The Guild

The Guild by Felicia Day (with Jim Rugg) is a graphic novel prequel to the web series of the same name (written by and starring Felicia Day as Cyd/Codex). Cyd Sherman is a 20-something who is going through sort of a pre-mid-life crisis and is routinely seeing a therapist. While handing out fliers for her boyfriend's band, she comes across (and, of course, purchases) "The Game", a massively multiplayer role-playing game. She gets caught up in the in-game fantasy world, and through the character she creates, begins to develop a new sense of self; she even makes friends with some of the other players she comes across.

I adore the web series and I love, love, LOVE this book! The characters and the dialogue are hilarious, and I find Cyd totally relateable (not entirely sure yet if that is really a good or a not-so-good thing). I used to play World of Warcraft quite a while ago, but eventually stopped shortly after the first expansion came out, because I didn't really play enough to feel justified in paying the subscription fee each month. When I started watching "The Guild" online, it reminded me of how much fun I had playing the game, and I recently started playing again because of it. Nerd confession'd!

I'm not sure whether it was tricky or not for Day to translate the characters onto the page, as some of the humor for me with the show is in the actors' body language and facial expressions, but she does a fantastic job. Not once did I feel like anything was lost, and I found myself reading the text with the actor's voices in my head - inflections, tone, speed, everything.

The art is also great; the style for the storyline art changes throughout, with one look for Cyd "in real life" and one look for when she's "in game." I loved the bonus illustrations and the "Jim Rugg's Sketchbook" in the back.

Overall, The Guild is aces. If you're a fan of the web series, and you haven't picked this up yet, DO IT. It was a lot of fun to read and I enjoyed seeing how The Knights of Good Guild got together and to see how Cyd started playing. This book not only does justice to the series, it enhances the experience - for example, we find out what the heck Zaboo was talking about in the sixth episode of season 1, when he mentions an incident where Cyd set a boyfriend's cello on fire. Cello'd.

Are there more of these Guild comic adaptations?

ISBN:

9781595825490

ASIN:
B00A820U2I

Publisher:
Dark Horse Comics

Film:

The Guild

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