Dice Man (comic)
Encyclopedia
Dice Man was a short-lived British
comic
which ran for five issues in 1986
. It was a spin-off from 2000 AD
and was edited by Pat Mills
, who also wrote almost all of the stories. The stories were designed to be played like gamebook
s. Each issue contained two or three such stories and was published every two months.
), but did not appear until the second issue. Fortune was a "psychic investigator," a 1930s American private detective with psionic powers
. He also had a pair of stone dice, recovered from the ruins of Atlantis
, which he could use to summon various powers including a three-headed lizard demon called Astragal to assist him. The Diceman strip was different from the others in that the reader not only had to avoid being killed, he also ran the risk of being driven insane (if his "sanity score" dropped to zero).
There was only one other story in the comic which was not derived from 2000 AD. This was "You are Ronald Reagan
in: Twilight's Last Gleaming," a satirical spoof in which the reader, playing the part of the American president, must prevent nuclear war breaking out. This strip was unusual because if the player's sanity score gets too high, then the Secret Service assume that the president must have been replaced with an imposter (a comment on Reagan's perceived intellectual limitations). This game was exceptionally difficult compared with the others in the comic, as the player must make irrational decisions to avoid arrest and execution, while trying to make the right decisions to prevent a nuclear launch by either side. In fact the player transpires to have very little control over the outcome, and almost every option inevitably results in World War III
, suggesting that nuclear diplomacy is very difficult to control once Cold War
tensions have begun.
The other strips which appeared in Dice Man were Judge Dredd
, Nemesis the Warlock
, Sláine
, Rogue Trooper
and ABC Warriors
. One of the Nemesis stories was unusual because the reader played the part of the main villain in the story, Torquemada.
House Of Death
Issue: 1
Pages: 20
Story: John Wagner
Game: Pat Mills
Art: Bryan Talbot
Dated: February 1986
Nemesis The Warlock
The Torture Tube
Issue: 1
Pages: 19
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Kevin O’Neill
Dated: February 1986
You Are Torquemada: The Garden Of Alien Delights
Issue: 3
Pages: 20
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Bryan Talbot
Dated: June 1986
Slainé
Cauldron Of Blood
Issue: 1
Pages: 19
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: David Lloyd
Dated: February 1986
Dragoncorpse
Issue: 2
Pages: 19
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Nik Williams
Dated: April 1986
The Ring Of Danu
Issue: 4
Pages: 28
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Mark Farmer
Dated: August 1986
Diceman
In The Bronx, No-one Can Hear You Scream!
Issue: 2
Pages: 24
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Graham Manley
Dated: April 1986
Dark Powers
Issue: 3
Pages: 19
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: John Ridgway
Dated: June 1986
Bitter Streets
Issue: 4
Pages: 29
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Steve Dillon
Dated: August 1986
Murder One
Issue: 5
Pages: 28
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Steve Dillon
Dated: October 1986
ABC Warrior
Volgo The Ultimate Death Machine
Issue: 2
Pages: 11
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Steve Dillon
Dated: April 1986
Rogue Trooper
Killothon
Issue: 3
Pages: 19
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Steve Dillon
Dated: June 1986
Space Zombies!
Issue: 5
Pages: 15
Story/Game: Simon Gellar
Art: Mike Collins
Dated: October 1986
You Are Ronald Reagan!
Twilight’s Last Gleaming!
Issue: 5
Pages: 17
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Hunt Emerson
Dated: October 1986
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
comic
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
which ran for five issues in 1986
1986 in comics
-Year overall:* Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, a four-issue limited series written and drawn by Frank Miller and published by DC Comics, debuts...
. It was a spin-off from 2000 AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
and was edited by Pat Mills
Pat Mills
Pat Mills, nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since....
, who also wrote almost all of the stories. The stories were designed to be played like gamebook
Gamebook
A gamebook is a work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making effective choices. The narrative branches along various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages...
s. Each issue contained two or three such stories and was published every two months.
Stories
The comic mostly contained stories based on characters who already appeared regularly in 2000 AD. Its eponymous character Diceman (without the space), a.k.a. Rick Fortune, was created specially for the comic (by Pat Mills and Graham ManleyGraham Manley
-Biography:Graham Manley has worked for a wide range of British comics, and is credited by Tony O'Donnell as inspiring the creation of Near Myths.He has drawn episodes of Juliet November and Whatever happened to? for the Judge Dredd Megazine...
), but did not appear until the second issue. Fortune was a "psychic investigator," a 1930s American private detective with psionic powers
Psionics
Psionics refers to the practice, study, or psychic ability of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Examples of this include telepathy, telekinesis, and other workings of the outside world through the psyche.-History and terminology:...
. He also had a pair of stone dice, recovered from the ruins of Atlantis
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
, which he could use to summon various powers including a three-headed lizard demon called Astragal to assist him. The Diceman strip was different from the others in that the reader not only had to avoid being killed, he also ran the risk of being driven insane (if his "sanity score" dropped to zero).
There was only one other story in the comic which was not derived from 2000 AD. This was "You are Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
in: Twilight's Last Gleaming," a satirical spoof in which the reader, playing the part of the American president, must prevent nuclear war breaking out. This strip was unusual because if the player's sanity score gets too high, then the Secret Service assume that the president must have been replaced with an imposter (a comment on Reagan's perceived intellectual limitations). This game was exceptionally difficult compared with the others in the comic, as the player must make irrational decisions to avoid arrest and execution, while trying to make the right decisions to prevent a nuclear launch by either side. In fact the player transpires to have very little control over the outcome, and almost every option inevitably results in World War III
World War III
World War III denotes a successor to World War II that would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would be likely nuclear and devastating in nature....
, suggesting that nuclear diplomacy is very difficult to control once Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
tensions have begun.
The other strips which appeared in Dice Man were Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
, Nemesis the Warlock
Nemesis the Warlock
Nemesis the Warlock is a story created by writer Pat Mills and artist Kevin O'Neill which appeared in the pages of the weekly comics anthology 2000 AD. The title character, a fire-breathing demonic alien, fights against the fanatical Torquemada, Grand Master of the Terran Empire in Earth's distant...
, Sláine
Sláine (comics)
Sláine is a comic hero from the pages of 2000 AD - one of Britain's most popular comic books.Sláine is a barbarian fantasy adventure series based on Celtic myths and stories which first appeared in 1983, written by Pat Mills and initially drawn by his then wife, Angela Kincaid. Most of the early...
, Rogue Trooper
Rogue Trooper
Rogue Trooper is a science fiction strip in the British comic 2000 AD, created by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons. It follows the adventures of Rogue, a G.I. and his three comrades' search for the Traitor General...
and ABC Warriors
ABC Warriors
ABC Warriors is a long-running 2000 AD comic strip written by Pat Mills, which first appeared in prog 119 in 1979 and continues to run today. Art for the opening episodes was by Kevin O'Neill, Mike McMahon, Brett Ewins, and Brendan McCarthy - who between them designed the original seven members of...
. One of the Nemesis stories was unusual because the reader played the part of the main villain in the story, Torquemada.
Writers
- Pat MillsPat MillsPat Mills, nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since....
: Diceman, Nemesis, Sláine, Rogue Trooper, ABC Warriors, Judge Dredd (with John Wagner), You Are Ronald Reagan! - Simon Gellar: Rogue Trooper
- John WagnerJohn WagnerJohn Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since.He is best known for his work on...
: Judge Dredd (with Pat Mills)
Artists
- Steve DillonSteve DillonSteve Dillon is a British comic book artist, from Luton, Bedfordshire, best known for his work with writer Garth Ennis on Hellblazer, Preacher and The Punisher.-Biography:...
: Diceman, ABC Warriors, Rogue Trooper - Bryan TalbotBryan TalbotBryan Talbot is a British comic book artist and writer, born in Wigan, Lancashire, in 1952. He is best known as the creator of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and its sequel Heart of Empire.-Career:...
: Judge Dredd, Nemesis - Kevin O'NeillKevin O'Neill (comics)Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
: Nemesis - David Lloyd: Sláine
- Nik Williams: Sláine
- Mark FarmerMark FarmerMark Farmer is a British comic book artist. He is best known as an inker, often working with Alan Davis.-Biography:Farmer got his start in the UK comics industry before becoming part of the British Invasion, the wave of UK creators that were an integral part of the DC Comics "new look" of the...
: Sláine - Graham ManleyGraham Manley-Biography:Graham Manley has worked for a wide range of British comics, and is credited by Tony O'Donnell as inspiring the creation of Near Myths.He has drawn episodes of Juliet November and Whatever happened to? for the Judge Dredd Megazine...
: Diceman - John RidgwayJohn Ridgway (comic artist)John Ridgway is a British comics artist.-Career:Ridgway began his career initially as a hobby, drawing D.C.Thompson's Commando War Stories alongside professional work as a design engineer...
: Diceman - Mike Collins: Rogue Trooper
- Hunt EmersonHunt EmersonHunt Emerson is a cartoonist living and working in Birmingham, England. He was closely involved with the Birmingham Arts Lab of the mid-to-late 1970s, and with the British underground comics scene of the 1970s and 1980s...
: You Are Ronald Reagan!
List of stories
Judge DreddHouse Of Death
Issue: 1
Pages: 20
Story: John Wagner
Game: Pat Mills
Art: Bryan Talbot
Dated: February 1986
Nemesis The Warlock
The Torture Tube
Issue: 1
Pages: 19
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Kevin O’Neill
Dated: February 1986
You Are Torquemada: The Garden Of Alien Delights
Issue: 3
Pages: 20
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Bryan Talbot
Dated: June 1986
Slainé
Cauldron Of Blood
Issue: 1
Pages: 19
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: David Lloyd
Dated: February 1986
Dragoncorpse
Issue: 2
Pages: 19
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Nik Williams
Dated: April 1986
The Ring Of Danu
Issue: 4
Pages: 28
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Mark Farmer
Dated: August 1986
Diceman
In The Bronx, No-one Can Hear You Scream!
Issue: 2
Pages: 24
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Graham Manley
Dated: April 1986
Dark Powers
Issue: 3
Pages: 19
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: John Ridgway
Dated: June 1986
Bitter Streets
Issue: 4
Pages: 29
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Steve Dillon
Dated: August 1986
Murder One
Issue: 5
Pages: 28
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Steve Dillon
Dated: October 1986
ABC Warrior
Volgo The Ultimate Death Machine
Issue: 2
Pages: 11
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Steve Dillon
Dated: April 1986
Rogue Trooper
Killothon
Issue: 3
Pages: 19
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Steve Dillon
Dated: June 1986
Space Zombies!
Issue: 5
Pages: 15
Story/Game: Simon Gellar
Art: Mike Collins
Dated: October 1986
You Are Ronald Reagan!
Twilight’s Last Gleaming!
Issue: 5
Pages: 17
Story/Game: Pat Mills
Art: Hunt Emerson
Dated: October 1986