyed this. Based a bit on D&D the fantasy elements were absolutely awesome and loved the plot of this graphic novel, it’s dark and that makes it even better. The artwork is also amazing.

D&D at its best. Pretty much just like my gaming group. Cannot wait to try playing the world itself. Brilliant fun

Loved it, start to finish, will get next volume.

Terrific story, characters, and the art is beautiful!

Can’t wait for the RPG system . This book is great. Pacing is fantastic , imaginative characters, evocative art

WARNING MILD SPOILERSIf you are a person of a "certain age" you may remember in the 1980's there was a dungeon and dragons cartoon where a group of teenagers get whisked away through a portal get given powerful artifacts and desperately try and find a way home whilst battling the resident bad guy demon, venger, who wanted their artifacts.The story had an ending but was not made (scripts are available online) and this is where the concept of DIE starts, rather than having twee cartoony adventures what would happen when six teenagers from Nottingham get sent to a dark magical realm, and two years later get home with one of the party not making it back and another missing an arm and all under a geas not to say anything.Roll forward 30 years and then they are forced back to that realm to see all the consequences that their previous visit has had.Also the archetypal character classes are turned completely on their head, the "cleric" is atheist and the "spells" are traded as favors with the gods, the knight gets more powerful the more depressed he is and we even get a "cyberpunk" as their is always somebody in a party who wants to play something different to what you wanted.Be warned this is a graphic novel with very mature themes and powerful imagery and is absolutely wonderful, roll on the next chapter.