"Dungeons & Dragons" tie-in column: Explore worlds of fantasy in comic books

Word Balloons column #1156: As "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" comes to theaters, let's look at some of the licensed stories in comics, as well as explorations of the genre

With the film “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” hitting theaters, it seemed like a good week to share some fantasy adventure comics you might want to check out after seeing the film. Most of these occasionally feature some dungeons, some dragons, or both! 

Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms

Writer Jeff Grubb and artist Rags Morales were the initial creative team for this adaptation of the “Dungeons and Dragons” setting into comic books, which ran for 25 issues from 1989-1991.  This will be most interesting for those for some nostalgia for the era, but the series is fun fantasy adventure. The first storyline, "The Hand of Vaprak,” features a wizard recruiting a new team of adventurers to stop an evil artifact.

Dungeons & Dragons: Saturday Morning Adventures

Part of IDW’s “Saturday Morning” line, this follows the characters from, as perhaps is obvious, the “Saturday Morning” continuity of its characters, in this case from the 1983-1985 cartoon. 

Here’s how IDW describes the series: 

“In 1983, six unsuspecting kids boarded a magical roller coaster and were transported to the Forgotten Realms … in celebration of its 40th anniversary, IDW will bring back the heroes of this cartoon classic in March with the new four-issue comic book miniseries, Dungeons & Dragons: Saturday Morning Adventures, a thrilling “lost episode” charting new territory in the world of D&D.”

The series is written by David M. Booher and Sam Maggs, with art by George Kambadais.

The series will feature noble ranger Hank, intrepid acrobat Diana, quiet thief Sheila, impulsive barbarian Bobby, fearful cavalier Eric, and uncertain magician Presto, who only want to get back to their own world. But the evil Venger wants the kids’ magic weapons, and escape is proving much harder than anticipated.

The first issue of this series is on comic shelves now; new issues of the four-issue series are scheduled to follow monthly. 

Bone by Jeff Smith

This series was one of the huge indie hits of the 1990s. Jeff Smith is the writer/artist of the all-ages epic Bone, about the three Bone cousins who leave Boneville and become lost in the valley. The “Bones” are humanoid little creatures who come from their own land of Boneville. With dragons, cow races, rat creatures, romance, and adventure, Bone is enthralling for all kinds of readers. Bone was the 1990s answer to Carl Barks' "Uncle Scrooge" and Walt Kelly's "Pogo," with high adventure fantasy to boot. And it's still as readable and timeless today. It was collected originally in black and white, and then later by Scholastic in color, where it's a huge hit among school-age readers.

The series has comedy, drama, and adventure. It's one of my favorite recommendations.

Sojourn, by Ron Marz and Greg Land (primarily) 

Two warnings with this one: Due to the publisher going out of business, this fantasy epic doesn’t have an ending. And due to the publisher going out of business, this might also be harder to find. However, Marvel/Disney currently own the rights to the property, so who knows what the future holds? 

In the epic fantasy series “Sojourn,” the world faces a great villain. Years ago, Mordath, a dread warlord, put nearly all of the land of Quin under his control with his troll army. A mysterious warrior, Ayden, forged an army of survivors and stood up to Mordath, killing him. Ayden, refusing to lead the Five Lands, breaks the fatal arrow into five pieces and scatters them throughout the Five Lands. Ayden promises to return should the pieces be reunited.

After 300 years, Mordath is revived by something called the sigil, a mark in the CrossGen universe that provides its bearer with great power. The warlord aims to retake the Five Lands. The archer Arwyn, whose husband and child were killed by Mordath's men, sets out to find the five pieces of the arrow.

Do you have favorite comic-book reads in this genre? Feel free to share them!

Matthew Price, matthew@matthewlprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman.