Gridley is a request from Kansas City creator Sid Quade and his partner Funcertainty Box. In this fresh idea of a comic, the weird west meets D&D world-building and guilds. With all of the improv theatrics of TTRPGs, we get an immersive fantasy world with interesting characters and setting dynamics.
Gridley: From Out of Nowhere
Sid Quade’s creative style is not one I see often, frankly there’s not enough of it. The characters move and breathe with highly expressive ease. Even the backgrounds feel lively enough to show that nothing and no one is just a prop. The dialogue definitely helps in that department, with each character sounding unique in how they address one another. Take for example our title character Giles, readers can tell that this Qilin-like priest has a lot on his shoulders. It’s in both his heavy sounding words full of apathy and frustration, as well as his body language. That can also be seen in his flawed human disguise; it’s hard enough to find a new place to live, but looking like something with prejudices against your species is even harder. It’s all masterful storytelling that imprints itself on a reader.
Make A Game Out of This?
I can definitely see why Quade makes a partnership with a tabletop company. The Gridley setting and plot structure is very similar to a TTRPG. Like how our vampiric shapeshifter just happens to have the right skillset for a vacant role in the town guild. That sounds like the kind of quests that make a D&D campaign. Thankfully, there’s no plot armor or too much at stake to fail. There’s a sense that Giles’ situation could go either in his favor or not. He has the skill the Wizarding Guild needs with a fair amount of people for and against him. The ones against him aren’t really prejudiced as much as concerned that their clientele won’t be as tolerant of him. So we’ve got politics, factions, and bureaucracy, that’s enough to make a demo for a board game prototype!
Present Your Medium
Then again, Gridley is still a comic book with how Quade uses shifting perspectives to tell the story. The characters pale-white faces against the multi-colored pages help the readers focus on the emotional expressions. Especially with how the backgrounds tend to fade away to emphasize character actions. In juxtaposition, some wide panels are full of decorations that can take away from the main focus. Like how Talvit City is much bigger in scope than Giles’ village. It allows readers to experience Giles’ anxiety with entering town, as well as some relief that he actually isn’t the most interesting thing in it. For all we know, a bold-looking cowboy’s got his own adventure waiting for him.
Gridley: A Bold Leap
Gridley looks like the beginning of a well thought-out world full of intrigue and stakes. With a character who feels like a genuinely likable D&D protagonist, readers can get behind his journey. The other characters don’t even feel like extras, but people with their own lives and struggles at just a glimpse. It all feels like something you could spend hours in. So this issue gets 9/10.
Thanks for coming to the end, and as always remember to look between the panels.