Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves—The Feast of the Moon Official Movie Prequel Comic
The opening of the new Dungeons & Dragons movie is still weeks away, but D&D has published a number of books ahead of the release day to whet our appetite, including a prequel comic book.
The comic book published by IDW was released as a trade paperback instead of a monthly limited series. It tells an earlier story in the lives of the main protagonists of the movie, Edgin the Bard, Holga the barbarian, Simon the Sorcerer, Forge the rogue and Edgin’s daughter, Kira. There is also a backup story that leads directly into the plot of the movie featuring the paladin, Xenk.
The book is also packed with extra features, including some 3D character portraits of the main characters, stills from the movie, pictures of some of the props used in the movie and a quick breakdown of the comic book’s creative process, from script to lettering.
All in all, this is a very interesting book for D&D players and moviegoers looking forward to the release of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves in movie theatres.
We’ve been spoiled when it comes to D&D comics over the past few years with the numerous Baldur’s Gate series, the two Rick & Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons series and several other series. Those are very tough acts to follow. The art and storytelling of these previous books have set the bar very high. Eduardo Ferigato’s pencil and Paulo Santos’ ink (with colors by Patricio Delpeche assisted by Agustina Vallejo) may not capture the same cinematically grandiose art of Max Dunbar (Infernal Tides) and Netho Diaz’s (Frost Giant’s Fury), but they do tell the story well. If you’re looking for characters that look like their movie star counterparts, you’ll be disappointed, but that seems to be a tendency in movie adaptations in comics. The art focuses more on the story than on providing likenesses of Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and the rest of the cast.
My favorite scene is the encounter with the dracolich and the following escape in a mining cart reminiscent of a similar scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Despite its artistic simplicity, the art does manage to capture the action scene as well as the awesome presence of the dracolich and the fear it evokes.
Storywise, this book is interesting because of the additional depth it provides to the main characters. When the movie comes out at the end of March, anyone who has read this comic book will know the characters that much better. They’ll know about Holga’s favorite food, and more importantly, they’ll know about the divide between Edgin and Forge that leads them to become adversaries in the movie.
I was somewhat disappointed in the rushed ending, however. The heroes stir up the dracolich’s nest, fail to kill it, and the story concludes that the dracolich will simply leave town and not seek retribution. Seems highly unlikely, as if the storytellers had run out of pages to tell a more stimulating story with a more climatic end.
The book also features a solo adventure of paladin Xenk, a character that the main protagonists will encounter later in the upcoming movie. This story is interesting because it ties directly into the plot of the movie. It tells the story of Xenk’s effort to hide the Helm of Disjunction, a powerful magical item that must not fall into evil hands. It is a MacGuffin that the heroes seek to retrieve to combat the antagonists in the movie. It is a very short but very interesting story that’s a good primer for the upcoming movie.
All in all, this prequel comic is a great addition to any D&D comic book fan’s collection. Along with the two prequel novels, it’s a good introduction to the movie that allows us to get to know the characters a little better before seeing the movie. While some might think this is another way to monetize the movie, many D&D fans will actually enjoy being able to follow the heroes’ adventures in many different formats.
Title: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves—The Feast of the Moon Official Movie Prequel Comic
Writers: Jeremy Lambert
Artist: Edouardo Ferigato (pencils), Paulo Santos (inks), Patricio Delpeche (colors), Agustina Vallejo (color assists)
Publishers: IDW
Format: Trade paperback
# of pages: 96 pages
Release date: Available now
About the Author
Jules-Pierre Malartre Jules-Pierre Malartre currently resides in Rigaud, Quebec, which is cold enough to save him from big-ass spiders, but as close to The Great White North that he will ever dare go. In 2005, he quit a promising aerospace engineering career to go into freelance copywriting. Since then, he has become considerably poorer, but much happier. When he is not writing technical manuals, newspaper articles or online features, he is busy working on his first novel. His first short story, “The Rest Was Easy,” was published by the online literary magazine Amarillo Bay in 2013.
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