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geekwayne's review against another edition
4.0
'Gunland Vol. 1' with story and art by Captain Artiglio is a fever dream graphic novel full of weird ideas and strange art.
The story lets you figure things out as you go. You find yourself in a weird West world where people ride dinosaurs and odd skulls can confer strange powers. There are a couple bandit brothers. There is an orphan girl with an unclear past and a dead shot aim with firearms.
Sometimes you just have roll with the ideas in graphic novel and hang on for the ride. I'm glad I did here. What I found was some trippy world-building, some ugly characters and something that made me want to read more. Maybe that something was also the pretty cool art throughout this book.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
The story lets you figure things out as you go. You find yourself in a weird West world where people ride dinosaurs and odd skulls can confer strange powers. There are a couple bandit brothers. There is an orphan girl with an unclear past and a dead shot aim with firearms.
Sometimes you just have roll with the ideas in graphic novel and hang on for the ride. I'm glad I did here. What I found was some trippy world-building, some ugly characters and something that made me want to read more. Maybe that something was also the pretty cool art throughout this book.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
saramarie08's review against another edition
3.0
Welcome to a wild world of dinosaurs, outlaws with fun nicknames, and magic. The Doolin brothers, Duke and Dan, are just trying to get back to their loot but they’ve got robotic cops after them. Their other brother, Dave, just wants to find a quiet place to raise a girl he rescued. The Doolin father, “Death”, gifted each of his sons with a skull of a vampiric race, rumored to have magic capabilities. One grants a brother immortality, another skull grants the power to open portals to another dimension. This portal magic can be manipulated and used to decapitate adversaries. Dave and Dan leave the young girl with a friend, another outlaw and bounty hunter named “Symphony”, while they try to recover the third magic skull. Dave and Dan are captured, and an execution date is set for three months time. Meanwhile, Symphony teaches the girl how to shoot and how to protect herself. This all comes in handy when bounty hunters come after her, and she has to flee the city. All the attention garners some anger from another outlaw, “The Cherub of Golgotha”, who is upset that she is becoming more notorious than he, the previously most notorious child outlaw.
This is a fun story that asks for you to suspend all disbelief as disparate elements come together in one world - dinosaurs, the Wild West, advanced technology, and magic, to name a few. I could have used just a touch more world building - what “valley” do they all keep referring to? Is this earth or a different planet? how are there dinosaurs here? As this is volume one, maybe some answers will come out in future volumes. I'd also like to see how some of how outlaws get their nicknames. I can assume that "Death" got his name because of how deadly he is, but what about the rest of them? The art is cartoony and brightly colored. The dinosaurs are interesting and seem to be modeled after real creatures, but they hall have different names. The one thing that bugged me is that the girl looks like a chimp, and the only clue as to why is in the publisher's description, a mention of the band Gorillaz.
There is some cussing, including the use of the F-word, and some violence with the frequent gun battles, and gore when people are shot (brains are often splattered). The publisher rates this for ages 16 and up.
Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12
This review was made possible with an advanced reader copy from the publisher through Edelweiss. This graphic novel will be on sale July 28, 2020.
Read more graphic novel reviews at www.graphiclibrary.org.
This is a fun story that asks for you to suspend all disbelief as disparate elements come together in one world - dinosaurs, the Wild West, advanced technology, and magic, to name a few. I could have used just a touch more world building - what “valley” do they all keep referring to? Is this earth or a different planet? how are there dinosaurs here? As this is volume one, maybe some answers will come out in future volumes. I'd also like to see how some of how outlaws get their nicknames. I can assume that "Death" got his name because of how deadly he is, but what about the rest of them? The art is cartoony and brightly colored. The dinosaurs are interesting and seem to be modeled after real creatures, but they hall have different names. The one thing that bugged me is that the girl looks like a chimp, and the only clue as to why is in the publisher's description, a mention of the band Gorillaz.
There is some cussing, including the use of the F-word, and some violence with the frequent gun battles, and gore when people are shot (brains are often splattered). The publisher rates this for ages 16 and up.
Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12
This review was made possible with an advanced reader copy from the publisher through Edelweiss. This graphic novel will be on sale July 28, 2020.
Read more graphic novel reviews at www.graphiclibrary.org.
gabbyreadswithtea's review against another edition
4.0
Fun, atmospheric, guns blazing, kickass. I had a ton of fun while reading this. This was a random pick-up from my library and I encourage graphic novel readers to give it a go! If you were a fan of “I Hate Fairyland” I think this one could be for you.
If you love bounty hunters, kickass girls, dinosaurs, magic and post-apocalyptic settings all wrapped in one, this would be for you. Pitched as a sci-fi western, I haven’t read anything else like it.
Lots of death & gore, so if that’s not your thing, maybe skip this one. However I didn’t find the gore very disturbing - it was depicted very cartoonish.
Also enjoyed the small Pokémon Easter eggs sprinkled throughout. Can’t wait for the second volume!
If you love bounty hunters, kickass girls, dinosaurs, magic and post-apocalyptic settings all wrapped in one, this would be for you. Pitched as a sci-fi western, I haven’t read anything else like it.
Lots of death & gore, so if that’s not your thing, maybe skip this one. However I didn’t find the gore very disturbing - it was depicted very cartoonish.
Also enjoyed the small Pokémon Easter eggs sprinkled throughout. Can’t wait for the second volume!
mikeyb25's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
fernandie's review against another edition
2.0
Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
graypeape's review against another edition
5.0
Well, that was weird....
But it worked. Totally worked. For me, at least- I can tell this isn't going to be everyone's jam. We get plopped down into a story with no explanation of what's going on, where we are, when we are, and we just go from there. I'm not going to try and explain all of that, it's better if you go in knowing nothing (in my opinion, anyway). You'll figure it out as you go along, like I did. There is so much going on here- it's a Western, it's scifi, it's fantasy, there are dinosaurs, robots, some kind of crazy demon skulls that give the bearer powers, and a bad-ass little girl from another dimension on her way to becoming a gun-fighting legend. The story just sort of washes over you like a trippy dream, and the artwork fits the story perfectly. There's so much detail going on, with objects from our place and time popping up to make you wonder how they got there, and the coloring is just gorgeous. At first, the way the faces were drawn bugged me, but it so fits with the overall oddness of everything that that gripe sort of faded away. The little girl is especially well done- her expressions are so emotive, perfect for a child her age. I'll be looking out for the next volume for sure!
#GunlandVolume1 #NetGalley
But it worked. Totally worked. For me, at least- I can tell this isn't going to be everyone's jam. We get plopped down into a story with no explanation of what's going on, where we are, when we are, and we just go from there. I'm not going to try and explain all of that, it's better if you go in knowing nothing (in my opinion, anyway). You'll figure it out as you go along, like I did. There is so much going on here- it's a Western, it's scifi, it's fantasy, there are dinosaurs, robots, some kind of crazy demon skulls that give the bearer powers, and a bad-ass little girl from another dimension on her way to becoming a gun-fighting legend. The story just sort of washes over you like a trippy dream, and the artwork fits the story perfectly. There's so much detail going on, with objects from our place and time popping up to make you wonder how they got there, and the coloring is just gorgeous. At first, the way the faces were drawn bugged me, but it so fits with the overall oddness of everything that that gripe sort of faded away. The little girl is especially well done- her expressions are so emotive, perfect for a child her age. I'll be looking out for the next volume for sure!
#GunlandVolume1 #NetGalley
livinthebubble's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
4.0
I wasn't expecting to like this but damn, I really liked this!! I can't wait for the continuation of the series.
What I liked:
- the dinosaurs and humans aspect
- the wild west
- cool powers
- plot twists at the end of every chapter
- art style is beautiful and weird
- the characters, even though they had very little development
Why I gave it a 4☆:
- a lot isn't explained, which I hope will be in the following volumes
This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
What I liked:
- the dinosaurs and humans aspect
- the wild west
- cool powers
- plot twists at the end of every chapter
- art style is beautiful and weird
- the characters, even though they had very little development
Why I gave it a 4☆:
- a lot isn't explained, which I hope will be in the following volumes
This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
underwaterreader's review against another edition
3.0
The artwork was stunning and the mix of western and space was just so good. No Name Kid also was badass and I am excited to see her even more.
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