Die (comics)

DIE
Volume 1 cover
Publication information
Publisher	Image Comics
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Dark fantasy
Publication date	December 2018 – September 2021
Creative team
Created by	Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans
Written by	Kieron Gillen
Artist(s)	Stephanie Hans
Letterer(s)	Clayton Cowles

Die (stylized as DIE) is a horror/fantasy comic book about role-playing games, influenced by the isekai / LitRPG literary genre, written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Stephanie Hans. It was published by Image Comics, beginning in December 2018 and ending in September 2021.

Synopsis[]

Volume One: Fantasy Heartbreaker[]

In 1991, Dominic Ash spends his sixteenth birthday playing a tabletop role-playing game with his younger sister Angela and his friends Solomon, Isabelle, Matt, and Chuck. The game was uniquely created for Ash by his best friend Sol, who plays as the gamemaster. As soon as the group roll their dice, they are transported into the fantasy world of Die. After two years, Ash, his sister, and three of his friends manage to escape Die, but they are forced to leave Sol behind.^[1]

On his forty-third birthday, Ash unexpectedly comes across Sol's original twenty-sided die and convinces the old role-playing party to come together again. When they are all in the presence of Sol's die, they are again transported to the world of Die, where Ash takes the form of a woman. The party discovers that Sol is still alive and in control of all of Die's realms. He states that he will only let them return home if they play his game.^[1] The party travels through a war-zone overseen by a man that Ash believes to be J. R. R. Tolkien and finally manage to catch Sol's attention by orchestrating the destruction of the city of Glass Town. When Sol refuses to help them return home, Ash kills him, only for him to return as a Fallen, an undead being desperate to kill living players in Die.^[2]

Volume Two: Split the Party[]

After the death and resurrection of Sol, Isabelle and Chuck decide that they find more purpose in Die than they do in the real world and leave the rest of the party. Isabelle takes responsibility for the displaced citizens of Glass Town and calls upon her ex-lover, the vampire Lord Zamorna, to help her confront Ash.^[3]

Without the rest of the party, Ash, Angela, and Matt are unable to return home. Ash begins a campaign to develop allies against Isabelle and discovers that one of the rulers of the realm of Angria is her son, who she had after having an affair with Zamorna.^[4] Her efforts to build political support are disrupted when Isabelle arrives in Angria and admits that the party destroyed Glass Town. The party, minus Chuck, is imprisoned in a jail run by a woman they recognize as Charlotte Brontë. The jailer claims that she is the original Charlotte Brontë, transported to the fictional world she created with her siblings after her death.^[5] Zamorna arrives at the jail and releases Ash and Isabelle. Isabelle convinces Ash to stay in Die for the sake of her son, and the two of them leave without Matt and Angela. Ash then forces Zamorna to marry her, thus becoming the queen of Angria.

Volume Three: The Great Game[]

As queen of Angria, Ash faces unexpected hostility from the realm of Little England. When she meets the man who runs the realm, he identifies himself as H.G. Wells. Wells admonishes Ash for the destruction of Glass Town and describes how he combated the negative influence of wargames in the real world by writing his own anti-war manual, Little Wars. Ash explains that Little Wars actually inspired the continued creation of wargames, which eventually led to the creation of the game that brought her and her party to Die. Wells is horrified by the realization that his actions, like the actions of the Brontës, were moved by the spirit that runs Die.^[6] Ash joins forces with Little England and sends an army to drive Eternal Prussia out of Glass Town.

Angela and Matt are broken out of jail by Chuck, who reveals to them that he is dying of cancer. While searching for Fair gold to power her Neo abilities, Angela comes across a Fallen that appears to be an older version of her daughter from the real world.^[7] Angela is disturbed by this discovery and tracks down the Fair to demand answers. The Fair explain that the world of Die has been reaching into the past to ensure its own creation. It ensured that Sol created the twelve toy soldiers that inspired the Brontës to create Angria, and it brought the party back to Die to spark the creation of the magical dice that they first used in 1991. In her quest to overthrow Sol, Ash allowed Glass Town to be taken over by the realm of Eternal Prussia, who are now using it as a forge to craft the dice. Once the dice are completed, the time loop will be closed and Die can fully merge itself with the real world.^[6] Angela, Matt, and Chuck travel to Glass Town and try to destroy the forge, but fail to do so in time. Ash arrives with Sol and Isabelle, and Sol suggests that they try to track down the dice before they reach the real world.^[8] In the end they realize DIE is a true neutral entity that is ensuring its survival and granting only the desires hidden in people. That all the main characters could do was learn more about themselves based on how DIE shows the results of their desires. It is a bittersweet ending, now more capable in handling their PSTDs and themselves into their own world. It is shown DIE still exists and Sol still has the grand master powers that will complete DIE earth merge.

Characters[]

• Dominic Ash: In the real world, Ash is a middle-aged man working in marketing. He is married to a woman named Sophie. He was best friends with Sol before they were transported to Die. In the world of Die, Ash lives as a woman. She plays the game as a Dictator, a diplomat character archetype represented by a four-sided die. She has the ability to manipulate people's emotions and convince them to do her bidding with her words. During her time in Die as a teenager, Ash had numerous relationships with men, including an affair with Isabelle's lover Zamorna that resulted in an unexpected pregnancy.
• Angela Ash: Ash's younger sister. In the real world, Angela is a coder who develops video games. She has two children and is in the process of divorcing her husband after having an affair with her co-worker Susan. In the world of Die, Angela plays as a Neo, a cyberpunk-inspired character archetype represented by a ten-sided die. She can gain control of machines and teleport herself, and she is able to manifest a robotic version of her childhood dog that acts as her companion. Her abilities are all powered by Fair gold, resulting in a dependence on the substance that is akin to addiction. As a teenager, she traded one of her arms for a cybernetic limb, which resulted in her losing an arm when she returned to the real world.
• Isabelle: A Vietnamese-French adoptee who dated Sol when they were teenagers. She had a contentious relationship with Ash, made worse by the affair that Ash had with Zamorna. As an adult, Isabelle is divorced and teaches English literature at a high school. In the world of Die, she plays as a Godbinder, a character archetype represented by a twelve-sided die. She is able to demand favors from twelve gods, each representing different elements and ideas, though she must perform favors for them in return. She strongly believes that the party should treat everyone in Die as if they are real and take responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
• Matt : Matt is a statistics professor with two daughters. His mother died when he was a teenager, leading to struggles with grief and depression. In the world of Die, he plays as a Grief Knight, a variant of an emotion-based character archetype represented by an eight-sided die. He carries a talking sword that verbalizes his worst fears and insecurities and becomes more powerful as he becomes sadder. Of all the members of the party, he is the most invested in leaving Die and returning home to his family.
• Chuck: After leaving Die for the first time, Chuck became rich and famous writing popular fantasy novels. He has been married three times and is estranged from his children. In the world of Die, he plays as a Fool, a character archetype represented by a six-sided die. As long as he maintains a carefree attitude and doesn't seriously consider consequences, he is granted an unusual degree of luck in all his actions. His recklessness and insincerity regularly antagonize the other members of the party.
• Solomon: Sol was Ash's best friend, and designed the game that led the party to Die as a gift for Ash. In the world of Die, he initially played as a Master, a character archetype equivalent to a gamemaster and represented by a twenty-sided die. When the party made their first attempt to leave Die, an unexpected disruption resulted in Sol being left behind. He ended up becoming the Grandmaster of Die, ruthlessly controlling the rules governing all the realms instead of just one. Ash kills him after it becomes clear that he won't let the party return home, and he is resurrected as an undead Fallen. Fallen Sol is kept prisoner by Ash, who regularly interrogates him to try to uncover the true origins of Die.

Reception[]

The first DIE trade paperback (DIE: Fantasy Heartbreaker, comprising issues #1-5) was a finalist for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story,^[9] and the second DIE trade paperback (DIE: Split the Party) was a finalist for the 2021 award.^[10]

Io9 has called it "subversive" and "a heady combination of fascinating worldbuilding (and) compellingly broken characters tearing each other apart", lauding Hans' "vivid, striking artwork".^[11]

In The Comics Journal, Mark Sable ranked the first issue as among the best comics of 2018, describing it as "the most memorable and accessible debut issue (he had) read in a long time".^[12]

Origin[]

Gillen has stated that the idea for Die came from a conversation with his longtime collaborator Jamie McKelvie about the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, in which a group of children are magically transported to the fantasy world of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. The final episode of the show, in which the characters return to earth, was never produced, and Gillen wondered what might have happened to the children.^[16] Additionally, Gillen was inspired by Stephen King's horror novel It, and particularly the theme of adults returning to childhood experiences of horror.^[17] Die's focus on role-playing games and game mechanics was born from Gillen's own interest in role-playing games. He has stated that while he played RPGs for most of his life, his interest was reignited in 2013, when he started to seriously consider "the nature of fantasy, and where this weird form actually came from."^[18] These ideas became core themes in Die.

Gillen collaborated with artist Hans during his run on Journey into Mystery, after which they began discussing a collaboration on an ongoing comic. Hans had primarily worked as a cover artist, and Die was her first ongoing comic.^[19]

Adaptation[]

Gillen is currently preparing a role-playing game based on Die. He has stated that his influences include the games Paranoia, Monsterhearts, Dungeon World, Legacy, Fiasco, Warhammer, and Dungeons & Dragons, as well as elements of Nordic LARP.^[16]

The beta version of the game is freely available online.^[20]

References[]

External links[]

• Official site
• Open beta for the Die role-playing game