First Second Announces ‘Adventure Zone’ Graphic Novel With Artist Carey Pietsch

If you're not familiar with The Adventure Zone already, then folks, I have some good news: you have over fifty episodes of one of the best, funniest, and most thrilling ongoing narrative podcasts in front of you to listen to, which is something you should start doing immediately if not sooner. It's an actual-play Dungeons & Dragons podcast from brothers Griffin, Travis, and Justin McElroy (of the My Brother, My Brother And Me podcast) and their father Clint that follows the adventures of a party of fantasy goofballs trying to protect the world from powerfully destructive magic.

If you are familiar with The Adventure Zone, then I have some even better news: First Second has announced that it will publish a graphic novel adaptation of TAZ's first arc, "Here There Be Gerblins," from artist Carey Pietsch, and it looks like it's going to be amazing.

Pietsch has previously worked on The Adventure Zine, a collection of art that she co-organized with Megan Raley as a tribute to the show, and a fundraising benefit for Facing Hunger, a charity based in the McElroys' hometown of Huntington, West Virginia. Her art in that book, featured at the top of this post, captured the spirit of the podcast pretty perfectly, and the sequential pages already released by First Second are set to do the same.

The graphic novel will follow the first arc of the podcast, as Magnus Burnsides (a human fighter played by Travis), Merle Highchurch (a dwarven cleric of Pan played by Clint), and Taako (an elf sorcerer/chef played by Justin) delve into a dungeon adventure run by Griffin that's full of goblins and a guy named Magic Brian. Their mission is to rescue a dwarf named Barry Bluejeans, but along the way they find themselves face-to-face with an artifact of incredible power and a whole new mission in life. While a definite release date has not yet been set for the OGN, it's been announced for 2017. So, you know, you still have time to catch up on the archives.

For more of Pietsch's art for the series, check out the announcement at Nerdist.