Customer Reviews

Blood

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a complex story, not easy to follow, maybe a bit disjoint. It's a vampire story, it's birth and death, it's aliens and Hades, and deformity and beauty.

Mostly, it's an incredible effort in visual narration, with the narration priovided by DeMatteis and the visuals by Kent Williams. Watercolors carry most of the story, and carry it in warm, sympathetic renderings of figure. GIven the nature of mixed media, it's never easy to distinguish between painting and drawings in pen, brush, or dry media, but the distinctions don't matter and often combine. Williams' artwork conveys every feeling needed, from love (or something like it), to despair, the blankness of clinical depression, to death and to emotions with no easy names.

The visual story is never better than the story itself, though, or not much better. I found the plot a bit weak - jumpy, ill-connected, and lacking in causal relations. It had moments, though, like vampiric nursing, that grab the reader. I enjoy graphic narration for the combination of graphics and narration. This time, it's the graphics that do the job.

//wiredweird

I have read this book many years ago and found that it is difficult to understand. There are two stories altogher and it hops from one story to the other and back, continuing to confuse the readers. Only when you complete the book that you can fully understand the whole story. I love this book as it forces the readers to think and trying to make logic out of the confusion.

The story is presented with great artwork fully in water color. The graphic alone would worth the money. This book is one worth collecting if you are a collector of Graphic Novels.

Although not mentioned here,Kent Williams is the illustrator of this series and he has done a great work in illustrating this genuine story written by Jim DeMatteis.'Blood' is not a classical comic based on heroes or childish imaginations.It is a tale that stands alone, completing itself and every page of it is a magnificient piece of art.
The tale is 'told' inside the tale, creating layers sometimes linked to each other in very poetic and unexpected ways.The greatness of the artwork quickly pulls you inside the story and you never want the tale to end and it doesn't...in some way.

I read this book in high school and I didn't understand it but I loved it. Later on I saw some of the Jungian symbolism and respected the way it branched into itself and how it's about the roles we play in life (with some vampirism thrown in).

Recently I saw the Munch exhibit and MOMA and realized the tribute that DeMatteis was giving to Munch in many of his panels. It has made me love the book all the more.

I still don't know what he's getting at, but that's ok.

this was one of the first graphic novels I ever read back in the days when comics were testosterone fuelled, and lycra ruled. the plot is brooding, dark and surreal written in beautiful succint prose but it is the fantastic art work that really does shine, echoing the narrative's strange wistful elegance. Top markes always.

I wouldn't buy from this seller again because a) when my item hadn't arrived for two weeks and I contacted the seller to find out where it was, only THEN did they inform me it was out-of-stock b) the seller provided false shipment information to Amazon, and actually shipped the item two days later than they said they did c) the item still had not arrived after several days past the ship date, and I discovered it still had not been delivered to the shipping company d) the item arrived water-damaged e) the seller would not replace the item, but only offer me a refund. Bad all around.