Welcome back to Panel To Panel: Comics I Can’t Shut Up About, my weekly corner in NAG where I gush about the comics that have completely hijacked my brainspace.
If you’re new here, here’s the deal: this isn’t a review. It’s a love letter. A plea. A whispered, “You need to read this.”
I’m here to share what has me obsessed, and maybe convince you to dive in yourself.
This week, I’m talking about a comic that has haunted me since the moment I stumbled across it:
Die, by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans.
When I first picked up Die in 2018, I had no idea what I was getting into.
No spoilers, no hype, just Hans’ cover art, which practically pulsed with promise and danger. One page in, I was hooked.
The world yanked me in. Strange. Dark. Beautiful. A place where wonder and dread coexist, where magic is as lethal as it is enchanting. And I knew immediately: this would not be any ordinary ride.
Without giving too much away, Die follows six friends who, one night, dive into a new tabletop game created by one of their own.
In a flash, they’re transported to a fantastical world that echoes Narnia or Fillory… but darker, far darker. Two years later, they return, forever changed, haunted, and missing one of their number.
By 2018, Dominic Ash pulls them back together, discovering a D20 tied to the friend who never came back.
Chaos, revelation, and reckoning ensue, both with the terrifying, mesmerising world of Die and the human shadows each character carries.
Die isn’t just a comic. It’s a world you get pulled into, kicking and screaming, and somehow love every second of it.
What makes Die extraordinary is its layers. Gillen and Hans craft a universe that is both hellish and breathtaking.
Characters feel archetypal yet painfully human. Regret, mourning, and unhealed wounds are stitched into the narrative as tightly as the monsters, quests, and dice rolls.
Dialogue crackles, especially when the party splinters, balancing tension, humour, and heartbreak with the precision of a perfectly run tabletop campaign.
Hans’ art elevates every panel. From dreamlike flashbacks to Die’s sharply realised landscapes, her palette reflects the story’s emotional heartbeat.
Black, white, red, and gold in the opening arc give way to richer greens, blues, and violets, signalling the unfolding complexity of the world and its characters.
Each character’s in-game persona mirrors their real-life struggles, making every encounter simultaneously personal and epic.
Die isn’t always easy to pin down. Its rules, its strange corners of lore, might leave you pausing, but that’s the thrill.
Like a tabletop campaign that never quite plays by the rules, it rewards attention, invites re-reading, and sneaks up on you when you least expect it.
When it lands? It hits with everything: dark humour, dread, wonder, heartbreak. Often all at once.
At its core, Die is about loss, growth, and the messy, beautiful process of figuring out who you are.
It’s about friendship, mortality, and the consequences of the games we play, both literal and metaphorical.
And like any great adventure, it leaves you satisfied and aching when it ends.
If you’ve ever wanted a tabletop game brought to life in comic form, or if you crave flawed, fascinating characters set in a world that refuses to let go, Die is a must-read comic.
Even though I’ve read Die multiple times, it never fails to remind me why comics are such a unique medium; they transport you, make you reflect, and leave you thinking long after the last panel.
That’s it for this week’s Panel To Panel. Next week, we’ll dive into something entirely different, but just as engrossing.
Until then… happy reading, and keep those dice handy.
If you want to pick up Die for yourself, you can head on over to Smallville Comics or follow the link here.
