Dungeons & Dragons: Fortune Finder #1 Review

 

Writer: Jim Zub

Artist: Jose Jaro

Colorist: Adam Guzowski

Letterer: Amauri Osorio

Cover Artists: Max Dunbar & Sebastian Cheng; Jose Jaro & Adam Guzowski; Carlos López

Publisher: IDW

Price: $3.99

Release Date: 11/15/23

 

An elf wakes up by a shelf. The cook in the Hooded Lantern Tavern doesn't take kindly to people emerging from her closet, so her patrons decide a little questioning is in order. Who is the elf, and what kind of trouble has he fallen into? Let’s roll the dice, open Dungeons & Dragons: Fortune Finder #1, and find out!

 

Story

Jim Zub’s story follows an amnesiac lost in Sigil. It’s a fun city to visit--filled with magical beings and portals to other realms--as our amnesiac elf will discover. If he can evade the drinkers menacing him with their weapons, that is! Jim’s elf may have lost his memory, but he remembers his ironic name. Finder may have a slow mind, but the elf has fast reflexes and nimble feet. Jim mines the inherent humor in Finder's situation as the elf makes a friend, discovers the wonders of Sigil, and stumbles into danger. Is Finder a musician, an adventurer, or a fool? If only the elf could remember!

 

Jim’s story draws inspiration from the new sourcebook Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse. But even if you’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, you’ll enjoy Dungeons & Dragons: Fortune Finder #1. It’s an easygoing story that explains the city in simple terms and introduces a colorful cast. Two memorable characters include Notitia Never-Lost--who agrees to help Finder for a price--and Protitch, who claims to be his partner. As Jim's tale begins with danger, it ends with a threat to Finder's life. But in those final panels, Jim plants the seed of an intriguing mystery while uprooting a potential clue to Finder’s identity and how he arrived in Sigil.

 

 

Art

Tavern patrons come in all shapes and sizes, including one who looks like a lizard or a dinosaur. Once Finder leaves the Hooded Lantern, he encounters a medieval town. Buildings showcase different architectural styles, and streets suggest Sigil perches on a hillside. Jose Jaro populates this interdimensional city with warriors, demons, gods, dwarves, and an angelic deva who sips coffee from a china cup.

 

Adam Guzowski loads his palette with a spectrum of soft and appealing colors in Dungeons & Dragons: Fortune Finder #1. Foreground characters are colored lavender, buildings in beiges and tans, while pink tinges the air and birds-eye views. Characters stand out with vivid clarity in this magical realm, and nothing that happens in the dusty streets gets lost in gray. 

 

 

 

Amauri Osorio places uppercase black letters in white dialogue balloons. Although the letters are thin, they’re large and rarely shrink. They frequently get italicized and grow bold for inflection. Amauri occasionally throws in a sound effect or gives a character white dialogue in a black balloon in Dungeons & Dragons: Fortune Finder #1. Amauri also reveals the elf's thoughts on strips of tan parchment.

 

 

Final Thoughts

Not for the faint of funny bone, Dungeons & Dragons: Fortune Finder #1 follows a mindwiped elf and a short girl with a big staff (and even bigger personality) through Sigil, a transit hub bursting with beings from any world readers might care to visit, and perhaps a few they wouldn’t!

 

Rating 9.2/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Sheldon Cooper Loves Trains

While Sheldon Cooper on "The Big Bang Theory" is incredibly smart, he’s still childlike in many ways.  When his friend Leonard hosts a Christmas-themed Dungeons & Dragons night, Sheldon ruins the game by locking up Santa Claus and throwing away the key.  It seems that one year Sheldon asked Santa to resurrect a loved one, and when this didn’t happen, he held a grudge that he’s never relinquished.

It thus comes as a shock to him when Santa appears in his living room.  Despite his hateful actions, Sheldon nonetheless expects Santa to give him something he’d really like.  His eyes light up at the thought that Santa might give him a train set.  They blaze when he thinks that Santa might even go further, and give him two or three.  Instead, Santa repays his hurtful act by lighting a canon and blowing Sheldon away.  Even in our dreams, it seems that justice still rules.

Often, the limitations of those around me bother me more than my own.  I find myself surrounded by people who speak or act unkindly, show less sensitivity toward my needs than they could, or display no desire to repay the  kindnesses I have bestowed on them.  I know, to a certain extent, that this is merely justice repaying my own past unkindnesses, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity.  Yet it can be so easy to excuse my own limitations, while blaming others for theirs. 

As Stephen R. Covey said in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I can choose to act, or be acted upon.  I can choose to model myself on the person I wish to be, or I can allow others’ defects and limitations to define me.  I know who I want to be: giving, caring, and forward-looking.  I do not wish my actions to be dictated by previous injustices, but empowered by the ideals I wish to embody, and the world I desire to inhabit. 

In "The Big Bang Theory," Sheldon Cooper doesn’t engage in friendships so much as he forges contracts defining acceptable actions and behaviors with those in his life.  In this way, he limits the actions of others, while maximizing his own freedom.  Should a friend or roommate violate such an agreement, this will allow Sheldon to perpetrate any act of nastiness or cruelty necessary to correct the other’s behavior, and thus realign the scales of justice. 

Although it may not have been my intention, I know that at times my words, deeds, or perhaps even my lack of action have hurt and disappointed others.  So I can understand when others repay my evil with their own.  That’s bottom-line Human interaction: "An eye for an eye."  Often I find myself viewing and interacting with others in such basic terms.  But on the whole, I aspire to mature beyond such a childlike mindset, to be more adult than that, to trade in mercy and grace rather than justice. 

To give others trains, even if they don’t deserve them.

Dragon Dave

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