Dice Man #1

Mar 1986. £1.45.
68 pages. B&W contents.
IPC Magazines Ltd.

Fantasy Game Special

Edited by Simon Geller.

Painted cover by Glenn Fabry.

Contents:

 2 There are worlds beyond our own... text introduction by Steve Geller; illustrated by Kevin O'Neill.

 4 You Are Judge Dredd House of Death w: T.B. Grover, game design by Pat Mills; a: Bryan Talbot, lettering by Tom Frame.

25 Play in two new world-beating Play-by-Mail games from Mitregames. advertisement.

26 You Are Nemesis the Warlock Torture Tube w:/game design by Pat Mills; a: Kevin O'Neill, lettering by Steve Potter.

45 From the legendary co-creator of THE DUNGEONS & DRAGONS GAME (half page) advertisement for Sagard the Barbarian Gamebook / Alchemy Metal-Wear (half page) advertisement.

46 You Are Slaine Cauldron of Blood w:/game design by Pat Mills; a: David Lloyd, lettering by Gordon Robson.

65 Odyssey (half page) advertisement. / Grenadier Models UK Ltd. (quarter page) advertisement. / Axle says: WHY NOT VISIT THE GUARDROOM (quarter page) advertisement.

66 Rolling Soon next issue information.

67 Forbidden Planet advertisement.

68 Know Then, O Prince.... advertisement.

Fabry's deliciously odd cover, a fantasy melange entirely disconnected from the actual contents, is the perfect way to introduce the concept of a game-based comic title - the yellow background really stands out, especially in this large format. While there is probably a good argument to be made for featuring bankable 2000 A.D. characters for the launch, this speaks to a slightly different audience - one, hopefully, familiar with titles such as Imagine or the Game Master module-magazine-thingamajig.

There are worlds beyond our own... The worlds of if...

If Judge Dredd had been a second slower drawing and firing his gun...
If Slaine had failed to prise open the doorway to doom...
If Nemesis the Warlock had taken that turning too fast in his Blitzspear...

Their worlds - their lives - would have been different. There is only one key to those alternative realities. YOU hold the key... THE DICE. For they control the worlds of IF... the savage, phantom worlds of Dice Man.

Dredd (or the reader/player) drives down Dock Street to Croglin Mansion, parking his Lawmaster to survey the building. A scream from within urges him on to investigate... There are choices to pick from, and here is where the title has an edge over similar choose your adventure publications - unlike the Masters of the Universe book (taking a well known example) this is completely told in comic strip format. It may be a small step, moving from a full-page illustration and a block of text to comic panels, but this provides an important shift in tone. There's more immediacy in the journey.

The point-of-view illustrations are extremely effective, and one has to wonder if the imagery herein played any part in the development of visually similar computer games. There's even a panel (37) which will cause anyone familiar with the Doom franchise to smile, so familiar is it, alongside callbacks to 2000 A.D. strips ("Gaze into the face of fear!" makes an appearance). This is groundbreaking work which has been largely ignored in the intervening years, and it is well worth revisiting.

There is no let-up in pace with Nemesis the Warlock, as Torquemada has captured Purity Brown and is enacting his Edgar Allan Poe fantasies with her. Well, the PG-rated ones, at any rate. With Torquemada threatening to kill Purity at the stroke of midnight, there is an urgency to the story which feels more essential than in Dredd's adventure - this isn't merely a job to be undertaken, but a mission to save a character we like. O'Neill gives this strip everything he's got, and the level of detail worked into the main characters is astonishing.

This strip, unfortunately, encourages players to mark their speed on the images, so... Yeah. There's an unholy amount of blue and black ink in my copy, along with (for some reason) three highlighter colours.

Thank you, Mr. Mills.

The view from inside the Blitzspear is phenomenally cool, and makes me hunger for a racing game based on this story, especially if we are treated to scenes like panel 42, which may be the ickiest thing O'Neill has ever drawn. What the hell is that coming out of Nemesis' eye? Actually, scratch that. I probably don't want to know.

I'm not sure what, exactly, I was expecting from Sláine's story, but Cauldron of Blood is far, far better than anything I could have imagined.

You are the legendary Warped Warrior - a Celtic Berserker who fights with the strength of ten men. YOU are about to begin a new and dangerous quest...

To steal the mystic CAULDRON OF BLOOD from the Tower of Glass.

The evil Drune Lord SLOUGH GRUNSGUL rules the Tower, which is guarded by hideous monsters like the MAGACH - the Beast with a Hundred Heads.

The cauldron is the source of Grunsgul's power.

There's plenty of humour, horror, and genuine drama in the journey through the tower, with certain panels (16, in particular - a photograph) instantly familiar despite not having looked at the issue in nearly twenty years.

Quality paperstock make this infinitely better looking than the parent publication, though the contents were, perhaps, a tad ahead of their time. Worth seeking out for the artwork alone, yet by investing a little time in the games you will appreciate how good the contributors are. Brilliant and a little bit mad.

One of the best comic launches of the 80s.