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A review by apageinthestacks
American Gods: Shadows #1 by Scott Hampton, P. Craig Russell, Neil Gaiman, Glenn Fabry
4.0
Full review: https://midnightvoltage.wordpress.com/2017/03/16/american-gods-1-comic-review/
4.5/5.
I had seen a lot of negative reviews about this online, and I don't really understand why. Yes, it's a very literal adaptation, but Gaiman's prose is so good and works so well I didn't mind. I guess in that sense this is less of a comic and more of an illustrated novel, because the art doesn't really add anything new to the story, but just sort of enhances the words--which I'm fine with.
The only negative thing for me was actually the art itself...which at the beginning made me rate this 3 stars, then slowly 4, but at the end I decided to go with 4.5. No, I wasn't a huge fan of the art, but despite all that, once I got into it I loved it. Sure, this is one of my all-time favorite books, and I really, really wish it could've had amazing art by Chris Riddell or Dave McKean or Greg Capullo (oh man that would be so utterly amazing) or any number of other artists.
I'm not a huge fan of Russell in general (though he's good at adapting things text-wise), and that's definitely the biggest hurt to this book. The backgrounds were fairly bland, and I'm not a fan of the style used for the faces. There were some really innovative things done in the last scene (which, warning, it is incredibly graphic, as is the novel itself), though, and I'm hoping the future issues are more like that.
Maybe I'm blinded in my love for the book and for Gaiman. But I don't care, because at the end of the day I loved it, despite the disappointing art.
4.5/5.
I had seen a lot of negative reviews about this online, and I don't really understand why. Yes, it's a very literal adaptation, but Gaiman's prose is so good and works so well I didn't mind. I guess in that sense this is less of a comic and more of an illustrated novel, because the art doesn't really add anything new to the story, but just sort of enhances the words--which I'm fine with.
The only negative thing for me was actually the art itself...which at the beginning made me rate this 3 stars, then slowly 4, but at the end I decided to go with 4.5. No, I wasn't a huge fan of the art, but despite all that, once I got into it I loved it. Sure, this is one of my all-time favorite books, and I really, really wish it could've had amazing art by Chris Riddell or Dave McKean or Greg Capullo (oh man that would be so utterly amazing) or any number of other artists.
I'm not a huge fan of Russell in general (though he's good at adapting things text-wise), and that's definitely the biggest hurt to this book. The backgrounds were fairly bland, and I'm not a fan of the style used for the faces. There were some really innovative things done in the last scene (which, warning, it is incredibly graphic, as is the novel itself), though, and I'm hoping the future issues are more like that.
Maybe I'm blinded in my love for the book and for Gaiman. But I don't care, because at the end of the day I loved it, despite the disappointing art.