Vampire Academy: A Graphic Novel [Paperback]

Leigh Dragoon (Adapter), Richelle Mead (Author), Emma Vieceli (Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: August 23, 2011 | Series: Vampire Academy

Look out for Bloodlines, Richelle Mead’s new series set in the world of Vampire Academy, coming August 2011!

After two years on the run, best friends Rose and Lissa are caught and returned to St. Vladimir's Academy, a private high school for vampires and half-bloods. It's filled with intrigue, danger - and even romance. Enter their dark, fascinating world through a new series of 144-page full-color graphic novels. The entire first Vampire Academy novel has been adapted for book one by Leigh Dragoon and overseen by Richelle Mead, while the beautiful art of acclaimed British illustrator Emma Vieceli brings the story to life.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Emma Vieceli is a professional artist and writer based just outside of Cambridge in the UK. Her credits include work on the Manga Shakespeare series (Amulet Books), My Little Pony (Hasbro), Comic Book Tattoo (image) and Girl comics (Marvel).

Leigh Dragoon lives in Northern California. Her credits include work on the Fraggle Rock comics (Archaia Comics), The Faerie Path Mangas (TokyoPop) and The Timeline Series (Rubicon Publishing / Scholastic Canada).

Richelle Mead lives in Seattle and is the author of the international bestselling Vampire Academy series. When not writing, she can be found watching bad movies, inventing recipes, and buying far too many dresses.

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Razorbill; Original edition (August 23, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595144293
• ISBN-13: 978-1595144294
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Adaptation, For Fans & Future Fans August 28, 2011

By Rhianna Walker VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

You'd only have to read my review of the book this graphic novel is based on to know I love the freshness Mead brought to the teen vampire fiction genre. It's one of my favorite just-for-fun reads and a series I have turned friends and family onto multiple times. Seeing it being adapted into one of my favorite mediums instantly gave it must-have status. But could the team of Dragoon and Vieceli pull it off without treading on the toes of fandom and author alike?

As far as the story goes I think Dragoon did a great job of adapting the book into a graphic novel. My only issue there is that the final few scenes felt rushed. I had to flip back and make sure I hadn't missed a page or two. Another thing I felt did not translate well was Dimitri in general. Both visually and in dialog he fell flat. He's not my favorite character already so it would have been great to at least have him be more visually compelling.

In full color from start to finish the quality on this book is fantastic. Vieceli's style treads the line between comic and manga (much like the Twilight adaptation) but aside from Mia's creepy Lolita-styled hair and clothing I didn't feel was consistent with the book it works. I definitely found Mia distracting in this, her hair in particular felt jarring. It looked out of place in a bad way. I think if that had been toned down just a little it would have been great but it kicked my love of this adaptation down from love to like.

On the whole this is a nicely done adaptation that any die-hard fan of the Vampire Academy series should snap up. If you've not read the books and have been considering it I would certainly suggest giving this a try as it is a nice starting point. Can't wait for the release of the Frostbite (VA #2) graphic novel in spring 2012!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Little more than eye candy for VA fans September 4, 2011

By Cyndy Otty

Format:Paperback

In my opinion, a media transition needs to stand on its own so it's not fair to compare it to the original. Though, it should maintain that general feel of the source material. This adaptation has the unfortunate distinction of being taken from one of my favorite series (though, in my humble opinion, one of the weakest books from it). However, it's been a few years since I read the book so I admit I'm slightly foggy on the details, which might be a positive thing.

Anyway, what I do remember is that I fell in love with Rose. Seeing her story brought to life this way is very refreshing, but this is a pretty light book in terms of action which leaves the art kind of lacking. Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful. And it's very accurate to the descriptions from the book. But I wouldn't find it nearly as interesting if I weren't already familiar with the story.

The real drawback to me is that it doesn't feel like Rose telling the story. Her snarky wit is largely omitted, which is a shame. Perhaps this is because of the necessary condensing that the book requires to be adapted, but that doesn't explain away the disjointed way her inner-dialogue is presented. Obviously large chunks of exposition and pontification can't very well be put into a thought bubble, but I am a bit wary of future books being adapted as most are far longer than this one.

Newcomers will undoubtedly be at least slightly confused by the book, but VA fans will be pleased if only for the eye candy. All things considered, this is pretty underwhelming, but I'm still interested to see the rest of the series.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Review by Sandy @ Scribing Shadows December 16, 2011

By SilverSparrow04

Format:Paperback

I am a somewhat new comer to the Vampire Academy fandom; I picked up the first book in January this year and quickly finished the series in July. I loved the first book, I found it fun, enjoyed the action and Rose's sassy, "take no prisoners" attitude and thought Richelle Mead's world of moroi, dhampir and strigoi to be an interesting addition to the vampire genre. That being said although my love for the series went up or down depending on which book I was reading as a long fan of graphic novels I was looking forward to reading this adaptation and seeing how all the characters looked as well as the action scenes.

It was disappointing to say the least; in short the adaption from novel to graphic novel was not a smooth one. As a fan I don't know how obvious the issues I spotted are to someone who hasn't read the book but to me I found the plot to be rushed and the transitions choppy. There was little to no character and plot development and therefore this book had the unfortunate impression of an elephant trying to fit into a Fiat. The only good things was that the art looks a lot better in person than it does on screen and I liked most of the artist's interpretation of the characters. The action scenes however could have fared better with more use of panels because at times it felt as if I was skipping over point "B" when moving from "A" to "C".

In conclusion, despite my lack of enthusiasm for this book I will be giving the instalment for Frost Bite a read because considering how cute Christian turned out I want to see Adrian and Frost Bite was one of my favourite books in the series. Hopefully we'll actually get some character development so I can stat caring for the characters again.