When one of the best graphic novels of all time gets made into a movie, you better believe expectations are going to be high.
I know I’m probably in the minority, but let me start off by saying this is my favorite movie adaptation of a graphic novel. I’ve heard a lot of the negative comments and I wholeheartedly disagree with them. For one, Watchmen is such a complex story that it’s damn near impossible to include everything. However, I was SHOCKED during the film at how accurate it is to the book! The story was fresh in my mind since I read it about a month before watching the film on DVD. As far as the film being accurate to the story, it is dead-on. Now, I know the ending was different than the book. But it really fit in with the way the film was done. This is not your typical “superhero” film, so don’t expect it to play by the same rules as most others do. Watchmen is dark, violent, and has some pretty steamy sex scenes just like the book. That’s why it earned itself a big fat R-rating. Overall, I thought the movie was awesome and a lot better than I expected it to be.
What do you get when you cross the racial hatred from the 1930’s, the bravery of a young girl, and a strange parallel world deep in the South? You get Bayou. This new book from DC Comics is a fascinating dark fairy tale that takes you on a journey with a young girl named “Lee”. When her white friend is swallowed by a strange creature, Lee’s father is falsely accused of taking the girl and is about to be lynched. Lee suddenly must go on a journey to this parallel world to rescue her friend and clear her father’s name. On the way she meets talking dogs, vicious crows, and an unexpected green friend named “Bayou”. The story sucks you in from the beginning and leaves you wanting more with the turn of each page. After reading Volume 1, I found myself already excited for the next volume to be released. I’m not sure when DC is planning on it, but I sure hope it’s soon. Overall, it’s a great story that has the potential to become a classic.
In other Batman news, the hardcover version of Batman: Private Casebook puts the Dark Knight against some dangerous foes such as the new Ventriloquist, Scarface, and The Riddler. This collection of stories is written by Paul Dini and even includes one on the mysterious Suit of Sorrows. The art by Dustin Nguyen is as sharp as ever making the stories more fascinating. It’s not the best hardcover to come out of the Batman series, but it is one that any serious fan should check out.
Batman, dead?
That's what it appears according to this book's title. However, once you open the book, your mind goes through a roller coaster of a story with so many twists and turns. By the time you reach the middle of the book, you'll probably be tempted to scream out of frustration as to what the hell is going on. But keep reading, because piece by piece the story starts to come together. I admit I was real confused for the first half of the book. But once I started to realize what was going on, I couldn’t put it down. The illustration and the story are both equally amazing in Batman R.I.P. It’s one of the darkest Batman stories around and will make you see the Dark Knight like never before.
The good thing about when graphic novels get put on the big screen is that the publishers almost always put out “Special Editions” of the books to promote the film. For the Watchmen film, DC Comics put out a really cool hardcover version of this legendary graphic novel. This is a very impressive set that boasts 400 plus recolored pages. Alan Moore created a masterpiece with Watchmen, and this hardcover set is definitely one to check out for old-school fans as well as ones who never read it before.
The Joker gets his own book!
The most famous out of all of Batman's villains finally gets to be the star of his own book. Joker, written by Brian Azzarello is a dark story about Joker’s release from Arkham Asylum, and his vengeance upon those who double-crossed him. Azzarello has crafted a very intriguing, psychological, and violent story about the maniac that is the Joker. He takes you through the crime underworld of Gotham as Joker confronts The Penguin, Riddler, Two-Face, and Killer Croc. Nothing is funny for these thugs as they are about to feel his wrath for stealing from him while he was in Arkham. For fans of the Batman series, and especially the film The Dark Knight, this is one hell of a graphic novel. It’s definitely one of DC Comics’ better releases of 2008.
What better way to plug a book than have Stephen King call it "The best graphic novel I’ve ever read."
I admire King's work a lot, so to hear a statement like that come from him made me extremely curious about Y: The Last Man. However, I didn't want to be swayed just because of a great writer's opinion. It was time to crack open the book to see for myself!
After the first few pages I felt as if I was watching a thriller. The events that unfolded within those pages led up to a sudden destruction of all male species on the planet. I suddenly realized I was in for one hell of a story. Y: The Last Man explores what the world would be like if all men were gone. However, it doesn’t stop there. In comes a twist in the story when you find out one man named Yorick is still alive. Now there are more questions raised. How the hell did he survive? And how is he going to stay alive when there are militant feminists out there that want him dead? I still haven’t gotten the answers even after reading Vertigo's awesome deluxe edition of book one. But I do know that once book two is released, I’ll be all over it. For a graphic novel, I haven’t found many that can live up to this one. So I guess you could say Mr. King’s statement wasn’t all hype.
