Adventuregame Comics: Leviathan

A dozen years ago, Abrams published Jason Shiga’s Meanwhile, a choose your own path comic about a boy in a mad scientist’s lab. I’d seen Shiga’s comics in their self-published forms, but this was bringing it to bookstores and wider distribution.

Now, released earlier this year, there’s finally another volume. Adventuregame Comics: Leviathan sets the reader up as an adventurer seeking a mysterious wizard to gain a wand to defeat a sea monster. You may satisfy your quest or wind up trapped on a deserted island.

I had been anticipating this, as I enjoy game comics, but I found it disappointing. There’s an awful lot of waiting or wandering around, with relatively few puzzles or involving elements. The plot is minimal and it lacks humor or a sense of fun. Perhaps I’d be more used to it if I had played DnD or similar games, but I prefer more opportunities to make choices that make a difference.

The art is Shiga’s typical style, which has detail, but all the figures look like overstuffed stick figures, with flat images and round heads. It’s quite distinctive and suits the game feeling, as it reminds me of moving dolls around. (The publisher provided a review copy.)