In a age when superhero comics reign supreme, the biggest surprise of the last year in comics publishing was the debut of a weird little fantasy graphic novel called The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins at number one The New York Times bestseller list.

Or at least, it was surprising to anyone who has never heard of the beloved podcast the book is based on, or has never used Tumblr, or has never spent any time in online fandom circles for the past three or four years. For the rest of us, it only made sense: few such homegrown entertainment properties have garnered such adoration as this quirky, oddball show in which three brothers—veteran podcasters Griffin, Justin, and Travis McElroy—play a game of Dungeons and Dragons with their dad Clint and record the results. The graphic novel adaptation—co-written by the McElroys with artist/writer Carey Pietsch—proved to be an incredibly faithful extension of the podcast that also works incredibly well even if you’ve never heard a minute of it.

But of course, you know all that already. (If you didn’t, read this, and then listen to the show, and then pick up a copy of the B&N exclusive edition of Here There Be Gerblins, not necessarily in that order.) What you’re interested in is finding out what extra goodies will be included in the B&N edition of the next graphic novel, based on the second arc of the podcast’s Balance campaign, Murder on the Rockport Limited, due out this summer.

Well, friends, here’s what’s on offer in Volume Two: another variant gold foil cover and four collectible, foil-stamped Bureau of Balance trading cards!

Carey Pietsch has created two-sided trading cards (complete with stats!) for Tres Horny Boys—Taako, Magnus, and Merle—and good, good boy detective Angus McDonald, and we’re showing you all of them today. Just keep scrolling past the official summary. And don’t forget to preorder the B&N exclusive edition of The Adventure Zone: Murder of the Rockport Limited, out July 16, 2019!

In the second Adventure Zone graphic novel (adapted from the McElroy family’s wildly popular D&D podcast), we rejoin hero-adjacent sort-of-comrades-in-arms Taako, Magnus, and Merle on a wild careen through a D&D railroad murder mystery. This installment has a little of everything: a genius child detective, an axe-wielding professional wrestler, a surly wizard, cursed magical artifacts, and a pair of meat monsters. You know, the usual things you find on a train. Hot on the heels of The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins, the smash hit graphic novel that launched the series, Murder on the Rockport Limited picks up the saga where volume 1 left off. Both books are based on The Adventure Zone, a tabletop RPG comedy podcast with downloads numbering in the tens of millions and an army of passionately devoted fans. With art and co-adaptation from Carey Pietsch, the McElroys are once again turning their raucous freewheeling D&D campaign into some damn fine comics.



Preorder the B&N exclusive edition of The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited! now.