Customer Reviews

Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (Graphic Novel)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Sadly, I have never had the opportunity to read Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" Novels. So I have no grounds for comparison, rather I can only rate this book as it stands on its own (and theirs nothing wrong with that). I bought this book for a friends birthday. She is a Steve Niles fan and picks up all his comics series (30 days of night, wake the dead, freaks of the heartland) as they come out. So naturally, this was a good choice. I was never a Steve Niles myself, not that his work is bad or anything, its just I never got into the whole "vampire" thing. On top of that, those comics were often accompanied by artwork outside my tastes.
I decided to give the book a try after my friend forced me to borrow it... I have to admit, it is one incredible book. Take this from a non-vampire fan. This book is presented in graphic novel format. Don't mistake it for a comic book. Though there are the occasional word bubbles, this is primarily presented with novel style paragraphs to pictures, which I might add are gorgeously rendered. Before Even getting 1/3 of the way through the book I had become overwhelemed with curiosity and fear. Often I would find my heart racing and my adrenaline up, something i should say never happens when i read. The images only help the moody atmosphere. Despite any inconsistancies it may have with its source story, this book is excelent. I place it amungst the greatest of graphic novels such as Blankets, Yossel, Maus, etc. (keep in mind it is nothing like them). Give this book a try, you might LOVE it!

The graphic novel is almost a word-for-word match of the book. Passages like "he turned left into the small hallway" gets one panel and drawing, then "and left again into his bedroom" get another panel and drawing. That works in a book, but it is pointless in a graphic novel. And the corresponding illustration shows a dark figure in a dark hallway, with no detail and no imagination. The authors took nearly every sentence in the book and made a corresponding illustration, even if it added nothing. This makes the graphic novel actually longer than the book (240 pages for the graphic novel, 170 pages for the book). It was really boring, and I found I could read the book in less time, and got more out of it.

The drawings are gritty and dark, but not to convey style or atmosphere: It was to hide the fact that no imagination went into it. If the book said the street was dark, the illustrator drew only darkness - no buildings or streetlights or windows or sky or cars... just darkness. I'm impressed that they remained so faithful to the book, but it defeats the purpose of a graphic novel. Stick figures could have conveyed just as much expression.

Lastly, for those who are looking at this to gain insight into the movie: This is a vastly different story. There's no hidden explanations or back-stories or secret musings that would make you understand the movie better.

Not too much to say here.

As others have mentioned, this is perhaps more of an illustrated novel than a comic book, as it frequently has very long blocks of text to go with only a few panels. Perhaps even more significant, all of the actual language, or at the very least almost all of it, is lifted directly from the novel. Stuff is cut out, of course, but nothing is added in, as far as I can tell. Needless to say, this makes it incredibly faithful to the source material, and though it is sometimes condensed somewhat, nothing at all is really cut out. This can cause some concerns, as parts of the book just don't take to being shown this way, particularly the portions regarding Neville's research. Again, as others have mentioned, much of this amounts to little more than him sitting around and thinking or looking through a microscope, which naturally means that there isn't all that much to look at. On the other hand, most of the novel *does* take well to this format, and the artwork itself is generally excellent. Actually, I'm not in love with how the actual humans look, but the vampiries look terrific, and they matter more anyway. Furthermore, Matheson's sort of flatly, simply poetic language is generally very well suited for this sort of format, and they have wisely kept in almost all of the best lines.

Anyway, this is an very interesting adaptation, and any fan of the novel ought to check this out if they have any interest in comics at all. It's certainly not necessary for you to have read the novel to get this as it is, again, pretty much all here, but I figure that anyone who's actually looking at this has almost certainly read the novel, so that's who I need to address.

A different take on the vampire story. The artwork and story worked well together, and it really makes the reader feel the protagonist's depression, and the almost claustrophobic feeling when the vampires are out at night. Excellent read!

This is the graphic novel adaptation of my absolute favorite book. It does not leave anything out. I have the original four part series that is collected here in one source, and let me tell you it was extremely difficult to locate them. SO buy this if you know what's good for you...Or you can scavenge through every back alley comic book store across the country like I have. You're choice.

I have read both the original text and the graphic novel that has been based off it. And I can say that to anyone who buys this version of Matheson's post- apocalytic survival horror (TM:) tale, they won't be missing out on anything. The book is almost a word for word retelling of the original, but with lush and beautiful pictures accompanying them in comic book format.

As at least one other reviewer has noted, this graphic novel is nothing more than a rewrite with illustrations of Richard Matheson's novel. This would be fine, even great, if the artwork were good. It isn't. Even if you have not read the novel, this illustrated version is disappointing. The artwork is entirely devoid of any inventiveness, energy, inspiration. I've seen first-pass storyboards that were vastly more compelling than the illustration in this book. (Check out the storyboarded alternate ending to 28 Days Later for an example.)

This will be adequately entertaining for fans of graphic novels who are unfamiliar with Matheson. Otherwise, it's a disappointment.

There are two major pitfalls in adaptations. The adaptation can either be too loose or too true to the material. Most can cite too loose translations but rarely do we criticize material for being "too true" to the details while losing the spirit. Zack Snyder's utterly boring Watchmen movie is one prime example.

This book is way too close to the source material. Every line and every word seems to be transcribed directly from the original text without regard to what works in storytelling. At times it works, but for the most part it plods along in much the same way the source material plods along. Niles even includes the boring chapters about how the disease turned people into vampires which not only stop the story short but ask you to believe that the construction worker hero has learned biology and pathology in his spare time.

The artwork is suitably desperate and creepy but the story is too long and too true to the source material to really be entertaining.

This book is extremely dark. It takes a strange turn when he notices people he use to know in his past life. Every night they throw rocks at his house and screming at him to come out, trying to drive him to insanity. He keeps having visions in his sleep of his past love named Virgina. This is a book you should definately read in daytime. This book is very different from the movie that recently came out. In this book you can see the faces and recongnize who they are throught the book.

For whatever bad marks this book has gotten, it is terrific.

It tells of Robert Neville's journey & struggle very well. Reads more like a novel but has just enough panels to be a comic book!

This book is simply better than the I AM LEGEND movie and actually is closer to the Vincent Price movie adaptation, LAST MAN ON EARTH, which is closer to the novel anyway.

Neville is a simple man (not a Lt. Colonel in the Army) who realizes he is alone and becomes obsessed with survival and catching vampires!

The writing is engaging enough an the art is the perfect mix of B&W.

READ IT! you won't regret it!