Written by Brian Schirmer
Art by Elena Gogou
Colors by Rebecca Nalty
Letters by Andworld Design
Published by Vault Comics

I have received advance copies of issues #1 and #2 of Quests Aside for review purposes from Vault Comics.

Issue #1 Solicit: “A skeleton, an apprentice mage, and an exiled princess walk into a bar… for another shift at Quests Aside, the local watering hole run by once legendary, now retired adventurer Barrow. When the King privately explains that he plans to shut the place down, Barrow must find a way to hold onto his business and the family he’s built around it. It’s always sunny in the realms!”

Issue #2 Solicit: “Once a legendary adventurer, Barrow now runs a bar — and the King just declared he’s shutting it down. So, what does Barrow do? Does he tell his staff? Nope. He goes into full denial mode, sticks his head in the sand, and struggles to remember why he got out of the game to begin with.”

Roll for initiative! Quests Aside brings out some of the best parts of fantasy tales and stories reminiscent of a dungeons and dragons campaign. The story seeks to answer the question of what happens next? What happens to our intrepid adventurers after the story ends? Some keep on the adventurer path, some rise to power and some retire to own a bar called Quests Aside!

Prepare for a humorous adventure with a cast of interesting characters that have found their way to working at Quests Aside. I found myself literally laughing out loud as situational DnD/fantasy trope humor is sprinkled into an intriguing story about coping with the aftermath of being an adventurer and running a bar. Vault brings their second anthropomorphic weapon in with Clive, Ray the Skeleton (yes, he is a cool, but angry undead skeleton) using Clive to chop food to prepare for the quests. And I’m hoping we get some action from Clive because there is some really good potential there.

Elena Gogou’s art was made to tell a fantasy story and does a knockout job with the design of these characters, as well as the setting of the interior of Quests Aside (Editor’s note: the bar, not the comic!). Rebecca Nalty’s colors pull it all together by using different palettes to elicit tones throughout the pages. The lettering coming from Andworld Design is spot on and achieves a perfect way to sensor curse words in a fantasy setting.

In a story full of secrets, the creative team drops us clues about the larger picture of the world and the intrigue surrounding Barrow’s curses and Jordan’s magic training. It was a page-turner – or scroller; however you want to call it for digital comics – that was packed with nonstop fun, adventure, comedy, and drama! My one regret is that now that I have read issues 1 and 2, I have to wait quite a while to read issue 3!

Quests Aside #1 drops May 4th from Vault Comics!