Pathfinder is a new comic series from Dynamite Entertainment and tabletop role-playing game maker Paizo Publishing. This series follows a group of adventurer-seekers as they seek out a source of evil causing trouble in the forest, and end up finding much more than they bargained for. Sounds like your typical fantasy story, filled with danger and daring heroes. That is probably what everyone expected when Paizo decided to make their incredibly popular role-playing game into a comic. Then, they hired Jim Zub of Skullkickers fame and Andrew Huerta, and what they got was anything but typical.

This is a world where nothing is as it seems. The brave soldier is really a curmudgeonly drunk with a terrible past, powerful magic comes at a terrible price, and the villains are prepared to break as many skulls as they need to in order to remake the world in their image.

Jim Zub has taken the immense world of Pathfinder and found the perfect way to tell its story. Through the eyes of its incredibly interesting and very flawed heroes. His writing is crisp, his characters are authentic, and the world is a gritty and dark place in need of heroes. Andrew Huerta’s art is awesome. He brings a sense of movement and energy to the comic page. His battle scenes feel brutal and painful, his monsters are terrifying, and his magic spells and the people wielding them are awe-inspiring.

This comic series is everything I could ask for in a fantasy comic. Whether you know the game or not, you will be swept up by this rich world, awesome characters, and intriguing quest. The first 6 issues are in comic shops now, and the graphic novel, Dark Waters Rising, will be hitting shelves in late April/early May. The best compliment I can give to this comic is that it immediately made me want to go out and play the game again. I am currently writing a new adventure and getting the gang back together to roll some dice.

4.5 Goblins out 5 – Because I really just wanted to cut one goblin in half.