Game packs. Booster packs. Single card purchases. Money spent.
Strategy sessions. Chat boards. Books on tactics.
Lands and spells. Common. Uncommon. Rare. Mythic.
Heads up play. Team play. Rules and damnable rulebooks. All-out chaos.
Hilarity. Judges. Bruised egos. Overturned tables.
That’s what you get, and more, when you’re a Planeswalker, casting the spells, destroying your opponents, playing the world-wide hit collectable card game called, appropriately, Magic: The Gathering.
Licensed by Hasbro, Boom! Studios’ turn at publishing comic books based on the card game is not the first – but it may be the greatest. There’s been overwhelming support for the series, from both retailers and readers/players and the first issue of the series has been deemed to sell out.
A second printing (something Magic: The Gathering players know all too well), is set for release later this month.
If you didn’t know, the card game itself, in publication and constantly growing in popularity, since the early 1990’s, carries a very loose story of wizards and monsters and warriors and ethereal creatures of immense power. It’s developed a real narrative history within its various releases over the years. It’s a world loosely strung together by wonderful painted imagery and a snippet of story based on the protagonist or artifact highlighted on each card.
It’s a new beginning, really, with the first issue of Magic: The Gathering, bringing story and art and situations based on the card game to a brand new audience.
And scratching an itch for an audience already in place.
Written by Jed MacKay (Black Cat) and illustrated by Ig Guara (Ghost-Spider), Magic The Gathering #1 tells the story of wizards known as Planeswalkers, travelers across the realms of the multiverse. Despite their high enchantments, their world is still subject to man’s many foibles: threats, enemies, alliances, assassinations and mysteries.
With over 35 million players around the world, over 20 billion cards produced over the years, and global organized tournaments that resemble a cross between a sporting event and a pop culture convention, Magic The Gathering is a card game for the ages.
Curious? Why let cards like the Millstone destroy your mind?
Become a fan. Make the run to your local comic book shop and find out what everyone already knows: that Magic: The Gathering #1 is a wonderful introduction to the story that the card game introduces while it makes lifelong comic books fans of the card game players.
Discover what it means to be a top-echelon Magic The Gathering card player in the Enter the Battlefield: Life on the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour documentary.
