10 Great Comic Book Series To Read If You Like Playing D&D
There are a lot of things that fans of comic books and Dungeons & Dragons players have in common. Both love to see good guys, and warriors, battle monsters, demons, and evildoers. There are also a lot of strong comparisons between superheroes and D&D characters, including warriors, magic users, elves, and more as they battle all sorts of demons and creatures from lore.
That is likely why there is such a strong mix of comic books that seem marketed directly to gamers who love the RPG games. These include books that are set distinctly in the same timeframe as a D&D campaign, as well as characters that look like they came straight out of a Dungeon Masters Guide.
10 Conan The Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian is not a character created in comic books, but he is one that has enjoyed a very long life in the format since his introduction there. Conan is also someone who has been the inspiration for plenty of Dungeons & Dragons characters over the years, almost a perfect depiction of a warrior-class hero.
Conan the Barbarian was a sword and sorcery hero created in pulp magazines who eventually made his way to Marvel Comics many years later. D&D fans would find a lot to love in both his solo comics as well as his adventures in Savage Avengers.
9 Red Sonja
A spin-off of Conan the Barbarian comics, Red Sonja is the female-centric spin on the warrior characters in comics. Based on the Robert E. Howard character of Red Sonja of Rogatino, Dark Agnes de Chastillon, and Valeria, Red Sonja showed up in Marvel Comics in 1973.
Much like Conan, Red Sonja is involved in sword and sorcery-styled adventures. It is a great comic for D&D fans looking for a strong female character to follow.
8 ElfQuest
One of the closest Dungeons & Dragons-styled comic books in history is the book ElfQuest. Created in 1978, ElfQuest tells the story of a community of elves and other mythical creatures trying to survive on a primitive planet with two moons.
The series had many character types familiar to D&D gamers, and the quests could have come straight out of a game session. This was also extremely popular and was picked up by both Marvel Comics in the 1980s and DC Comics in then in 2002 before Dark Horse took the reign in 2013.
7 Bone
Jeff Smith wrote and illustrated the graphic novel series Bone from 1991 to 2004. The series consisted of 55 issues and was a mix of comedy and dark fantasy. Three characters end up lost in a fairy-tale valley and end up on adventures as they try to survive this new land.
For Dungeons & Dragons gamers who want to find something for their kids to read, this is the perfect comic book series. The fantasy tale with dragons defies comparisons, and that is likely why it is still finding new fans decades later, even with no movie based on the series ever getting off the ground.
6 Saga
Saga remains one of the best-written fantasy sci-fi books on the market, and that was proven when Saga relaunched in 2022 and never missed a beat. While the story takes place in outer space, it also has a lot of moments on planets where the characters take part in situations familiar to any D&D fan.
Saga is about a husband and wife from warring tribes who go on the run when they have a daughter. They end up on quests, fighting against mercenaries and soldiers, and character arcs that are not afraid to tackle the sensitive subject matter.
5 Demon Knights
DC Comics has a series based on several of its mythological heroes that share many traits with Dungeons & Dragons. This series is called Demon Knights and stars the demon Etrigan. Also in the series are characters like the magic-user Madame Xanadu, the immortal Vandal Savage, and the Shining Knight from Camelot.
As expected, this series features the characters in battle with everything from magic dinosaurs to barbarians. If there is an off-the-wall quest that D&D gamers set up, it might look a lot like a Demon Knights storyline.
4 Kull The Conqueror
Kull the Conquerer is another Robert E. Howard character, same as Conan the Barbarian. As a matter of fact, Howard created Kull first back in 1929 and he was very different from the intense warrior, Conan. Kull was a lot more introspective and his home was Atlantis in 100,000 BC.
Kull had a lot of changes throughout his existence, going from a slave to a pirate to an outlaw and a gladiator. He was also a soldier and king, while his comic books, created by Marvel Comics, ended up mixing up his story with Conan's. Dark Horse gained the rights in 2006 and then IDW Publishing in 2017. Kull also had his own sword and sorcery movie with Kevin Sorbo.
3 Coda
Coda was a comic book series tailor-made for Dungeons & Dragons players. While a lot of sword and sorcery comics almost try to just rip off Robert Howard's Conan or JRR Tolkien's Hobbit, the Coda comic remained popular because it attempted to create something beyond those ideas.
This takes place in a post-fantasy world where magic is gone. The hero is a bard named Hum who sets out to control a post-magic world. It is so similar to a D&D gaming session where all magic is outlawed and is a great indie fantasy series for fans.
2 Tellos
Tellos is a fantasy comic book series from Image Comics in 1999 that was their version of the Dungeons & Dragons-styled quest stories with different characters that came straight out of the Dungeons & Dragons base classes. The story features a boy named Jerek and an anthropomorphic tiger named Koj.
They also team up with a pirate named Serra and a thief named Rikk, as well as a dragon and a wizard named Tom. Obviously, this is a group influenced highly by D&D, and their quests would be a clear draw for fans of the game.
1 Dungeons And Dragons
There is no way to recommend comic books for Dungeons & Dragons players without mentioning the actual Dungeons & Dragons comic books themselves. These comics came out in the 1970s with reprints from the 1980s and offer a nice nostalgic look at D&D stories for fans.
The books also offer up some great adventures and it is clear they were made with the gamers in mind, written by people who understood the campaigns in the game. There are also a lot of D&D spinoffs that came out after this including The Legend of Drizzt and Legends of Baldur's Gate.