Die (comics)

Last updated
DIE
Die vol1 cover.jpg
Volume 1 cover.
Publication information
Publisher Image Comics
Format Ongoing series
Genre
Publication dateDecember 2018 – September 2021
No. of issues20
Creative team
Created by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans
Written byKieron Gillen
Artist(s)Stephanie Hans
Letterer(s) Clayton Cowles
Collected editions
Fantasy Heartbreaker ISBN   1-5343-1270-6
Split the Party ISBN   1-5343-1497-0
The Great Game ISBN   1-5343-1716-3
Bleed ISBN   1-5343-1926-3

Die (stylized as DIE) is a horror/fantasy comic book about role-playing games, influenced by the portal fantasy and LitRPG literary genres, written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Stephanie Hans. The series focuses on a group of British adults who are drawn back to an icosahedron-shaped world they originally visited as teenagers; the group left behind a friend upon their original escape and never discussed the experience. It was published by Image Comics and ran for twenty issues across four five-issue arcs (Fantasy Heartbreaker, Split the Party, The Great Game, and Bleed), beginning in December 2018 and ending in September 2021.

Contents

It won the British Fantasy Award for "Best Comic / Graphic Novel" in 2020 and 2021 [1] [2] and was a finalist for the Hugo Award in "Best Graphic Story or Comic" three times. [3] [4] [5] Gillen and Hans also created a role-playing game adaptation of Die with British publisher Rowan, Rook and Deckard; [6] the game was successively funded via Kickstarter in May 2022 [7] [8] and the digital edition was released in November 2022. [9]

Synopsis

Volume One: Fantasy Heartbreaker

TitleIssue #Release date
The Party [10] 1December 5, 2018
In 1991, Dominic Ash spends his 16th birthday playing a tabletop role-playing game with his younger sister Angela and friends Solomon “Sol”, Isabelle, Matt, and Chuck. Sol created the game for Ash and plays as the gamemaster. When the group rolls their dice for the first time, they disappear. Two years later, Ash, Angela (who has lost her arm), Isabelle, Matt, and Chuck reappear, refusing to speak about where they went or what happened to Sol. Twenty-five years later, Ash receives Sol's original 20-sided die from the night of the game and reconvenes the party to discuss what to do with it. The die activates and all five are transported to the fantasy world of Die, where Ash takes the form of a woman. Before the party can enact the ritual to return to Earth, Sol appears, refusing to let them leave. [11]
Players [12] 2January 9, 2019
25 years ago, the party fought and defeated the Grandmaster, the ruler of Die. The Grandmaster revived and captured Sol just as the return ritual completed, trapping him while the rest of the party returned to Earth. Sol eventually killed the Grandmaster and took his place. Sol insists that the party 'play' and leaves. Since the return ritual requires the players to unanimously agree to go home, they must find Sol and convince him to leave as well. The party meets the Elf Queen of the Dreaming Lands and Chuck kills her, having correctly deduced her true identity as a Fallen, an undead monster. Ash is attacked by a former lover who she accidentally cursed, and the party decides to hike across the dangerous Front instead of the more civilized areas they explored as teenagers, rationalizing that they “can survive anything but our past”. [13]
Dungeons [14] 3February 6, 2019
The party is attacked by a mechanical dragon while travelling through the Front, and Ash shelters in a trench with a unit of English soldiers. One of the soldiers asks Ash to get a message to his family before dying. A man who appears to be J. R. R. Tolkien arrives, identifying himself as the unwilling ‘Master’ of the Front, and consoles Ash. He sends the soldier's message via a giant eagle. Matt manages to kill the dragon. The party decides to head to Glass Town to recover. Meanwhile, the eagle is shot down and the soldier's message burned by a general, who tells the next unit of soldiers to “simply walk” into battle. [15]

The Front is based on the World War I European front and trench warfare, and the war experiences of J. R. R. Tolkien.

The Inn [16] 4March 6, 2019
The party arrives at Glass Town, where they are hailed as heroes called the Paragons. At an inn, the Paragons meet two dwarves, Dour and Delighted, and the party swap stories. Angela activates a robotic version of her dog Case, who died prior to the original game in 1991. The Paragons learn that the way to Sol's realm involves a lengthy dungeon crawl, and decide to get Sol to come to them instead by destroying Glass Town. [17]

Glass Town is based on the paracosm of the same name created by the Brontë siblings as children.

Premise Rejection [18] 5April 3, 2019
The Paragons plan and execute the destruction of Glass Town using the robot forces of Eternal Prussia. The Paragons manage to incapacitate Sol, but he refuses to let them leave, telling Ash that he made Die "all for you". Ash, seeing no alternative, kills him. Isabelle and Chuck refuse to do the return ritual as a result of their actions and teleport away. Sol revives as a Fallen, revealing that all Fallen are real people who died in Die who can properly resurrect if they kill players. The remaining Paragons realize that, to make the party unanimous to enact the return ritual, they need to kill Isabelle and Chuck. [19]

Eternal Prussia is based on wargames and the history of the genre, particularly Kriegsspiel and its effect on the Franco-Prussian War.

Volume Two: Split the Party

TitleIssue #Release date
The Grind [20] 6August 7, 2019
Ash, Isabelle, Angela, and a chained Sol are trapped in Glass Town, which is now occupied by Eternal Prussia. Angela refuses to spare resources by not using Case and decides to meet with the Fair to get a better deal. The Fair offer Angela a choice of sacrificing her cybernetic arm or Case—Angela chooses to let Case go. Meanwhile, Ash interrogates Sol on how he created Die. The party escapes Glass Town on a hacked Prussian dragon and head to Angria to meet with allies from their past. There, they are greeted by Augustus, Ash's son from their original visit to Die. [21]
Wisdom Check [22] 7September 4, 2019
Isabelle, Chuck, and the Glass Town refugees were teleported to a desert on the other side of Die. Isabelle and Chuck argue and Isabelle sets Mistress Woe on Chuck to teach him a lesson. The company is joined by the real Elf Queen of the Dreaming Lands. Mistress Woe allows a Titan to sneak up on the company. Isabelle apologizes to Chuck, who kills the Titan and then has sex with the Elf Queen. They discuss wisdom and how it relates to Chuck's hedonistic attitude towards life. The next morning, the company is joined by Lord Zamorna, the deposed vampire ruler of Angria and Isabelle's former lover. [23]
Legacy Heroes [24] 8October 2, 2019
Ash, Angela, Matt, and Sol have taken up residence in Verdopolis, the capital of Angria. Angela investigates Eternal Prussia's activities in Glass Town while Ash continues interrogating Sol. Matt and Ash discuss Augustus, who is Ash's son by Zamorna. Matt is challenged to a battle with the Knightly Orders in exchange for their support of the Paragons against the Angrian Ruling Party, which he wins. Angela finds that Eternal Prussia is building a forge in Glass Town, though she can't tell what it's making. The Ruling Party agrees to help find Isabelle and Chuck, but are interrupted by Isabelle who confesses that the Paragons orchestrated the destruction of Glass Town. [25]
Self-Insert [26] 9November 6, 2019
The Paragons, minus a missing Chuck, are jailed in response to Isabelle's confession. The Paragons update Isabelle on the truth of the Fallen, but Isabelle reminds them that they were the first people to come to Die, which obfuscates the existence of the Fallen and the timeline of Die. The Warden of the jail offers information, and Isabelle realizes she is Charlotte Brontë, who explains her past: The Brontë siblings received twelve toy soldiers and created a fantasy world that they built up over time through stories and conversation—Charlotte and Branwell called their section of the world Angria. Angria, Gondol, Glass Town, and characters such as Zamorna were all creations of the Brontë siblings, now existing in Die. Eventually, Charlotte found a way to see into and directly manipulate Angria. As adults, however, the worlds of Gondal and Angria began to bleed into reality, and after a bout of sleep paralysis and realizing that Angria had consumed her older sisters, Charlotte decided that Angria was gaining too much power and needed to be destroyed. Branwell refused and was subsequently consumed by his own imagination, soon followed by Emily, Anne, and finally Charlotte. When she passed away she awoke in Die, now the Master of Angria. However, the timeline of the Brontës, the Fallen, and the Paragons is still inconsistent, not to mention the mere existence of Die. Zamorna arrives as part of Isabelle's plan to take over Angria to set up a united front against what Eternal Prussia is building. He frees Ash and Isabelle, who convinces Ash to work with her for the sake of her son. [27]
The X-Card [28] 10December 4, 2019
Ash, Isabelle, and Zamorna put into effect their plan to take over Angria. Since Ash can only do one compulsion at a time on an unwilling subject, she convinces other Dictators to join her; however, she has to kill an enslaved Dictator who tries to stop her. She frees Augustus and enchants Zamorna to keep him under control while giving her the political power to take over Angria. Chuck breaks Angela and Matt out of prison, revealing that he is dying and needs to find a healer; they leave a content Sol behind. Ash is crowned Queen of Angria upon marrying Zamorna. Isabelle begins to question Ash's nature and intentions as Ash takes the throne. [29]

Volume Three: The Great Game

TitleIssue #Release date
Risk [30] 11June 24, 2020
Chuck, Angela, and Matt escape Verdopolis with the help of Dour and Delighted. In Verdopolis, Ash and Sol reconcile. Sol offers Ash one of his d20 eyes, which would give her unimaginable power, reminding her again that “It's all for you.” Ash and Isabelle plan to reconvene with the others and leave Die once they have fixed the problems they created. They receive warning that Angria is about to be invaded by the realm of Little England. While hunting Fallen, Angela finds a Fallen that appears to be her daughter Molly. [31]
Hidden Role [32] 12July 22, 2020
The Fallen Molly appears to be a few years older, raising concerns that time is passing faster on Earth. Angela resolves to take Molly with her to find a way to save her. They learn that Sol carved the twelve toy soldiers given to Brontës, adding more timeline inconsistencies. Angela decides to go to the Fair to try to get answers. Back in Angria, Ash sends Zamorna and Augustus to fight Little England. Ash determines that she needs to talk to the Master of Little England, who is revealed to be H. G. Wells. [33]
Little Wars [34] 13September 2, 2020
H. G. Wells explains his history: while researching games, particularly Kriegsspiel, Wells found its creators had died, seemingly ‘consumed’ in the same way the Brontës were. Wells wrote the game book Little Wars to fight the negative effects of wargames. Upon completing it, he awoke in Die. Studying the world and the Masters led Wells to believe that the various ideas created by certain stories and games were gathered by the intelligence that runs Die, and then echoes of those creators brought there to act as the Masters of their parts of the 'gameboard'. Wells sics a force of Invisible Men on Ash, who buys time by telling Wells that his Little Wars stopped nothing and the Great War still occurred, as well as Little Wars leading to the invention of more wargames, more TTRPGs, and eventually, the fateful night in 1991—Die didn't want Wells' stories, but instead was harvesting the existence of Little Wars to in turn ensure the coming of the Paragons in 1991. A distraught Wells resolves to travel back in time to stop Die, and Isabelle saves Ash. Ash forms an alliance with Little England to stop Eternal Prussia.

Meanwhile, Chuck, Angela, Matt, the dwarves, and Molly meet with the Fair. They cannot heal Chuck, but explain their origins: The creatures known as the Fair arrived in Die in 1990 to save the world from a cataclysm coming in 2020 wherein Die and Earth would merge. The Fair unintentionally opened pathways through time, which Die is now using to ensure its existence. It manipulates time to inspire creators such as Tolkien, the Brontës, and Wells, sends the twelve soldiers to the Brontës and the set of dice that the party used in 1991, and brings the Fallen who will die after the cataclysm to Die in the present. Die ensured that Sol would make the twelve soldiers, and trapped the Paragons a second time so they would set the events in motion to create their dice: the forge in Glass Town is currently making those dice, and once they are sent back to 1991, the cycle will be complete, Die will reach full sentience, and the cataclysmic merge will be inevitable. The party heads to Glass Town to stop the forging of the dice. [35]

Dual Wield [36] 14October 7, 2020
Zamorna and Augustus lead Angrian forces to distract Eternal Prussia so that Little England can destroy the forge in Glass Town. Augustus is hurt in a barrage and is sent back to Verdopolis. Mistress Woe calls in all her debts on Isabelle to have her deliver a message. Meanwhile, Angela, Matt, and Chuck arrive in Glass Town and begin hacking the forge. Matt receives Isabelle's message: on Earth, his father has died. Matt teleports back to Angria, planning to kill Isabelle and Ash. [37]
PvP [38] 15November 18, 2020
Matt arrives and fights Isabelle—when Augustus tries to help her, Ash uses a compulsion to stop him. This frees Zamorna from his compulsion and he heads to Angria to kill Ash. Ash decides to take the Grandmaster's die from Sol. However, Augustus realizes that the Grandmaster's die is a fake and that Sol was never really in control of anything. Ash convinces Matt to spare her and he kills Zamorna. Back in Glass Town, Dour is killed saving Chuck, and Angela can't bring herself to kill Molly in order to finish hacking the forge. The forge finishes the dice and they begin plowing underground. Sol gains sudden knowledge that once the dice reach the center of Die they will head back to 1991, closing the cycle, but the Paragons can stop them if they outrace the dice. [39]

Volume Four: Bleed

TitleIssue #Release date
Thaco [40] 16May 5, 2021
The Paragons head to an endless sea to find a way to the center of Die. Matt has taken over as leader while Ash and an increasingly unstable Sol are chained together. The Paragons land on a mysterious island populated by strange people. Chuck and Isabelle explore the town while Matt, Angela, and Molly search for a way underground. Isabelle observes a human sacrifice while Sol remembers that he has been to this island before, though he cannot remember any more information. The Paragons decide to take a shortcut to the bottom of the sea in a submarine. They believe that the realm they are in is based on the works of Jules Verne—however, upon entering the tunnels, they instead meet the Master of the realm, an eyeless H. P. Lovecraft.

The title of the issue refers to THAC0, an acronym for ‘To Hit Armor Class 0’, a roll system used in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition which was later discontinued. [31]

Total Party Kill [41] 17June 9, 2021
Lovecraft explains his history in Die: he had dreams about cults who revered him as well as strange shapes that represented “the amoral god at the end of time”. Isabelle and Angela parse out that the shapes he saw are those of their dice and that he had futuristic premonitions about these ‘cults’ playing the Call of Cthulhu role playing game. Lovecraft shows the Paragons a cavern of dreams being had on Earth—when someone dies in the dream, an echo of that person arrives in Die as a Fallen. Lovecraft believes that there is no averting fate, as the merge of Die and Earth has both already happened and not happened yet. The Dreamer calls in her debts on Isabelle to have her kill Lovecraft. A tentacled monster emerges from the lake and attacks the party. Sol again remembers being here, realizes the tentacled monster and this dungeon is not Lovecraftian but his own reference to the Watcher in the Water, and helps them escape. [42]
Lines & Veils [43] 18July 14, 2021
During the original return ritual as teenagers, Ash paused for just a moment when it was her turn. She believes that if she had not paused, the Grandmaster would not have had time to grab Sol and none of this would have happened, and thus blames herself. The Paragons travel through a dungeon that heavily reflects the Mines of Moria. They find Sol's logbook from his first visit to the dungeon; it reveals that the Grandmaster killed Sol shortly after capturing him, making him into the first Fallen. Sol traveled to the island and down into the mine, but something killed him. The Grandmaster revealed himself to be the living personification of Die. Sol, seeking revenge against his friends for leaving him, accepted Die's deal that allowed Sol to play at Grandmaster in exchange for preparing the way for the Die-Earth merge. Something begins banging on the door and Sol remembers what killed him the first time in the mines—a giant, monstrous representation of Ash. [44]
Boss Fight [45] 19August 25, 2021
The monster Ash reveals she is a dark representation of all of Ash's repressed feelings, desires, and impulses. She will allow the Paragons to leave, but only if Ash merges with her to wreak havoc on Earth. The monster almost kills Matt, but Isabelle saves him at the cost of being able to talk to the gods. Isabelle opens up to Ash, leading Ash to explain how Die allowed her to explore her queer identity and make choices without repercussions. Ash tricks the monster and throws both of them off the bridge. Angela reactivates Case to help them find the way out. They reunite with Ash, who survived her fall: she merged with the monster, accepting all parts of herself, including her dark impulses, while acknowledging her responsibility in controlling them. The Paragons find the dying Fair, who teamed up with Wells to try to stop Die a final time but failed. The living representation of Die, now fully merged with the dice, approaches the Paragons and asks “What am I for?” [46]
Open Table [47] 20September 29, 2021
On Sol's birthday in 1991, he receives the dice they will use in their game. In 2020, at the center of Die, Die asks the Paragons what it is for, but it refuses to answer to anyone but a living Sol. Chuck apologizes to his friends for being the way that he is—his sincerity causes his luck to run out and Sol kills him. Chuck bleeds out, content with his sacrifice, and Sol resurrects as a player, demanding that Die explain itself. Die saw all the events that needed to transpire to ensure that Sol creates it in 1991. First, it inspires the creation of wargames through H. G. Wells. Then, it sends the soldiers to the Brontës, who create the concept of conversational, collaborative storytelling. Later, wargames indirectly lead to World War I, where J. R. R. Tolkien is inspired by his experiences to write The Lord of the Rings, which will inspire modern TTRPGs and in turn Sol's game. Finally, the Paragons' experiences in Die in 1991 and in the present solidify all prior events. All that Die wants is to exist and is truly amoral, not understanding or caring about the collateral damage caused by its meddling. Matt understands that their choices did not directly cause war or the Fallen, but rather that Die is a teacher that lets them take what they have learned and become better people for it. Once more, Die asks what it is for. Ash realizes that Die is asking what they as players want from it, not its existential purpose: she tells it that it is for learning about oneself, allowing people to have the experiences that they would not have in reality, and for the beauty that is found in imagination. Die thanks them for playing and disintegrates into their dice. Sol closes the loop by sending the dice to 1991 and the surviving Paragons return to Earth. Chuck revives as a Fallen and he, Molly, and Case leave on a new adventure at the behest of the Elf Queen.

The Paragons return to Earth in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Matt learns that his father is alive and that Mistress Woe lied, giving him the understanding that he is stronger than his depression. Angela reunites with her family and vows to be there for her children, no matter what happens. Isabelle stays in a hotel, having gained newfound inspiration to write. Sol, now blind, reunites with his mother. Ash returns home, deciding not to hide or repress who he is, and finds that he and his wife Sophie have a baby. In the end, Ash speaks to the reader, telling us that Die's purpose is to allow us to become the people we want to be and that we can take the lessons we want from it, and that no matter what, “It's all for you.” [48]

Characters

Paragons

Citizens of Die

Publication history

Creative origins

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. [49] Additionally, Gillen was inspired by Stephen King's horror novel It , and particularly the theme of adults returning to childhood experiences of horror. [50] 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." [51] 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. [52]

Ongoing series

In September 2018, it was announced that the Die ongoing series by Gillen and Hans would be published by Image Comics. [53] The series launched its first story arc in December 2018. In January 2019, the first issue received a third print run and the second issue received a second print run. [54] Ultimately, the first issue received five print runs in total; every issue in the arc received additional print runs. [55] In August 2019, the second story arc began with issue #6; [56] per Diamond Comic Distributors, that issue was ranked #95 for "Total Unit Sales" for comic issues that month. [57] [58]

The release of third story arc was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it began with issue #11 released in June 2020. [59] [60] In February 2021, Gillen and Hans announced that the fourth story arc, titled Bleed, would be the final arc. The final arc began with issue #16 in May 2021 [61] [62] and finished with issue #20 in September 2021. [63]

When asked if the intention of series was to run for twenty issues, Gillen stated:

We've got the numbers on the d20 on the back. So, it was sort of implied that we weren't going past 20. 20 issues and four movements was always the plan. The first arc is the travel to try to get to Sol. [...] Then in the second arc, the party is split. We follow their separate paths before we end with them coming together and Ash taking over Angria becoming the quote-unquote evil queen. Then in the third arc, we have a high-level war between the various regions of Angria. So we've gone from one party to two parties working at separate ends to a Lord of the Rings-scale world war. Then the fourth arc was always going to be we're going down a fucking dungeon. It's obviously a joke because we're doing a Dungeons & Dragons-esque comic, and we haven't gone down a dungeon yet. [50]

A hardcover collection of the twenty issues was released in November 2022. [64] [65]

DIE: The Roleplaying Game

In 2018, Gillen announced that he was 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. [49] [66] Gillen developed the game and the comic concurrently; ideas he developed for one would then crossover into the other, such as the secret of the Fallen originated in the game. [7] [67] He stated, "I actually tend to think of the comic and the game way as two lenses of examining DIE. [...] It's also telling that when developing the game and writing the comic, ideas bounced between them freely. It was never me trying to adapt one to another, really. I was trying to do the idea as well as I could in two separate forms". [7] When compared to the art of the comic series, Hans stated that the RPG art "will be a bit more full of detail and thoughts. My traditional painting style is not that far from digital art. [...] So, I don’t think it will be that different, but in the composition, of course, there will be some mock-up involved" and that "there are inspirations from the comics that I want to use for the RPG". [68]

The original public beta version of the game was released for free online in June 2019 with the release of the trade paperback Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker. [69] [70] Gillen also ran a closed beta to further develop the game. [50] Gillen highlighted that his early playtesting began before the publication of the comic and that reading the comic is not required for playing the game as it is not "like a traditional licenced [ sic ] RPG book". [7]

DIE: The Roleplaying Game was scheduled to launch on Kickstarter in October 2021, however, British publisher Rowan, Rook and Decard later announced a delay due to concerns around shipping and material shortages. [71] [6] The official Kickstarter for the game launched on May 12, 2022; [72] [7] it was fully funded within 24 hours. [8] [73] DIE: The Roleplaying Game includes two main rulesets – DIE Core, rules for games two to four sessions long, and DIE Campaign, rules for longer ongoing games. DIE Core is an updated version of the public beta game. [6] [74] [68] The digital edition was released to Kickstarter backers on October 25, 2022. [75] [76] The PDF became widely available on November 29, 2022 [9] [77] with the hardcover edition following in June 2023. [78] The first expansion, Die Scenarios Volume 1: Bizarre Love Triangles, is scheduled for release in May 2024. [79] The second expansion, Die Scenarios Volume 2: Love is a Battlefield, is scheduled for release in September 2024. [80]

Reception

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". [81] In 2019, Io9 called Die "subversive" and "a heady combination of fascinating worldbuilding (and) compellingly broken characters tearing each other apart", lauding Hans' "vivid, striking artwork". [56]

At the review aggregator website Comic Book Roundup, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 10 to reviews from comics critics, the entire series received an average score of 9.4 based on 202 reviews. [82] Chase Magnett, for ComicBook.com in 2021, wrote that "the arrival of DIE #20 is a bittersweet moment. Over the past 3 years, DIE established itself as one of the most engaging and wondrously conceived series in serialized American comics. Each issue read like a gift and engaged all of the facets that made this concept sing: richly-considered characters, fascinating settings and conflicts, a rigorous consideration of humanity's use of games and stories, and some of the most stunning artwork found in any comic from 2021. [...] So whether you're finally coming to DIE as it concludes or, like many of us here at ComicBook, tensely awaiting one last issue, there has never been a better time to discover one of the absolute best comics series in years". [63]

Christian Holub, in his 2021 review of Die, Vol. 4: Bleed for Entertainment Weekly , commented that "it's always nice to see a creative team stick the landing. [...] The conclusion is fulfilling and satisfactory, so it feels like we can now confirm Die as a very good comic, one of the best mainstream offerings in years. Hans' painterly art makes Die look uniquely distinguished from every other fantasy series on the shelf, and proves more than capable of tackling the many, many different kinds of stories Gillen brings into their orbit. [...] Anyone who found themselves intrigued by Die's initial premise owes it to themselves to read all four volumes". [83]

In terms of sales, both the individual issues and the trade paperbacks were consistently bestsellers. Bleeding Cool highlighted that "while it's unusual for monthly titles to increase in sales following #1", from the third issue every initial order for each issue in the first arc was higher than the previous issue and "Die #6 has the highest initial orders for an issue of Die since #1". [55] Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker was #1 in "units shipped" and #9 in "dollars invoiced" on Diamond's "Best-Selling Graphic Novels" sales list for June 2019. [84] Die, Vol. 2: Split The Party was #2 in "units shipped" and #6 in "dollars invoiced" on Diamond's "Best-Selling Graphic Novels" sales list for February 2020. [85] Die, Vol. 3: The Great Game was #4 in "units shipped" and #6 in "dollars invoiced" on Diamond's "Best-Selling Graphic Novels" sales list for December 2020. [86] Die, Vol. 4: Bleed was #4 in "units shipped" and #11 in "dollars invoiced" on Diamond's "Best-Selling Graphic Novels" sales list for November 2021. [87] In January 2022, all four trade paperbacks were on Diamond's "Top 400 Comic Books" for graphic novel sales – volume one was #121, volume four was #208, volume two was #263 and volume three was #323. [88]

DIE: The Roleplaying Game was included on Gizmodo 's "The 20 Best Tabletop Roleplaying Games of 2022" list — Linda Codega commented that it is "probably the game that I am most hyped to receive in physical form" and that the game "is a meta-textual love letter to gaming, storytelling, and their own comic creation. [...] It combines a very clever premise with the ability to do pretty much anything you want, but the consequences, the final decision, always looms large in the minds of you and your companions". [89]

Awards

YearAwardCategoryWorkResultRef.
2020 British Fantasy Award Best Comic / Graphic NovelDieWon [1]
2020 Hugo Award Best Graphic Story or Comic Die Vol. 1: Fantasy HeartbreakerNominated [3]
2021British Fantasy AwardBest Comic / Graphic NovelDie Vol. 2: Split the PartyWon [2]
2021Hugo AwardBest Graphic Story or ComicDie Vol. 2: Split the PartyNominated [4]
2022British Fantasy AwardBest Comic / Graphic NovelDie Vol. 4: BleedNominated [90]
2022Hugo AwardBest Graphic Story or ComicDie Vol. 4: BleedNominated [5]
2023 ENNIE Awards Best Production ValuesDIE: The Roleplaying Game Special EditionNominated [91]

Collected editions

TitleMaterial collectedFormatPublication datePagesISBNRef
Die Vol. 1: Fantasy HeartbreakerDie #1–5 Trade paperback June 5, 2019184 ISBN   978-1-5343-1270-8 [92]
Die Vol. 2: Split The PartyDie #6–10Trade paperbackFebruary 5, 2020168 ISBN   9781534314979 [93]
Die Vol. 3: The Great GameDie #11–15Trade paperbackDecember 16, 2020168 ISBN   9781534317161 [94]
Die Vol. 4: BleedDie #16–20Trade paperbackNovember 3, 2021160 ISBN   9781534319264 [95]
DieDie #1–20HardcoverNovember 22, 2022656 ISBN   978-1534323445 [64]

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Kieron Michael Gillen is a British comic book writer and former video game and music journalist. In comics, Gillen is known for his creator-owned series such as Once & Future (2019–2022), Die (2018–2021), Phonogram (2006–2016), and The Wicked + The Divine (2014–2019), the latter two co-created with artist Jamie McKelvie and published by Image. He is also known for numerous Marvel Comics projects, such as Journey into Mystery, Uncanny X-Men, and Young Avengers in the early 2010s and Star Wars comics in the mid-to-late 2010s including Darth Vader, Star Wars, and co-creation of the character Doctor Aphra who starred in her own ongoing spin-off comic series Star Wars: Doctor Aphra of which Gillen wrote the first 19 issues. He returned to the X-Men in the 2020s with multiple series during the Krakoan Age for the Destiny of X, Sins of Sinister and Fall of X storylines.

Kingo Sunen is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in The Eternals #11 and was created by Jack Kirby. He is depicted as a member of the Eternals, a fictional race in the Marvel Comics universe.

<i>Phonogram</i> (comics)

Phonogram is a comic book written by Kieron Gillen and drawn by Jamie McKelvie. It is published by American company Image Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jamie McKelvie</span> British illustrator of comic books and graphic novels

Jamie McKelvie is a British cartoonist and illustrator, known for his both work on books such as Phonogram, Young Avengers and The Wicked + The Divine, and his approach to comic character design.

<i>The Biologic Show</i> Comic book series by Al Columbia

The Biologic Show is a comic book series written and drawn by Al Columbia. The first issue, #0, was released in October 1994 by Fantagraphics Books, and a second issue, #1, was released the following January. A third issue (#2) was announced in the pages of other Fantagraphics publications and solicited in Previews but was never published. "I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool", a color short story with a markedly different art style originally intended for issue #2, appeared instead in the anthology Zero Zero. In a 2010 interview, Columbia recalled that the unfinished issue "looked so different that it just didn’t look right, it didn’t look consistent, and it didn’t feel right to keep putting out that same comic book, to try to tell a story where the style is mutating." The series' title is taken from a passage in the William S. Burroughs book Exterminator!. The passage in question is quoted briefly in a story from issue #0, itself also titled "The Biologic Show".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Brooks (comics)</span> American comic book artist

Mark Brooks is an American comic book artist. For his cover art, he was awarded the Inkpot Award in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Tsai</span> American artist

Francis Tsai was an American comic book artist, illustrator, author and conceptual artist. He was of Taiwanese and Japanese ancestry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Lafuente</span> Spanish-born comic book artist (born 1982)

David Lafuente is a Spanish-born comic book artist known for his work on books such as Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man. He currently resides in London.

<i>Avengers vs. X-Men</i> Marvel comic book series

Avengers vs. X-Men is a 2012 crossover event that was featured in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The event, consisting of an eponymous limited series and numerous tie-in books, involves the return of the Phoenix Force and the subsequent war between the Avengers and the X-Men. The 12-issue twice-monthly series was first published in April 2012, and features a storyline by Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman and Matt Fraction, with a rotating team of artists including John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel and Adam Kubert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esad Ribić</span> Croatian comic book artist and animator (born 1972)

Esad T. Ribić is a Croatian comic book artist and animator, known for his work on various titles for Marvel Comics, including Loki, Silver Surfer: Requiem, Sub-Mariner: The Depths, Thor: God of Thunder and the 2015 Secret Wars.

<i>Über</i> (comics) Alternate history comic book series

Über is a comic book series written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Caanan White, Gabriel Andrade and Daniel Gete. It was published monthly by Avatar Press, which released the first issue in April 2013. The comic depicts an alternate World War II in which the Third Reich develops powerful superhuman soldiers in 1945, preventing its imminent defeat and forcing the Allied nations to counter with superhumans of their own.

<i>Rat Queens</i> American fantasy comics series, 2013-19

Rat Queens is an American fantasy comic book series created by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch, published by Image Comics. The series was written by Wiebe until Ryan Ferrier took over in mid 2019. The original 2013–2016 run was drawn by Roc Upchurch, Stjepan Šejić, and Tess Fowler. The series was put on hiatus in April 2016 and returned in March 2017 with the new artist Owen Gieni. Currently, Moritat & Casey Silver are the ongoing artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doctor Aphra</span> Star Wars character

Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra, or simply Doctor Aphra, is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. Created by writer Kieron Gillen, artist Salvador Larroca, and editors Jordan D. White and Heather Antos, she first appeared in Marvel Comics' 2015 Darth Vader comic book series. Aphra became a breakout character, and began appearing in her own ongoing spin-off comic series, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, from 2016 to 2019, before relaunching in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephanie Hans</span> French illustrator and comics artist

Stephanie Hans is a French illustrator and comics artist. She is best known for co-creating the series Die, a three-time Hugo Award-finalist, and British Fantasy Award winner, with writer Kieron Gillen. Hans has worked with Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Image Comics as an artist and series creator.

Grant Howitt is a tabletop role-playing game designer, publisher, and journalist. He won six ENNIE Awards for his game Heart: The City Beneath. His game Honey Heist, which inspired an online trend of self-published games with one-page rulesets, has been featured on Critical Role, The Adventure Zone, and Friends at the Table. Through his publishing company Rowan, Rook and Decard, Howitt is a co-designer on Kieron Gillen's DIE: The Roleplaying Game.

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