The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal

The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal is the latest and greatest instalment in the graphic novel adaptation of the superb podcast The Adventure Zone. Our heroes Merle, Taako and Magnus are thrust into the cutthroat world of battlewagon racing in order to retrieve another mysterious artifact. There's action, comedy, love and even an inspiring speech that gave me goosebumps.Podcast fans willbe delighted to see some of their favourite characters for the first time includingCaptain Captain Bane and Garyl the spectral binicorn and once again Carey Pietsch does an amazing job bringing these characters to life. The artwork is superb throughout and well worth the price of admission on its own.The whole thing is fantastic but the Hurley and Sloane arc was presented better here than even in the podcast and really made the heart of everything TAZ shine through.Bonus points for again including a section at the back of the book to showcase some of the amazing fan art developed by the TAZ community. There really are some wickedly talented folks out there.

Book is great. Fantastic art and possibly the funniest of the 3 books so far. The McElroys are hilarious and Carey has really upped the art again.My only gripe is that I preordered this early this year. Hoping to get it near or on the release date. Nope. I had to wait 6 weeks after release day for it to even be dispatched. What’s the point in preorders if you aren’t going to order enough copies for what you’ve sold. You’ve had 6 months notice and you still screwed up. I’ll buy elsewhere next time.

It was wonderful. The McEleboys did it again

I've been a fan for quite some time now and pre-ordered it accordingly.Pietsch's illustration is as always incredibly vibrant and she manages to caption the chaos of the race without making it unable to be read. Her ability to translate an audio into a visual medium without sacrificing the beats (which McElroy comedy does depend on) is astounding. I particularly enjoyed the backstory of our racers, the race itself, and, of course, the final showdown.While the writing excluded some parts of the podcasts arc, it did not at all lose any important parts of the plot (it's still a whopping 248 pages of pure story!). For older fans of the series, there's, as always, quite a few intertextual funny references, backhanded comments and inside jokes to other works in the series. While these made me chuckle a lot, newer fans won't be troubled by these at all, as their placement is well done and most of them work on a less "meta" level as well.As previously mentioned, the ending is slightly changed, as to not fall into the same trope the podcast did. I understand anyone who is a little apprehensive regarding this move, but I can guarantee you, this version of the story is a least as well done as the other one!This is also the book, where we really begin to see the story Griffin laid out for us! Clint, Justin, and Cary Pietsch worked really well in that regard. We're beginning to see both, the main plot, as well as some characters in a different light, then we were able to do in the podcast.Overall, a very good graphic novel and an even better adaptation if you ask me!----------------------------------------------------------------------Ich bin schon seit einiger Zeit ein Fan und habe vorbestellt.Pietschs Illustration ist wie immer unglaublich lebendig und sie schafft es, das Chaos des Rennens festzuhalten, ohne es unlesbar zu machen. Ihre Fähigkeit, ein auditives in ein visuelles Medium zu übersetzen, ohne die Beats zu opfern (von denen die McElroy-Comedy wirklich abhängt), ist erstaunlich.Ich habe besonders die Hintergrundgeschichte unserer Rennfahrer, das Rennen selbst und natürlich den finalen Showdown genossen.Während das Script einige Teile des Podcast-Arcs ausschloss, fehlen überhaupt keine wichtigen Teile der Handlung (Es sind immerhin noch satte 248 Seiten reine Geschichte!)!Für ältere Fans der Serie gibt es wie immer einige intertextuelle lustige Referenzen, Rückhandkommentare und Insider-Witze zu anderen Werken der Serie. Während diese mich viel zum Lachen gebracht haben, werden neuere Fans von diesen überhaupt nicht gestört, da ihre Platzierung gut gemacht ist und die meisten von ihnen auch auf einer weniger "Meta" -Ebene arbeiten.Wie bereits erwähnt, wird das Ende leicht geändert, um nicht in den gleichen (zu recht kritisierten) Bereich zu fallen wie der Podcast. Ich verstehe jeden, der etwas besorgt über diesen Schritt ist, aber ich kann garantieren, dass diese Version der Geschichte mindestens so gut gemacht ist wie die andere!Dies ist auch das Buch, in dem wir wirklich anfangen, die Geschichte zu sehen, die Griffin für uns entworfen hat! Clint, Justin und Cary Pietsch haben in dieser Hinsicht sehr gut gearbeitet. Wir fangen an, sowohl die Haupthandlung als auch einige Charaktere in einem anderen Licht zu sehen, als wir es im Podcast konnten.Insgesamt eine sehr gute Graphic Novel und eine noch bessere Adaption, wenn Sie mich fragen!

If you bought this chances are you're a fan of the podcast. There's also a good chance you bought the two before this. You pretty much know what you're in for. Plot is straight from the podcast with some direct quotes but it's all been fleshed out into another great entry in the overall arc. If you've read the other ones you know what you're in for. Hopefully they keep putting these out, I need the whole set.