IDW Publishing 2019
Written by Jim Zub
Illustrated by Max Dunbar
Coloured by Sebastian Cheng
Lettered by Neil Uyetake
An entire city is sent sliding into Hell, and the Baldur’s Gate heroes are trapped along for the ride! With infernal devils attacking from every side and no way home, how will our heroes survive? Infernal Tides continues the D&D comic odyssey.
Every single arc of this series is a must have, must read book. This creative team found a group of folks who were complete strangers before finding themselves thrust into battle with each other. This has led to many an adventure whereas they’ve become a family at this point and to see them in action is a thing of beauty. This just goes to show that regardless of genre, this being based on an rpg, a superhero story is based upon the characters, their weapons and/or powers as they fight heroically against those who would do harm. I really do think that if you haven’t given these a try yet you need to rectify that as soon as humanly possible.
The way that this is being told is sensational. How we see the story & plot development through witnessing the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is laid out extremely well. What impresses me even further is how Jim is able to take various factions of the group and have them splinter off to do what they do best and still keep it feeling as if we’re watching them simultaneously. His mastery over storytelling is simply stunning to witness throughout these arcs. Of course this also leads into the character development we see and while they are well established at this point that doesn’t mean there’s complacency as they continue to grow and evolve as people through the various situations and circumstances they find themselves in. The pacing here is phenomenal and how it takes us through pages as the story weaves its way around and brings this incredible ebb & flow to light is superbly done.
Whether you are someone who loves tabletop gaming or not this is going to excite people from all walks of interest. Firstly Jim’s one of today’s most interesting and solid writers whose work never ceases to amaze and secondly he finds a way to become better and better with each outing. He really does know and understand not just how to structure a book but also how the characters need to be in order for the reader to get their maximum enjoyment.
Max’s interior work is astounding! The way we see the linework and how the varying weights are being utilised to showcase the attention to detail is masterclass work. There is this creativity and imagination involved in bringing characters of different races to life whether they be mortal classes or of an Infernal nature that you’d be hard pressed to find fault with. Backgrounds are the one thing I would like to see utilised more here for when we see them they really add that layer of dimension to the story. There is some great trickery in filling panels so we don’t consciously notice they aren’t there and I am okay with that. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a stupendous eye for storytelling. The colour work we see here really is rather brilliantly rendered. Whether it’s gradation effects with such vibrant hues, neon style that shows magic and other weaponry or the flaming horse to seeing how weather affects their faces and skin tones, all of this and more demonstrate a perfect eye for utilising colour.
By all the Seldarine the way we see this playing out before our eyes is enough to make Peter Jackson envious of how much is happening at once. I cannot wait for the next issue to see if they all survive not to mention if they end up with a new member of their party. Forget the Fast & The Furious these folks have them in the dust and for a high octane adventure you need to be reading this!