The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited! (The Adventure Zone, 2) Hardcover – VHS, July 16, 2019

It's always such a delight to pick up one of these comics. I'm a HUGE fan of the Adventure Zone podcast (and the McElroys in general) so I would support even if these adaptations weren't amazing, hilarious, and gorgeous to boot. The best part of the graphic novels is that it takes what made an amazing podcast and somehow distills it and cleans it up to make a story that is a little different but so true to the original vision and, I cannot stress this enough, SO FUNNY. The McElroys and Carey Pietsch are very much in tune to what makes their content enjoyable, I highly recommend this to both devout followers of all the McElroy family of products and also people who just like comics or tabletop RPGs in general.5/5 stars, easy.

Listened to The Adventure Zone? Had trouble deciding who you want to marry because they all sound like either a 30-something man or an elderly radio personality? Say no more! This audio-free experience allows you to enjoy Elf Man, Short Mormon, Buff Lumberjack, Slice-and-Dice Orc, Boyhood Nancy Drew, and more in stunning technicolor!The build quality on this sucker is great, same as the first volume. Art has somehow gone from God-tier to ultra God-tier. I can still hear Griffin's stupid laugh off in the distance as I read, and the fan art section brings me immense joy. 10/10 highly recommend to purchase.

Just got the book a couple of hours ago and I devoured it. Definitely going to go back and read through more carefully soon. It’s such an excellent adaptation of one of my favorite arcs from the podcast. Anyone who enjoys The Adventure Zone will absolutely love this. There are so many little details, facial expressions, sideways glances that add nuance to the story. I want to make a compilation of every time Taako looks at Merle in a fond but exasperated way or Magnus lights up with a new idea for solving the mystery. This also does a great job of hinting at some of the larger plot points to come. Lucretia in particular is much more fleshed out and there’s a few bonus scenes or slight changes that up the emotional stakes in a really effective way. Also Jenkins is my absolute favorite and he’s perfect here. The boys, Clint and Carey have created something truly special again!

Last year, The Adventure Zone - an RPG podcast hosted by the McElroy brothers and their dad, and my favorite podcast in the world -  made the jump from the audio medium into the world of graphic novels, adapting the first arc of the Balance campaign into the bestselling Here There Be Gerblins. Against all odds, Gerblins was a blast, capturing the goofy spirit of the show while also truly adapting an audio-only, collaborative project into something more streamlined and even coherent. And if there were some little bumps along the way in that adaptation, well, Gerblins was the first arc of the show, and had its own issues, so that was to be expected a bit.Now comes the second volume of the adaptation, Murder on the Rockport Limited, which finds our brave adventurers infiltrating a train under false pretenses and attempting to not only find a missing artifact, but also solve a murder - or should that be murders, plural? - along the way. It was the first arc of the show that was all truly the McElroys, as Griffin (the DM) made his own story and the rest of the crew started to truly get into their characters, resulting in one of the funniest arcs of the show, as well as introducing some iconic characters for the whole series.The graphic novel adaptation of Rockport is every bit as good, embracing both the podcast's jump in quality and the larger sense of the Balance Arc, and finding a great balance between both. While Gerblins occasionally felt like great bits were cut out of the adaptation (understandably, given how tangential they often felt), Rockport feels like it's much more able to retain a lot of the anarchy of the original series, from the ruthless mocking of a wizardly train attendant to the unexpected appearance of a beloved hotel spokesman to the odd dynamic that arises when three grown men bully an adorable young boy. Having just re-listened to Rockport recently, I can say that this adaptation absolutely captures the spirit of the original story, bringing out the humor of the characters and the McElroy sensibility, all while still making it fit more into the larger shape of the Balance campaign saga. (This last component is in some ways the most interesting thing about the book from the perspective of a TAZ fan, as it allows the story to start bringing out the emotional beats that make all the goofs so special, but they're hard to talk about in a spoiler-free review.)I can't tell you how you'll feel about Rockport if you're not already a TAZ fan. Is it accessible to non-fans? Will it make sense if you don't already love this story? Will you appreciate the cavalcade of in-jokes from MBMBaM and TAZ tossed into the background by artist Carey Pietsch? (Okay, definitely not the last one, but trust me, they're there, and only add to the evidence of how great of a choice Pietsch is for this project.) But as a long-time fan of the series, Rockport is a ton of fun to read, bringing the arc to life, but more importantly, capturing the spirit of it all wonderfully, and conveying the fun and silliness - and the stakes! - of what the McElroys created.

The illustrations are perfect, I love seeing one of my favorite podcasts put into a different medium! I loved the recap vision board at the beginning, I spent 5 minutes just combing through that before I even started reading. The storyline is very neat, and everything really comes through. It's everything I'd hoped for. Can't wait for book 3!

The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited! is the second graphic novel based on the McElroy families wonderful D&D podcast The Adventure Zone. This book sees Tres Horny Boys throw off the traditional fantasy D&D dungeon crawling story for something straight out of a murder mystery novel.Don't take that as a bad thing because if anything Murder on the Rockport Limited! improves on the first book. While the first book was great for the fans, the podcast was in it's teenage experimental phase which may have made the story a little looser and harder to follow for the uninitiated. Not so Murder on the Rockport Limited! Griffin was in full control and the story benefits from that.Special shout out to Carey Pietsch who does an outstanding job with the artwork. The scenes are all packed with detail, Easter eggs and little flourishes that really make the experience. This book also introduces some of the fans favourite characters - I'm looking at you Angus McDonald - and Carey does a flawless job of bringing these characters to life.Bonus points to the McElroy's for including a section for some of their wonderful fan art at the back of the book. Not only is it a great reward for the fans it's also brilliant to see how other artists picture the characters we know and love.The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited! is a fantastically funny and beautifully drawn graphic novel that is a real treat for fans of the podcast and newcomers alike and I for one can't wait for the next instalment of Tres Horny Boys mayhem.

The boys did it again.And Carey, of course. Bless her.Iconic.If you havent listened to the Adventure Zone WHY NOT.Amazing.Just as good as the first part of the series.Cant wait for Petal to the Metal.Also I really love the artist slots in the back featuring all the cute artworks.If I had one complaint itd be that there aren't any special additions in the UK. I really wanted those dang trading cards 😭

I loved the original Adventure Zone arc but this is a streamlined and polished version. It keeps the fun and skips all the rolls with the wrong die. This is still one of my favourite arcs, I'm quite behind on the campaign, and the comic seems to be merging some foreshadowing between characters. Can't wait for Petals of Metal to drop later in the year!

A fantastic comic to follow a brilliant podcast! Gave this as a gift to a friend of mine and player in my game of D&D! Love this series

Long time listener of the podcast and the adaptation is amazing. Shown to some friends with no knowledge of the podcast (will fix that soon) and they enjoyed it too