Comic Review: Dungeons and Dragons: Infernal Tides #2

Dungeons and Dragons: Infernal Tides #2

IDW

Writer: Jim Zub

Artist: Max Dunbar

For anyone who has played or is interested in playing D&D, this comic is for you. Of course, I can’t recommend Infernal Tides without recommending Jim Zub and Max Dunbar’s other contributions to the world of D&D. While it’s certainly not essential for readers to start with Zub and Dunbar’s former installments, it will add context to Infernal Tides. Pick up here, or skips to back issues of Legends of Baldur’s Gate, Evil at Baldur’s Gate, Frost Giant’s Fury, etc, for more adventures with the same characters. Especially if you enjoy the Forgotten Realms universe.

All great D&D stories need adventure. Furthermore, it wouldn’t be right if a larger context wasn’t present. And that’s why this whole thing started over a century ago. . . When Elturel’s cavalry charged the massing hordes from hell. That conflict isn’t over. That’s what Minc, Boo, and Co. have got themselves caught up in. Because they’ve come across a young paladin who possesses a demonic puzzle box, though what’s inside they aren’t sure. They travel to Candlekeep, the fortress-library where a learned Teifling may be able to help them open the box. Though what they find may not be what they wished for.

Before we get into the characters, I have to level with you. I haven’t read all of Zub’s threads in the series. Due to this, I don’t recognize all the characters in Minsc’s adventuring party. They’ve added some characters in their adventures. Still, this isn’t to the detriment of the piece at all. Zub skirts the issue of filling readers in and just lets you enjoy the tale without getting carried away trying to introduce every single person. At times this can make the issue feel rushed, but isn’t that what D&D is all about? A plot that drives characters to action! I think so, and therefore I read along happily. I think a lot of this story and characters live up to my expectations of what a D&D campaign is like, and so I don’t ask too many questions of it, and instead, enjoy it for what it is.

I love Dunbar’s art. I think spin-offs from games or movies (i.e. StarCraft, other D&D attempts, Buffy, etc) can have an air of haste about them when it comes to the art. Maybe the deadline approached faster than the artist had expected. Maybe they didn’t have a clear call on what the context was of the plot for facial expressions because they didn’t have time to clarify with the writer about the ambiguities of the script. Who knows. What I know is that Dumbar has been drawing these characters long enough that he obviously knows them in all their fury and tenderness. He’s not only consistent with character design but also with sprawling landscapes, cityscapes, and contained locations. While his paneling does nothing to bend the graphic form in new ways–he doesn’t need to. This is about adventures and legendary characters. Both of which, he delivers.