Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly Roll the Dice with Dungeons & Dragons in Dark Horse’s November Horsepower :: Dark Horse Comics

Every month, Dark Horse Comics gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a comic or book in the Horsepower column which appears in each of our printed comics issues for the month. These articles can include the inspiration behind a specific title, what it’s like to work in the comics industry, or some other special feature on the highlighted title of the month. In this month’s Horsepower, Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly discuss Dungeons & Dragons: 

Ever get offered your dream job and had to play it super cool? We hadn’t. In fact, we are infamously uncool, expressive, excitable guys—so we can’t even really pretend.

But then, Dark Horse called to ask if we’d want to launch an all-new, ongoing Dungeons & Dragons comic.

Thing is: we had just made the choice to actively take less work after a bunch of years at Marvel and Star Trek, and we didn’t want to break that promise just to fulfill a childhood dream. If we were going to take on the project, it would need to be unlike any D&D adventure that had come before. Not a story about a level 6 party in over the heads, but a level 20 party functioning at the apex of their skill. The look would need to be striking and evocative of the beautiful art in the sourcebooks, and we would need to pull from the biggest names in the lore to make a cast so that fans from any corner of D&D—from Red Box OGs to Critters, from the kids at the library reading Forgotten Realms to the gamers dropping 900+ hours into Baldur’s Gate III—could find someone to fall in love with.

Fortunately for us, Dark Horse agreed. So now, thank the gods, we no longer need to play it cool.

How do we feel? We are insanely excited. Dungeons and Dragons is one of the most important games ever made, full stop. It allows you to explore identities beyond the mirror, solve problems with impossible tools, and be brave in ways that real life rarely offers. We regularly play with our friends, our parents, our loved ones, and even the occasional stranger at a convention. The truth is, D&D has been core to our friendship for as long as we can remember—particularly the massive world of the Forgotten Realms—and is a shared language we use daily. Turning that shared obsession into a grand, epic, and original story is nothing short of a dream come true.

What we begin in D&D #1 is a story that will threaten to rip all of Faerûn apart. A draconic apocalypse looms on the horizon, and one man—the archmage Mordenkainen, original player character of D&D cocreator Gary Gygax—sits at the center. He’ll recruit a new party—starting with fan favorites Volothamp Geddarm and Tasha, Witch Queen of Prismeer—to venture into realms unknown, get his magic back, and defeat the most ancient of threats. Oh, and Volo and Tasha? They’re just the first three members of this party; by the end of issue 4, you’ll meet all eight.

With art by the incredible Ibraim Roberson and hand-painted covers by comics legend Esad Ribic, this is a story about heroes who are the very best at what they do, facing against odds that challenge even their capabilities. But most importantly: this is a book for anyone—though these characters are known to the real heads, they’ve barely had any stories actually told about them, making this the perfect entry point for a comics fan who has been D&D curious, but never actually rolled any dice.

This is D&D for people who play every week. This is D&D for folks who’ve never played at all. This is D&D for that kid in his book fort.

This is D&D for you. Welcome to the party.

—Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly

Dungeons & Dragons #1, written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, illustrated by Ibraim Roberson and Arabson Oliveira, colored by Daniel Brown, and lettered by Hayley Rose-Lyon, is now available wherever comics are sold!