I'll confess: My love of the novel Moby Dick began with this illustrated edition. It plucks out the best parts of the story from Melvilles somewhat overwhelming prose and gets right to the heart of what makes this work and enduring classic. ( )

I know what you're thinking: A comic book abridgment of a classic novel? Buh? This isn't a replacement for reading Moby Dick. What it is is 40 pages of just insanely gorgeous and badass illustrations of Moby Dick by Bill Sienkiewicz. Seriously, I'd like to have framed prints of like half of the pages in this thing. ( )

A lot of people have mistakenly reviewed this version as the original, unabridged Moby Dick. This is the graphic novel version.

I recently bought a used copy of the Classics Illustrated Moby Dick drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz, and I was not disappointed. This is the same Bill Sienkiewicz of Elektra and Daredevil fame, the same Sienkiewicz I thought was the greatest comic book artist of all time when I was a teen.

Sienkiewicz brings his unique brand of surrealism and expressionism to the great American novel about dark obsession and madness. Sienkiewicz's art captures Ahab's madness perfectly. As Ahab's obsession grows, Sienkiewicz uses a recurring image of a scratchy black and white demonic face that appears in its own box. This, of course, captures the book's theme perfectly. Sienkiewicz's feverish depictions of the crew show how Ahab's madness spreads to even the most reluctant sailors, and his depictions of the monsterish white whale draw the reader into the fear and mystery that have twisted Ahab's mind.

If you've never read the orignial Moby Dick, Herman Melville intertwined chapters of action and theme-driven plot with scientific chapters on whales and the industry of whaling. It is a long and strange, but rewarding read. This graphic novel focuses on the action-driven plot and theme to capture the essence of the original story. All of the famous images and scenes from the original are here: the opening scenes with Ishmael and the tattooed savage, Queequeg; the appearance of Ahab on deck; the making of the coffin and Ahab's special harpoon; the tri-works, etc. ( )