The Guild by Felicia Day and Jim Rugg

The Guild (2010) (Dark Horse)
Felicia Day and Jim Rugg
Grade: A-
Genre: graphic novel
Source: library

Cyd Sherman is a violinist in an orchestra (she sits right at the back) with a boyfriend in a band who spends more time trying to make his band ‘unique’ than with her. As if her life wasn’t depressing enough, her gay father has guilt-tripped her into therapy and her therapist thinks that she’s anti-social. The day that she buys her first computer game changes her life irreparably.

Online, Cyd is a whole different person – literally. Under the name of Codex, Cyd can battle dragons, rescue princesses and win gold to buy herself a snazzy new outfit or weapons. With her new friends, Zaboo, Vork, Bladezz, Clara and Tink, they form a Guild called the Knights of Good. As Priestess, Codex can do anything and before long, she becomes immersed in this fantasy world.

I really didn’t know much about Felicia Day’s The Guild except it was a web-series about a group of strangers who become friends in an online game. Plus, their video, Do You Want to Date My Avatar, is seriously cool. Now that I’ve read this prequel and had the chance to watch the first three episodes of Season One, I want to watch much, much more. They flow together brilliantly and while I haven’t seen how they tackle the gaming element (if at all) it’s easy to see that on paper, they can go into much more depth than is possible on screen.

I adore Felicia Day from her parts as Vi in Buffy (Season 7, Vi is one of the Potentials) and as Penny in Dr Horrible. Then she did this web-book-club thing with a bunch of friends that I started to watch, but never finished, that was amazing. Naturally, I’m going to love a web-series that she’s created.

There's a second graphic novel that I thought was this one - I really want to read it. The art and story were both fantastic and I'm looking forward to watching more of the show to see what direction it takes over the six seasons that have been created so far. This was a very promising start and I'm really excited to have more graphic novels to read.

Image courtesy of Book Depository.