Greg Pak first encountered Dungeons & Dragons in middle school after his mother enrolled him in a community-college game. He set the hobby aside after high school but returned to it in 2019, joining a multigenerational campaign with college friends and their children. Now the writer known for Planet Hulk and Batman/Superman adapts those spirited tabletop moments into a Dark Horse comic, Dungeons & Dragons: The Fallbacks, which debuts on October 15, 2025.
Pak says the series grows out of the unpredictable energy he loves about actual D&D sessions.
He recalls a session where a low-level party found itself hopelessly outmatched: the group confronted powerful captors who dominated an enslaved population. Pak’s character — a chaotic-good half-orc fighter — launched into combat out of anger rather than strategy, and that reckless decision shaped his idea for the comic. Pak hopes the book captures the same feeling of “anything can happen” that defines a tabletop game.
The comic — illustrated by Wilton Santos and Edvan Alves — is an original take on the cast from Jaleigh Johnson’s 2024 novel, The Fallbacks: Bound for Ruin. While fans of the book will recognize the ensemble, newcomers and readers unfamiliar with tabletop play can dive in without prior knowledge. Dark Horse shared the first five pages exclusively with Polygon, introducing the Fallbacks as they arrive in the town of Loudwater and quickly clash with the watch after refusing to stop a band of kobolds stealing food.
Pak says he dislikes simplistic portrayals that reduce entire races or cultures to one trait — the kind of fantasy shorthand where “all dwarves are greedy” or “all orcs are evil.” He remembers childhood dungeon crawls where you’d open a door and immediately attack goblins because the game labeled them as villainous; his work resists that lazy stereotyping.
Dark Horse invited Pak to write The Fallbacks after his work on their Stranger Things comics, which lean heavily on D&D lore. Although Pak didn’t create formal character sheets for the party, he kept their abilities faithful to Johnson’s portrayal: the group operates at relatively low levels.
“We’re keeping their abilities and spells within the limits appropriate for their level,” he explains, “so they don’t suddenly start casting resurrection or other high-level effects.”
The Fallbacks are led by the reluctant rogue Tessalynde Haldendria — Pak likens her to a Wolverine-esque leader who didn’t ask for the role. The ragged band also includes Baldric Goodhand, a pragmatic cleric who negotiates with divine forces for spells rather than worship in the conventional sense, and a domesticated otyugh named Uggie. After their confrontation with the town watch, the Fallbacks find themselves opposed by a more conventional adventuring party — one with a devout cleric, an elder wizard, and a firm belief that kobolds serve evil dragons.
Pak is drawn to stories that interrogate power and heroism.
“This series explores the difference between what those in authority call a hero and how the marginalized define heroism,” he says. “It also examines what happens when ordinary people suddenly inherit responsibility and must decide what kind of leaders they will be.”
Below is an exclusive five-page preview of issue #1 of Dungeons & Dragons: The Fallbacks.
Source: Polygon
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