Black Orchid (edition 1991)

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. I wasn't sure, at the beginning, if I would be able to follow the storyline. It took a while, but then I began to get who was who and what the characters were trying to do. The lifelike drawings of the humans sometimes made identifying the characters a bit harder than in more cartoonlike graphic novels, but their full and detailed facial features made them more lifelike and...well, gruesome. The orchid peple were great. I wouldn't mind having a few of theme right here where I live. I need some of those seeds!

This is a story too immersed in the DC universe for a reader who is not a fan of those comics. OF COURSE I know who Batman is, and Lex Luthor, and Swampman, but I never really followed them and have never been a superhero fan. So the echoes of those stories in this one have nothing to bounce off. Have read twice, but probably not again. ( )

I picked this up solely because it has Neil Gaiman's name on it. I had no idea that it took place in the DC universe, with both Lex Luthor and Batman making appearances. But you know, I didn't really like it. I didn't like the art style, which looked like somebody Xeroxed photographs and drew over them. I didn't like the story, which didn't seem to go anywhere (though perhaps I might have gotten more out of if I recognized some of the other characters, who appeared to be people I was supposed to know). I suppose it's almost kind of reassuring to know that I don't adore every single thing Gaiman has ever touched. It makes his other works all that much more delightful. ( )

This is for the serious graphic novels reader - I admit to getting a bit lost and not quite getting all the comics-pop-culture refs. But the colours ... oh, the colours ... ( )

A superhero comic which starts with the superhero being killed is an unusual editorial direction. But this superhero is more than half plant. She grows again, regains some of her memories, and then makes her own decision about what to do next, while violent men seek her. ( )