Café de Nuit

During the late 80s to early 90s, TSR was on top of the world. Games, shirts, magazines, and even a line of comics sponsored by marvel comics. Several lines infact, covering Forgotten Realms, General AD&D, Spelljammer, and Dragonlance.
But not Ravenloft.
So, say they did? Say they made a horror/fantasy/action comic in the same line as the previous titles, what would it be like? What ghoulish adventures would they have, and who would be the gothic heroes of this retro comic line?

There has been some recent Ravenloft comics, I own the one with soth, rigors of the game and the Vecna comic. There also one with misc and boo in ravenloft. I remember reading dragonlance ones when I was younger.

I can see graphic novel with Van Richten or weathermay twins easy.

There is this Ravenloft comic...

Rigor of the Game from Tales of Ravenloft in Worlds of D&D comic featuring Lord Soth and Sithicus

Part1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j2Fj9iBsQY
Part2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1JoL5zvn7s&t=13s

Also there is Shadows of the Vampire comic by IDW set in Barovia

https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=36302543

Vecna - Hand of the Revenant comic is not situated in Ravenloft

I would like one with Harkon Lukas, or Forlorn.

Yeah, I've seen those. They're all right. But I mean specifically in the form of the ones from the 90s, with the bright print ink.

While that doesn't 100% correspond with the question, there have been some good fanmade comics, which you can find in the FoS.

http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... =19&t=4979

http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... =19&t=4766

I am very familiar with the TSR comics. And although they weren't great, they were Dungeons and Dragons. Vajra Valmeyjar should've been an iconic fighter that got carried over into this new era of D&D fandom, and the recovering alcoholic paladin Priam Agrivar was, and still is, a nice spin on an otherwise somewhat stuffy fantasy trope.

Ravenloft would be interesting if it was allowed to breathe outside of the "wholesome" nature of current D&D. I don't mean for mature readers neccessarily, but in a demiplane that houses the worst of the worst in the multiverse, one would expect storylines to push the themes to just about bursting. It would need to have an edge that the others never had.

As for heroes, I'd go with the Weathermays as a family in general. Few separate but intertwined storylines, but really follow the exploits of the much underused and underappreciated George Weathermay. His backstory carries more weight in my mind, in that it is more actionable. His growth (from edition to edition), his bubbling darkness, his lineage (and later expectations), his tragic/doomed "love" life, the twins as his possible anchor to the Light...all are really interesting themes that could play out really well in a graphic (novel) format. Plus he carries with him action. An in-your-face confrontational hunter, that the other Weathermays just aren't. In short, a gritty adventurer, as opposed to almost straight investigator, or, intellectual hunter.

A few M.R. James-styled stories featuring Laurie and Gennifer would be a cool cut though. Even if the tales are told through their letters to George, who never responds, until...

But that's just me.

Another good take would be one based on our own James Firecat's Monster Party. I'd collect those comics.

Five wrote:Ravenloft would be interesting if it was allowed to breathe outside of the "wholesome" nature of current D&D. I don't mean for mature readers neccessarily, but in a demiplane that houses the worst of the worst in the multiverse, one would expect storylines to push the themes to just about bursting. It would need to have an edge that the others never had.

I don't know if the laws have changed yet but as far as I know comics in America and England were (or still) are under censoring laws for violence and nudity. Violence and nudity were (is) permitted only in black and white comics. So I am imagining Ravenloft comics in black and white...

And yet they were perfectly fine with a Superman comic in which a supervillain removed the brains from a whole village, turned their bodies into a sludge monster and hooked their brains together to become a super computer hive mind...
A hive mind which, once the villain had fled and the sludge monster was defeated, tortured Superman until he switched it off, effectively euthanizing them.

Or shall we talk about the Phalanx? Or the Brood?

Mephisto wrote:

Five wrote:Ravenloft would be interesting if it was allowed to breathe outside of the "wholesome" nature of current D&D. I don't mean for mature readers neccessarily, but in a demiplane that houses the worst of the worst in the multiverse, one would expect storylines to push the themes to just about bursting. It would need to have an edge that the others never had.

I don't know if the laws have changed yet but as far as I know comics in America and England were (or still) are under censoring laws for violence and nudity. Violence and nudity were (is) permitted only in black and white comics. So I am imagining Ravenloft comics in black and white...

Yeah, I dunno about that. Check out the Pestilence series: https://aftershockcomics.com/pestilence/

That's just one. Feeling too lazy to list other stuff right now. Heh

I think it'd be more of a matter of not wanting to "sully" current overall image than finding the (arguably) right vehicle/medium for an IP/whatever, or, complementing it/its essence. But I know nobody over at Wizards, so that's just speculation.

Indeed, Pestilence sometimes cannot be quoted or shown here (explicit carnal activities)

I also could think of many example, but let's add only one. Recently, the The Cimmerian - The Frost-Giant's Daughter shows repeated female full frontal nudity.

I'm not sure there is such a law about comics, other than a generally followed grandma rule by the major companies???

But if it was to be under censorship, let RL be black and white

Maybe it is an obsolete law, I read about it (around 2006) in a book about the history of comics by Sabin Roger, I read the Greek edition which was published in 1997 so maybe a lot have changed since then. These laws were the main reason I think for the appearance of underground comic magazines like Zap (which was black and white). But I have encountered also cencorship in Jodorowsky's Metabarons series, the English version had all nudity censored by adding cloth on some bodily parts (no not the ears) while the French, Greek etc editions had everything pictured (yes the ears too).

If it had been made in the '90's it probably would have been another series about Strand a d Exam in feuding.

The George Weatherman idea above is a good one

I could also see a version inspired by the old EC lines (Tales from the Crypt et al.) or Tales from Ravenloft as an anthology series each a one off