The Adventure Zone: Here there be Gerblins - Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, Carey Pietsch

Last year around this time, I promised a friend of mine I'd go see a live show of a podcast she had fallen in love with. I am a casual listener of podcasts, meaning I'll catch them when I'm in the mood, but that's not often. I prefer audio books after all. But in the spirit of camaraderie, I began listening to The Adventure Zone podcast. Essentially, three brothers and their dad play dungeons and dragons. Hilarity ensues. My friend's enthusiasm, and constant texts asking "what episode are you on now," kept me going through the first couple episodes when I wasn't really sure what I was listening to. I'd never played D&D before and had never really had the desire to. How could listening to other people play be more exciting than actually playing yourself? 

Somehow the McElroy boys and their father answered this question with their sharp wit, hilarious banter, and above all, excellent story telling. What began as a one-off detour for the family turned into a 69 episode quest of three adventurers, Elf Wizard Taako, Human Fighter Magnus Burnsides, and Dwarf Cleric Merle Highchurch. Each arc had the trio finding a "Grand Relic." An object of immense power sought by evil-doers. And well, I'm not giving away the rest of the story. Go listen already.

I know this may sound a little too fantasy for some, but honestly the character relationships and the overall story wound so tightly that I jettisoned all other hobbies for the last twenty episodes and treated it like a brand new initiate trying to speed through the first four seasons of Lost. 

It goes without saying that the live show was amazing. I still think of TAZ often and even though they've moved on to another story in season two of their podcast, I'm kind of not "over" the original. So thank goodness those geniuses decided to put the arcs into comic form. The Adventure Zone: Here there be Gerblins is the first arc from the podcast. 

"It won't work" some said. "Moving from an audio to a visual medium is too hard" said others. They were all wrong. The comic works on a comic book level because the strength of the story was so great. They've tightened where they needed to tighten. Removed a lot of superfluous jokes while still keeping the humor. Even the dungeon master appearing in the upper corner from time to time feels totally normal. I'm so glad they have already decided to do the second arc from the show: Murder on the Rockport Limited because the story just gets better as it goes on.

5/5 Stars.