Petals to the Metal is one of my favorite mini-arcs within The Adventure Zone's Balance campaign. Fast and Furious references, a race, not burying your lesbians plus starting to get snippets of the broader plot with the Hunger and the Red Robes... really fascinating to continue watching how an audio narrative gets translated into a visual, and how plot and hints can be better organized knowing what's to come/smoothing over continuity errors/etc.

I'm curious as to how TAZ goes for someone experiencing it first through the graphic novels instead of the podcast! Certainly faster to get through. ( )

Gorgeous art as usual! The arc was never really one of my favorites, although I do love the way it was brought to life. A number of the jokes felt overly dated, though, and the dialogue kind of fell flat. A lot of cute scenes, though! Looking forward to volume 4! ( )

Lovely adaptation. Loved listening to it, even better in the book. I can't wait for the Crystal Kingdom! ( )

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your (fantasy) engines and prepare for the race of your life! Our unlikely heroes, Taako, Magnus, and Merle are once again after a dangerous relic–this time a sash that gives the bearer (one “Raven”) power over plants. It’s more dangerous than it sounds, okay? In any case, it so happens that these three have been paired with the Raven’s secret girlfriend, Hurley, who’s also a cop?! Talk about the odds. They’re going to test the odds even further, because Hurley is convinced that the only way to get through to the Raven is to beat her–in a super-dangerous battle-royale-style race outside of Goldcliff.

Petals to the Metal, the third installment of the Adventure Zone graphic novel, is just as fulfilling (irreverent, ridiculous, and funny) as the previous two volumes. It’s honestly just a very amusing story with fantastic characters who stay true to self, even when it causes complications to the story. Which is really impressive, considering this story was originally a live-play D&D podcast. This volume sticks close to the contents of the original podcast for this arc and also includes the Lunar Interlude immediately preceding it–so yay for absurd costumes, lots of goofs, and ominous eyes in the sky! As always, Carey Pietsch’s art for this story is fabulous and adds an extra layer of awesome. Highly recommended. ( )

we can talk about carey pietsch's incredible panel layouts anytime now. there are so many details - my favourite thing is seeing characters do things in the background. everything is always moving. and of course, as i'd expect no less from one of my top favourite arcs, this one was crazy and complex and flashy and they got right to the emotional heart of this whole wacky story. ( )