Green Monk, by Brandon Dayton
I love graphic novels/comics and I love Heroic Fantasy and that's what you get with Green Monk. I practically learned to read on comics and I have quite a number in my library. Green Monk is a welcome addition in with the pocket sized variety-which is one of its striking features. It is postcard sized and as such every page is a panel. Dayton's art for the book perfectly gives you the stark resonance of a mythic tale. It is simple black and white and the panel by panel play forces you to take your time with the tale rather than than jumping quickly on the usual 6-8 panel page.
A sword and sorcery tale usually pits a hero against something monstrous and magical-Green Monk has that and like the truly great S&S tales there is always something more underlying too. The Green Monk, Alexey is wandering a mythical Russian countryside after being expelled from his monastery-bound with this is his magical greenblade-which has the power to break all things asunder.
Yes, I've pretty much just given you page one and I hate to tell too much in reviews so back to what I think of the tale. It's excellent, Dayton's yarn-spinning had me captivated. There is always more to the story than it initially looks-Dayton brought some nice twists from both sides of the conflict involved and I eagerly await what he does next with both the Green Monk saga and any other projects.
Here you can order Green Monk for the paltry sum of 5 bucks. A steal in the current comic market. Also check out his other pieces.
7 comments:
Thanks again for giving me the oppurtunity for this Brandon.
Even after discovering "comic" books like Asterix and Tintin, I'm still not a big fan of them, or graphic novels. I know some are supposed to be stupendous, and they are a completely different genre than just plain novels, but for me, in general, there are too many pictures and not enough words. I'm probably just too inflexible to give that sort of thing the attention it deserves, and if I ever sat down seriously with one, I'd probably enjoy it quite a bit. But until then ... *shrug*
Not a huge fan of the 'graphic novel' either. But if it was MY book being turned GN, I might suddely embrace the whole genre. :)
It definetly depends. There is some out there with great writing and horrible art and more often than not great art and medicore writing. As a comics conniseur I have become very picky-I have to like the art, teh writing and teh characters too at least in established lines-thus-Batman, Conan, Wolverine, the Avengers etc but there are also quite a number of novels being adapted for graphic novels. George R.R. Martins Hedge Knight series are good-OSC has some Alvin MAker's adapted-Jordans Wheel of Time too. Lots of crap out there don't get me wrong-but there are diamonds.
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Lots of diamonds if you look.
I'll try to check it out. I take referrals seriously, if I believe the person referring isn't just an undercover door to door salesman :P
Nope its not my book. I did meet Brandon on twitter and did say I would review it and I meant it. IF you like comics-fantasy-etc I would think you'll like it. I do honestly want to see what he comes up with next.
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