I adored Life is Strange and, like many fans, found myself in tears when the finale forced that wrenching choice between saving Chloe Price — Max Caulfield’s best friend turned girlfriend — or sparing their hometown, Arcadia Bay. I selfishly chose Chloe, and for years I’ve wondered what their life looked like after they left the ruined town. That exact premise drives Titan Comics’ Life is Strange Volume 1: Dust, first published in 2018 and now being reissued as a hardcover Deluxe Edition on November 25, 2025.
If you were put off by how Life is Strange: Double Exposure treated Chloe, this graphic novel will likely feel like a balm. Penned by Emma Vieceli with artwork by Claudia Leonardi, Dust follows Max and Chloe in the wake of the storm. Wracked by guilt over the consequences of Max’s time-rewinding and the toll those powers take on her health, the two leave Arcadia Bay and try to build a new life in Seattle — a life without second chances.
“Life is what it is, and we’ll take it as it comes,” Chloe says.
After a year in Seattle, unsettling episodes begin. At a pirate-themed costume party Chloe starts talking as though her mother and stepfather were still alive, then abruptly snaps back with no recollection of the exchange. Those moments — “flickers” — grow more frequent, and each one leaves Max with a nosebleed despite her not using her powers. When a subsequent flicker briefly makes Chloe vanish, the two decide to return to Arcadia Bay to investigate the source of the distortions.
Dust also tackles a long-standing question: did Max’s timeline manipulation trigger the storm that devastated Arcadia Bay? The game hints at that possibility, but never stages the catastrophe as a direct demand from fate. Volume 1 doesn’t offer a definitive answer, and Chloe — seeing the town again for the first time in a year — calls the idea out as ludicrous.
“To believe that our shitty personal lives can cause destruction on this level is narcissism,” Chloe tells Max.
Life is Strange Volume 1: Dust delivers much of what I wished Double Exposure had offered. While it doesn’t resolve every mystery, it knots together many of the loose threads left by the original game and brings back beloved figures — including Rachel Amber, whose murder is part of the first game’s arc. Rather than sidelining Chloe by suggesting she and Max simply drifted apart, the graphic novel confronts the hard questions head-on. Leonardi’s art is striking, and the Deluxe Edition supplements the story with glossy, full-page stills from the game.
Ultimately, Dust is a compelling read. Volume 1 closes on a surprisingly hopeful note, but its final line foreshadows further timeline complications with a familiar warning from the game: “This action will have consequences.”
Source: Polygon
