THE WICKED + THE DIVINE writer KIERON GILLEN teams up with artist supernova STEPHANIE HANS (THE WICKED + THE DIVINE 1831, Journey Into Mystery) for her first ongoing comic! DIE is a pitch-black fantasy where a group of forty-something adults have to deal with the returning unearthly horror they barely survived as teenage role-players. If Kieron’s in a rush, he describes it as “Goth Jumanji.” That only captures a sliver of what you’ll find in oversized debut issue—where fantasy gets all too real.

"FANTASY HEARTBREAKER," Part Two Remember last time, when we said "Goth Jumanji?" As the bleak, austere fantasy-horror ramps up, we start underlining the word "Goth" in black marker until we cut a hole through the page.

“FANTASY HEARTBREAKER,” Part Three One of the saddest comics in Kieron’s career. One of Stephanie’s prettiest. Clayton’s lettering, of course, remains impeccable.

“FANTASY HEARTBREAKER,” Part Four Our heroes reach the civilization of Glass Town and do what heroes have always done upon reaching civilization. As in, go to the pub. As it’s DIE, you can guess people don’t exactly get happy drunk.

“FANTASY HEARTBREAKER,” Conclusion It was never going to be okay. Wait, wrong book.

“SPLIT THE PARTY,” Part One Forget escaping Die—half of our heroes can’t even escape the remains of shattered Glass Town. Is there any way out? Of course there is. It’s just whether or not you can pay the price. Jump aboard the commercial smash series here!

“SPLIT THE PARTY,” Part Two The rest of our heroes have to march the survivors of Glass Town across the featureless Expanse, led by contrite Isabelle and never-contrite-in-his-whole-life Chuck. But is there more than meets the eye here? Like a secret door? Or a soul?

“SPLIT THE PARTY,” Part Three The endless social whirl of the popular unpopular kids in Angria threatens to ensnare the party. Mistakes have grown in their absence. Have our heroes?

“SPLIT THE PARTY,” Part Four Forget escaping DIE. You can’t do that without escaping the prison, with your worst enemy and the first woman who ever gazed upon this plane with human eyes.

“SPLIT THE PARTY,” Conclusion Forget escaping DIE.

“THE GREAT GAME,” Part One Half the party is ruling a whole empire. The other half is on the run. Neither has it easy. There is nothing easy in this game, especially when the stakes get shockingly real. The most epic arc of DIE begins as it means to go on: messily. “A deliciously dark Phantom Tollbooth-like journey told through a lens of broken humanity and a deconstruction of the role-playing game’s roots. I am entranced.” —Matthew Mercer (Critical Role) “Wonderfully nerdy and emotionally complicated and…utterly beautiful.” —The Hollywood Reporter

“THE GREAT GAME,” Part Two Designer Sid Meier described games as a series of interesting decisions. “May you live in interesting times” is a curse. Both things are true, and both are true here.

“THE GREAT GAME,” Part Three “War isn’t a game” seems obvious. Let one of DIE’s most aggressive masters explain: i) why that isn’t true ii) that war being a game only makes it worse. Can our heroes save the world? Can they save anything?

"THE GREAT GAME," Part Four "Hey, Stephanie, shall we do DIE’s take on the big battles in Return of the King?" "Sure thing, Kieron. Can you add some big emotional messy beats to the visual splendor?" "Sure thing!"

"THE GREAT GAME,” Part Five The Great Game ends. The board is flipped. The pieces go to pieces. Can anyone play on?

The DIE RPG is written by Kieron and allows to make your own version of the first arc of your series, played between two and four sessions. This release consists of three parts, the two core of which have been released. The Manual: Everything you need to know to play. The Handouts: Includes all the character sheets (both full and light) and the material for the Gamesmaster. The Arcana: weird stuff and supplementary material. Not yet available. Expect around the start of the next arc. This an early version by a gleeful amateur. It’s about DIE the situation rather than the specifics of DIE. As in, you generate a group of real world people, who then sit down to play a role-playing game, before getting dragged into a fantasy world. Yes, it’s a little Meta. One of the playtesters described it as a manual of how to make your own Kieron Gillen-esque story, which I quite like. There’s a lot of me trying to explain how stories work, and how DIE works specifically. That means I suspect some of it will be interesting to folks who have no interest in RPGs at all. There are also at least three funny jokes.

In the nineties, six teenagers disappeared into a fantasy role-playing game. Only five returned. Nearly thirty years later, these broken adults are dragged back to discover the game isn't finished with them yet. Kieron Gillen (The Wicked + the Divine) and Stephanie Hans (Journey Into Mystery)'s award-winning, critical hit series is collected in a single, beautiful, oversized hardcover volume. Collects DIE Volumes #1-4; issues #1-20.