In the ensuing brouhaha, the spaceship takes off with its old crew joined accidentally by Kirstig and a number of other 'stowaways'.Ī solid introduction to the series, with slightly too many characters to keep track of and Kesel taking the rather disappointing approach that when magic is cast, all the spellcaster does is say the name of the spell (e.g. The caravan, which has dragged the spaceship along with it, soon reaches water and that's when trouble begins as the moody scout, Thrar, accuses one of the ship crew, Pax, of trying to steal Kirstig away from him. This segment also allows for some namechecking of other familiar Dungeons & Dragons worlds and places - such as Krynn and Waterdeep - and some well-known monsters ( ie. The ship's crew is a miss-matched bunch from several worlds and this provides Kesel with a good opportunity to info dump the nature of "spelljamming" on the reader - and the natives. In an almost Hitchcockian way writer Barabra Kesel then switches the focus of the story to the inhabitants of the ship - although a sub-plot involving an unpleasant scout trying to emotionally blackmail Kirstig into marriage does return towards the end of the issue. Plot & Review: The narrative begins with cleric Kirstig leading a caravan of her tribe across the desert of a nameless world, looking for a new homeland, when they stumble upon a downed Spelljammer ship - which they mistake for an exotic but abandoned building. Spelljammer (issue 1) - Journey's Song, Kirstig's TaleĬreators: Barbara Kesel (writer), Michael Collins (penciller), Dan Panosian (inker) Oh, and there's rumours of the Wizards Of The Coast community forums that Spelljammer is coming back as a game setting for 4e in 2011.Īs part of a cross-blog endeavor to promote lesser known comic book titles ( entitled Read This Too), I am beginning my issue-by-issue review of the Spelljammer title today - and will hopefully stick to a weekly schedule to cover all 15 issues of this odd, little title before moving onto other Dungeons & Dragons comics. The company also has plans for a Forgotten Realms comic later in 2011, although I suspect that may depend on sales of the initial brace of titles.
The latest company is IDW which is bringing out a Dungeons & Dragons title in November ( based off of the 4th Edition of the game) and then a Dark Sun title in the new year ( set in the popular campaign world of that name). Several smaller companies have produced Dungeons & Dragons comics since the DC era ( including Kenzer & Co and Devil's Due). Of course, Dungeons & Dragons has a tradition of mixing sci-fi with fantasy as many of its originators sought their inspiration in the pulpy sword-and-sorcery tales of the '30s and '40s, rather than Tolkien's high fantasy oeuvre ( just look at the Blackmoor, Arduin or Tekumel campaigns). As a game setting it was always rather controversial, with many players objecting to the mingling of science-fiction elements into their 'straight' fantasy settings and many of the alien races were rather comical ( hippopotami in Victorian naval costumes and giant hamsters being the ones using held up for ridicule).
However, in retrospect, the Spelljammer title was a bit of a strange choice.
#2ED SPELLJAMMER SHIP CONSTRUCTION PLUS#
The main Advanced Dungeons & Dragons title ran for 36 issues ( plus an annual), while other titles concentrated on popular settings like The Forgotten Realms (25 issues) and Dragonlance (34 issues). At the height of Dungeons & Dragons' popularity in the late 1980s, TSR - then publishers of the game - made a deal with DC Comics to produce a variety of D&D themed comics.