The Ocean of Osyria (Hardy Boys Graphic Novels: Undercover Brothers #1) (No. 1) [Hardcover]

Scott Lobdell (Author), Daniel Rendon (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up

Collected from the first three Hardy Boys comics, here's the complete saga of Frank and Joe's adventure in the war-torn Middle Eastern land of Osyria! After rescuing Jackpot, a kidnapped prize-winning racehorse, Frank and Joe are stunned to return to Bayport and discover that the Department of International Security has arrested their best friend, Chet Morton, for stealing a priceless art treasure! The Hardy Boys decide the only way to clear the friend is to journey to the Middle East and find the Ocean of Osyria themselves!  Ages 8 to 12.

 

Papercutz is the exciting new graphic novel publisher that's building a huge following among the next generation of comics fans.  Even the most reluctant readers are becoming addicted to the Papercutz approach of giving classic characters a modern makeover!  Each Papercutz graphic novel features comics stories drawn in the style of the popular Japanese comics known as manga, and beautifully rendered with state of the art color.  While educators rave about the  high quality of the Papercutz writing and artwork, readers 8 and up are simply enjoying the great adventures found in each fun-filled volume.  Be sure to check out other Papercutz titles such as Nancy Drew, Totally Spies, and Zorro.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-The Hardy Boys make their first foray into graphic novels in this update of the classic series. The Ocean of Osyria, a priceless Middle Eastern artifact, is missing and has been mistakenly traced to Joe and Frank's friend Chet Morton. To save him from the treasure's rabid pursuers, the boys set out to find the necklace themselves. Both followers of the Hardy Boys and fans of graphic novels should form a sizable audience for this highly accessible adaptation. Manga devotees may also be intrigued: with their large eyes and angular features, the characters resemble the heroes and heroines of Japanese graphic novels. Osyria's entertaining mixture of action, suspense, and clean humor does not stray far from the content and tone of the boys' previous adventures, though an overeager attempt to update the series for a modern audience results in a few too many references to PDAs, video games, and the Internet. Simply adopting the popular graphic-novel format should be enough to attract a new generation of readers.-Lisa Goldstein, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Reviewed with Stefan Petrucha's The Demon of River Heights.

Gr. 4-6. These graphic-novel-style versions of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew adventures will appeal to young graphic-novel fans as well as readers new to the venerable amateur sleuths. The pocket-size books, first in their respective series, are appealingly presented. The manga-influenced art is very colorful, and the brisk pacing, with just a few frames per page, makes for an easy read--perfect for reluctant readers.

In The Ocean, those well-mannered Hardy boys, Joe and Frank (reimagined as tech-savvy crime solvers), return to fight a new generation of foes, the majority of whom appear to be Middle Eastern and French. Here, the young sleuths travel around the world in an attempt to recover a stolen artifact and save their best friend, who has been framed for the theft. Although this is a modernized version of the classic capers, with the Internet and cell phones playing key roles, the wholesomeness of the boys' principles remains the same.

In The Demon, Nancy, the classic American teenage heroine, manages to solve cases that baffle local police. This time she becomes involved in a student film about a local monster legend, which may turn out to be real, and a suspicious stranger arrives in town. For the most part, the artwork is crisp enough, but several pages appear to be substandard reproductions of original art. Carlos Orellana
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Papercutz (October 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159707005X
• ISBN-13: 978-1597070058
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 6.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,300,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A slap on the face, January 4, 2008

By 

Mike Sobocinski (Lansing, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ocean of Osyria (Hardy Boys Graphic Novels: Undercover Brothers #1) (Paperback)

This "graphic novel" is a slap across the face for those who are familiar at all with previous Hardy Boys products. It is shocking that the rights were granted for the production of this series when its writing quality is so low. The original Grosset & Dunlap texts always took care to actually research the subjects and settings that the Hardys would get involved in, but this "graphic novel" is inferior on every count. The writing quality is minimal, with some abysmally bad dialogue and situations, attempts at "technical references" that fail because they make no sense to anyone who actually knows about technology, horribly contrived sequences (and "solutions"), and inferior (supposedly trendy "manga-style") artwork.

I'm sorry but this shoddy product can only be explained in terms of cheap marketing gimmicks. It holds up neither as literature nor as a good comic book, but relies upon the inexperience of readers who are still unfamiliar with the actual Hardy Boys books (and the obsessive nature of Hardy collectors like me) to support its place in the market. Once I had actually read this book, I knew immediately that I could not support any more products of such inferior quality. It is very much overpriced when considering that it will be read in less than an hour, whereas the actual authentic Hardy Boys novels each provide several hours' worth of much higher-quality story (and thus tend to be worth re-reading afterward rather than staring at in resentment) - all for a cheaper price.

A comparison of the 1950s Hardy Boys product (found primarily through the 1960s reprints offered by selected used vendors on Amazon) and this dreck will confirm the truth of my claims. The old lushy painted covers, internal book illustrations that were richly detailed, with exciting and decently-researched stories (over 200 pages long), bound economically yet durably within a hardcover format. Although it was a step down when the stories were shortened (175-180 pages) and rewritten during the 1960s and 1970s, some of them were still good stories, and the durable illustrated hardcovers were still very nice. Similarly, the durable hardcovers gave way to cheaply-bound paperbacks, and were made still shorter (145-150 pages) but at least many of the stories remained of decent to good quality. Now, it has come to the point where the glossy paper is the most appealing thing about this overpriced drivel full of nonsensical plot problems, now delivering very little story at all.

I wrote a detailed letter of complaint to the publisher when this first came out, explaining all the problems and asking for the series quality to be maintained, but the letter was ignored by these people who care nothing about story quality, and who appear to be totally ignorant of the original source material of the Hardy Boys!! This is the rock-bottom of pointless hack-writing at its very worst, an insult to the very name of the Hardy. The original conception of one hardcover book per year was best for this series. Churning out things like this product many times a year does no one any good, merely cheapening the quality of the whole enterprise. Stratemeyer Syndicate should never have allowed this sort of thing. The poorly animated tv series from the 70s was better!! (Along with the related Gold Key comics at that time.) The original series had its "clunkers" to be sure, but also had many fine entries! (Check out, for example, the original versions of "The House on the Cliff" [212 pages]or "Hunting for Hidden Gold" [214 pages]. Even the shorter, rewritten versions of these stories are decent. To reduce the Hardy adventure format to a hackneyed comic-book semi-story format is truly a low point...especially when the new novels themselves look like they're fading from bookstore shelves.)

4.0 out of 5 stars The Hardy Boys: The Next Generation..., February 16, 2011

By 

D. S. Thurlow (Alaska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ocean of Osyria (Hardy Boys Graphic Novels: Undercover Brothers #1) (Paperback)

"The Hardy Boys", a staple of adventure detective fiction for several generations of American grade school males, has been recreated for the 21st century in the graphic novel format, with new and updated story lines. The first installment, "The Ocean of Osyria", features computer fraud, jewelry theft, and an exotic globe-trotting adventure for the two sleuths from the New England town of Bayport.

This series resurrects the characters from the traditional stories, including brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, their detective father Fenton Hardy, girlfriends Callie and Iola, and buddy Chet Morton. Frank and Joe are still in high school and still well-behaved role models. Not a lot else translates from the older stories. The plot of "The Ocean of Osyria" is very exciting but wildly improbable. The artwork borrows from the Japanese Manga style. Frank and Joe have some sort of ill-defined status as undercover investigators, which is their avenue to exotic and topical storylines.

"The Ocean of Osyria" is worth a good look as a recreation of the traditional characters, designed to appeal primarily to the latest generation of young readers. Older fans of the series may or may not be as enthralled by the updating.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars hardy boys are back in action, April 22, 2005

By 

Melissa Sack (georgia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ocean of Osyria (Hardy Boys Graphic Novels: Undercover Brothers #1) (No. 1) (Hardcover)

Frank and Joe Hardy are on the case. Their friend Chet has been ascused of stealing the Ocean of Osyria. He bought the item online and it turns out that the item was stolen. It's up to the Hardy Boys to find the clues and clear their friends name! Will they be able to prove that Chet was a victim not the suspect in the case? Read the first graphic novel of the Hardy Boys series to find out!

The book was written in comic book form. It was full of supence and keep the reader wondering what might happen next.
We would recommend this book. Boys who enjoy comics would enjoy reading this first book in a new series.