The Whitestone Chronicles, Volume 1: Ripley by Marieke Nijkamp & Tyler Walpole

with input from Critical Role, ofc, as this is part of the Legend Of Vox Machina universe.

I have to admit that I’ve never really gotten into the CR lore and fandom, mostly due to the fact that when I have time for role-playing games, it’s because I’m playing them, not watching other people play them. I did manage to find time for the brilliant Exandria Unlimited: Calamity miniseries because it was only 16 hours or so long, but since I don’t have time for regular TV (she says, typing while keeping one eye on the Arsenal game at Girona,) watching Actual Plays is pretty low on my list of priorities. Still, as a committed RPG enthusiast, I’ve definitely been interested in the iterations of CR across multiple media, if only to keep up with current trends in one of my favorite hobbies.

So I absolutely jumped at the chance to read this graphic novel and get a better idea of the much-celebrated world created by Matt Mercer & Co. EU:C aside, I’ve also run the Frozen Sick campaign for my local group, some of whom are much more interested in the setting than I am. I thus have a general understanding of the worldbuilding, and was looking forward to expanding that with this graphic novel.

And I did! Mostly. I guess. Like many other media tie-ins, this book suffers from assuming that readers know more about the overarching story than we actually do. Anna Ripley, the focus of this title, is a scientist who loathes magic due to the trauma of her own past. Relegated to the outskirts of polite society, she’s suspicious when the wealthy Briarwoods promise her a lab and funding once she helps them find and activate an ancient ziggurat. But she’s also desperate for resources so she agrees, and stays complicit no matter what awful tactics the Briarwoods use against anyone in their way.

While staying at the de Rolo estate to study the ziggurat, Ripley befriends their academic young son, Percy. The two soon become locked in a twisted sort of mentorship, as Ripley and the Briarwoods march relentlessly towards their goal.

I appreciated how the story signaled that Ripley is a villainous supporting character instrumental to the backstory of CR main character Percy. The book actually starts out really well, with more than enough space to develop and breathe as a standalone fantasy tale. But it definitely gets more Inside Baseball the further we go along, and not even Tyler Walpole’s gorgeous fantasy art can fill in all the details that casual readers are missing from the story. It just felt as if no one unfamiliar with CR read this and asked pertinent editorial questions.

And that’s fine, I guess, if this book is meant only for existing CR fans. I’d be greatly surprised if it brought non-fans into the fold, but stranger things have happened. As a non-CR diehard, I probably most enjoyed the pages from Mr Walpole’s sketchbook, with insightful commentary from Rachel Roberts. So while this probably belongs on the shelves of any CRitter, as fans call themselves, you’re not super missing out otherwise if you’re not.

The Whitestone Chronicles, Volume 1: Ripley by Marieke Nijkamp & Tyler Walpole was published December 3 2024 by Dark Horse Books and is available from all good booksellers, including