D&D comics history part 21 - The Legend of Huma (DDP)

Adapted from the novel by Richard A. Knaak, The Legend of Huma (based on D&D's DragonLance settings) released in 6 issues from jan. 2004 to oct. 2005 by Devil's Due Publishing (and compiled in TPB in 2007) depicts the adventures of Huma Dragonbane, young Knight of Solamnia, who will be later known as hero of the Third Dragon War.

The story takes place around 1300 years before the War of the Lance (events depicted in the famous trilogy "The Dragonlance Chronicles").

The comic is not covering the entire novel, ending in midstream and leading the reader to get the book from Knaak to know the denouement.

Interesting way of getting people to reading heh.

A bunch of artists worked on this serie, and uncommon fact (or not ? -> am not comics specialist heh XD) is that even in the same issue pages can be drawn by different pencillers.
Mike S. Miller worked on issues 1 & 2 and the 12 first pages of 3rd issue in collaboration with Rael Lyra (who will also work on the first 8 pages of 4th issue).
Mike Crowell did the pages 14-17 of 3rd issue and Joe Prado p.13 and p.18-22.
Abdul Rashid drew the pages 9 to 15 of issue 4 and Carlos Paul p.16 to 22.
Issue 5 was done entirely by Andrea Di Vito.
6th and last issue by Steve Kurth. (Who will work on the 2 first volumes of the Dragonlance Chronicles).

 Pages from issues 1 & 2 by Miller & Lyra

 

 Issue 3 - by Prado                              Issue 4 - by Paul

Even if the styles of the artists is obviously different from one to another, the reader doesn t suffer a really brutal visual change from a chapter to another, excepting, imo, the last issue which inking is very pastel compared to the rest of the work.

Issue 6 - by Kurth

I believe that the quality of the serie will convince Hasbro to grant DDP the full D&D license who will allow the publisher to start working on other settings as Forgotten Realms, Eberron or even Ravenloft.

Now, I can t stop wondering on the choice of DDP to adapt this D&D novel amongts the hundreds released.

It s an interesting story, no doubt, and very epic in the end... but having read dozens of D&D novels, I would not consider it as a must-to-read compared to the rest. More, only DragonLance fans would have heard of Huma, which is, in term of sales, a risky adventure DDP decided to undertake... The ways of Devil's due are unpredictable heh...

Anyway, the comic itself is a great realization and marks the evolution of D&D comics line.

o_O

D&D comics history part 23 - Dragonlance Chronicles (DDP)

In parallel of the publication of The Legend of Drizzt, DPP started to release in late 2005 the Dragonlance Chronicles. The story, based on the trilogy of the same name by famous writers Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman is adapted here by Andrew Dabb.

An adaptation of the story in comics has been already done in late 80's under the title "The Dragonlance Saga". But when the DC graphic novels covered the 2 first volumes of the trilogy, DDP fully released the whole story in a total of 24 issues. (that went out with 2 different covers according to DDP policy)

DDP will later release 4 TPB for the whole serie :

Dragons of Autumn Twilight (combining 8 issues), Dragons of Winter Night (4 issues), Dragons of Spring Dawning part 1 (6 issues) and part 2 (6 issues also). 

Note that this serie also will be translated into french and published under TPB by Milady.

First volume is mainly done by Steve Kurth (except the 6th issue by Stefano Raffaele), as well as second one. The visual changes in art from a chapter to another come mainly from the inkers' styles imo. 

 by S.Kurth                                             by S.Raffaele

Then S.Kurth abandoned DDP for Marvel and a bunch of artists were recruited to draw the 2 parts-3rd volume of the serie.

Julius M.Gopez will work on issues 1, 2, 5 & 9, Mariano de la Torre on 3rd one, Pere Perez on issues 4, 6, 8, 10, 11 & 12 and Oscar Jimenez on 7th one.

The styles are very different from an issue to another in the last 2 volumes and

the reader could easily get disappointed jumping from a chapter to the next...

This is obviously the result of DDP's catastrophic money management... Kurth was doing a really great job but noone can t bear a grudge against him to have migrated to better horizons...

by M.De La Torre                       by J.M Gopez                       by P.Perez     

But even, imo, the serie in its whole is still a must-to-have.

I personaly just regret that artists Pere Perez and Mariano De La Torre worked on the serie as their styles, bit too simplistic and far too "clean" compared to other ones do not fit the rest of the work... but well... what has been done s been done heh...

At least DDP managed to finish this trilogy and started the following one : Dragonlance Legends.

O_o

D&D comics history part 22 - The Legend of Drizzt (DDP)

In 2005, DDP (Devil's Due Publishing), who just acquired the D&D license, started publishing comics based on Forgotten Realms settings : The legend of Drizzt.

Book I - VII (TPB) + Book VIII first issue covers

Based on the famous novels written by the even more famous R.A.Salvatore, the comics cover entirely the 2 first trilogies (Homeland, Exile, Sojourn / The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, The Halfling's Gem) and partially the third one (Legacy, Starless Night) depicting the adventures of the drow hero Drizzt Do'Urden.

Due to some extremely bad financial management, DDP has been known for not paying (in time or even at all...) the authors, accumulating a debt of thousands of bucks to the creators. The publisher being unable to fix the situation, WOTC (Hasbro) decided to cancel the agreement they had with DDP in 2008.

As a result, the story ended in the mainstream, after the first issue of book VIII (issue n°22) has been released.

This is a very sad money story (pleonasm ? :P) as DDP's D&D licensed comics are just amazing. Instead of creating new stories based on D&D universe, the authors decided to adapt the most famous D&D novels ever published. As well, they will start in 2006 the adaptation of the excellent Dragonlance Chronicles.
In addition, the artists chosen are more than great.

Andrew Dabb will be in charge of the whole serie's script.
Major artist is Tim Seeley who will work on books 1,2,3,6 and 7 (in collaboration with Rob Atkins on this last volume). Books 4 and 5 will be drawn by Val Semeiks and first issue of book 8 by Juanfran Moyano.

Book II Chapter III             Book IV Chapter I             Book VI Chapter II

The whole serie is really inspired by Tim Seeley's style, which is just excellent and perfectly fitting the settings. The drows and other creatures are beautiful imo - we re far from the 90's novels covers art - the inking too is just perfect.

Plus, a bunch of artists worked on the comics covers. And DDP were releasing 2 different covers for the same issue. (I didn t get all the single comics, unwilling to give away piles of bucks... prefering to buy the TPB versions - the A & B covers arts of each issue being included in the end pages)

Each book (or TPB tho) is a compilation of 3 issues (then called chapters).
Hardcover omnibus (assembling 3 books in 1 - so 9 issues) also exist.

Notice also that this D&D comics serie is the first one ever translated into french ! (that had to be said :P). The french publisher is Milady, which is also in charge of re-editing the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance novels (with new translations and integral text, which was not the case with the previous releases)

This serie is a must-to-have for any Drizzt or Forgotten Realms addict...
And even for those who would have no idea about who is Drizzt or even what is D&D... if you like fantasy & comics, you ll like it.