Not Quite A Review of ‘Die #20’

Writer: Kieron Gillen / Artist: Stephanie Hans / Image Before talking about Die #20, let me recap how we got here. 2019 At the tail end of 2018, writer Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, letterer Clayton Cowles, designer Rian Hughes, and editor Chrissy Williams let Die out into the world. Called “Goth Jumanji,” the comic is a tour de force of speculative fiction that asks a single question: why do we play tabletop role playing games?

Each issue of Die, past the inaugural issue, opened with a chapter title, brief synopsis, and a character sheet that reminded the reader of the party. Die was a fantasy world with very specific rules governing the world. Each of the characters had very specific powers, and each issue was an invitation to get deeper into the world and understand the lore behind the game. Familiar archetypes were bent and broken. Tropes were tinkered, toyed, and utterly dismantled. Die became a fascinating parallel deconstruction and construction of the world, an elaborate web of literary and historical allusion that captivated me and my friends. Hans’s artwork was incredible. Gillen’s writing was suberb. And my love for the series was cemented when Gillen also released an actual Die RPG beta that I was fortunate enough to run a mini-campaign with my friends where I assumed the mantle of Grandmaster. 2020 The first quarter of 2020 was normal until I was hospitalized in February due to a medical condition that has since been managed. One of the consequences of my hos…