Critical Role: Tales of Exandria Volume 2--Artagan

by Sam Maggs, Aviv Or (illustrator), Cris Peter (illustrator)

The powerful and mischievous Archfey Artagan, also known as the Traveler, finally gets his day in court—which is the LAST thing he wanted.

But since he’s here, he’s happy to tell the Seelie and Unseelie courts how he’s graced the material realms with his knowledge and mentorship. But there are witnesses who may have a different take, and the consequences could be dire.

Writer Sam Maggs, artist Aviv Or, and colorist Diana Sousa bring you a fabulous new story from the world of Exandria, created in consultation with the cast of Critical Role!

Collects Critical Tales of Exandria--Artagan #1–#4.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Comics, Comic Book, Dungeons and Dragons, Fiction

120 pages, Paperback

Published January 28, 2025

About the author

Sam Maggs is a New York Times Bestselling and Eisner-nominated author of books, comics, and video games. Her novels include Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars and The Unstoppable Wasp: Built on Hope; she’s written for games like Call of Duty: Vanguard, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and Marvel’s Spider-Man; and her comics and graphic novels include Marvel Action: Captain Marvel, Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins, and Tell No Tales: Pirates of the Southern Seas. As her day job, she serves as the Senior Manager of Narrative Storytelling at Critical Role. She is also on-air talent for networks like Dropout and the Nerdist. A Canadian in Los Angeles, she misses Coffee Crisp and bagged milk. Visit her online at sammaggs.com or @SamMaggs!

Reviews

[Kailyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, not much plot and once it did get interesting, it ended. Maybe I'm not a big enough Artagan fan for this one.

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was honestly my favourite of all the CR comics I’ve read

[Tamara Morrill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This comic gives some insight into the travelers (artagan) background
If you like critical role you will like this additions

I would recommend to read this after Critical role vox machina and critical role mighty nein.

[Ben A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one quite a bit more than the previous volume in the Tales of Exandria series. It was an interesting story and I would love to the creative team back for another Artagan story.

Special Thanks to Dark Horse Comics and Edelweiss Plus for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

[DaniLanglie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was honestly a very fun one! I feel like with some of these comics from the land of Critical Role, they're a little too self-serious and don't want to deviate or play too much with tone. This one had a great amount of silliness to it that I really enjoyed.

The art style was fun and bright and kept my attention and focus, and I feel like again the format was really taken advantage of to do some fun visual gags. Artagan's facial expressions were wonderful, they really went all out with the exaggerations. And I liked the other fae designs as well, the judges were so cool and kind of spooky!

Fun to see Keyleth and Jester both come to Artie's defense, albeit in very different ways. But what's with that ending, and how does it interact with canon? I'm curious to see if this story does actually get continued in some form or other...

[Yani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun. I mean it's not really all that much of anything, but it's enjoyable. I've loved Aviv Or's art for a while now (since she did art for the Acquisitions Incorporated adventure I think), so it's nice to see her getting to stretch her artistic legs in this longer outing. Likewise Cris Peter's colouring is gorgeous.

The story, however, is a little thin. Basically it's a wafer. It kind of covers what happens to everybody's favourite unhinged archfey after the end of Critical Role Campaign 2... Maybe 3? But definitely 2. Because if it's not 3, then having Jester and Keyleth meet for the first time here is a continuity error I'm pretty sure.

The end of the story definitely sets something up for another volume or another adventure, but also might be the last we see of The Traveller.

It was enjoyable though.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains vague spoilers for Vox Machina and Mighty Nein since it's set after the end of both campaigns, but nothing overt other than 'these characters don't die by the end', I guess.

Unreliable narrator Artagan tries to justify his existence to a group of Arch Fey judges, leading to him realising that perhaps he's not the fun-loving, free-wheeling guy he thinks he is. In fact, he might be a bit of an asshole.

The art here has more substance than the Bright Queen series, but it skimps out on the backgrounds more often than not, so everyone's kind of just free-floating in coloured space.

[Rhys Causon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice comic with a very unreliable narrator. But that’s what makes it fun to read.

The inner monologue of Artagan feels authentic to his character from the Campaign and other comics he has appeared in so far and it was interesting to uncover more of his story.

The art, on all levels, is gorgeous, even if some characters (Keyleth in my opinion) feel a little off in their design. But even then it’s not too much of a negative against the book.

[Jeff Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine little book. They try to tell a looooong story in a short book. The art is great, and the words get the point across nicely. But a longer, more in-depth series would have served better.
It was like reading a "clip show" episode of a series that doesn't exist. It must have been much easier to write than a long series, because the ebbs and flows of a connected story didn't need to be figured out.
It's fine. It's entertaining and pretty. Didn't blow me away.

[Çınar Demir]

In terms of art style, this might be the best comic book Critical Role has ever released. It looks so damn gorgeous. There were multiple frames I wanted to screenshot/wallpaper. The plot is easy to follow. The NPC choice is great as well, Artagan could have a whole series dedicated to him. He's a fan favorite after all.

I loved seeing some old faces too! I didn't recognize everyone at the court but seeing Vex, Percy, Kiki, Scanlan was so fun. The Jester part was cute too!

[Gwynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

18.02.26 Gestern beendetes Buch: Critical Role - Tales of Exandria - Artagan. Ist Gutes tun genügend Spass und welche Konsequenzen hat ein zuviel an Chaos und vorgetäuschte Gottheit? Erinnerte mich an den Live beim MyraTreffen als #LARP ausgespielten Prozess auf #Karnicon. Wer Mighty Nein nicht kennt wird das Werk kaum so geniessen können.
#CriticalRole #VoxMachina #MightyNein #GraphicNovels #Comics #Fantasyromane

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Needed this little palette cleanser. I really loved getting to see how Artagan impacted both The Mighty Nein as well as Vox Machina. Artagan is seriously a funny character. This was so much better than The Bright Queen in my opinion. Also really loved the art style and color saturation of the panels.

[Mari Sil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Мені не дуже подобалася стилістика рівно до того, як нам показали Кіліт і Джестер… але хотілось би, щоб сам і Артаган був більш багатогранним, сексі і вайбовим, а він просто весь час виглядає як мудак.

Але сам концепт суду 🤌

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun graphic novel (not complete yet) on a character bridging currently available campaigns by Critical Role. Brightly colored, beautifully illustrated, linear layout. Yet it didn’t impact me either yay/nay so 3 stars. Fans should enjoy it as an extra treat.

[James Deaville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of familiar faces and lots of humour - a great new addition to critical role’s comic book collection.

[Olivia Ambrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much substance, but very fun :)

[Kate K. F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read about Artagan having to face some consequences.

[Ice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the artwork

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming, easy read with clear expressive artwork. Also the first of the comics to have a significant update to canon, which makes it feel of more consequence and weight than most of the others

[Codepoetz · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this Critical Role story, a powerful and mischievous Archfey is on trial before both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts.

[Lex Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Artagan and Critical Role comics and this was just a blast! what a cool look into his backstory.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovable art style and humor. Fun concept!

[ツツ · Rating 2 out of 5]

what was the point... the art is mid (looks nothing like the cover), mc super cliched (Irish trickster god/archfey), plot is not intriguing

snack read 29 of 2025

[✨ Flo ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Witty, funny, amazing art style

[Brittney Brand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily one of my favorite comics put out by Critical Role. This was just the right amount of fun and silliness that Artagan is known to create. Really hope they make more!

[Eeva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so fun!!! Can't wait for the continuation.

[Bret · Rating 5 out of 5]

That... is an ending I did not see coming. 😂

Extremely good! Might be my favorite so far! Great art, great tale, great ending, and great length!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the artwork & Jester & Kiki showing up together for the Traveler. Very fan service, much appreciate.

[Izzy Iz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really charming! One of the better Critical Role comics tbh :)

[Tor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seriously lackluster art and writing, I was excited for this one but like much like the first installment of Tales of Exandria I found it super disappointing :/