I've been excited about this book ever since it was announced and was delighted to get to hear Travis McElroy, Clint McElroy and Carey Pietsch talk about it's creation on a panel at SDCC. One of the early decisions they had to make was: Would they include only Taako, Merle and Magnus as the characters or would they include Taako, Justin, Merle, Clint, Magnus AND Travis as characters? Would Griffin's voice only be included in narration or would he appear as a character? I think they made the right choice in having Griffin, as an outside the narrative DM, interact with Taako, Merle and Magnus directly. It does mean though that a lot of the dialogue especially in the first half of the book is newly written, to incorporate character traits that the McElroy family had not yet developed for their characters in the first few episodes. Taako is interested in cooking from page 1, Merle has a connection to the beach, and Magnus is already carving ducks. They worked very hard to make this story accessible to people who haven't listened to the podcast and I think they succeeded. For people who have listened to the podcast, lines taken directly from it will sparkle with extra emotional resonance. Carey Pietsch's art shines especially in character expressions and on pages that give new vistas to the world. The moon base is far more fleshed out than I'd previously imagined it, and the fiery destruction of the town is terrible and heartbreaking. I love that she's paid attention to some fanart canons, such as portraying Lucretia and Johann as people of color, and the over the top design of Magic Brian. I practically cheered with Taako picked up the Umbra Staff and Merle first cast Zone of Truth. At the moment I still love the podcast a little more than the comic book version of this story, but I think the comics will only get better and better as the series goes along and the secondary cast is introduced. I already can't wait for book 2!