Sam Hart (1)

The Coldest City from Antony Johnston is first and foremost an espionage thriller which happens to be in the form of a graphic novel. I enjoy graphic novels but am far from well-versed in the form so I am probably not as concerned with the artwork as many will be. Unless, of course, it just really moves the story along for me or it really bogs the story down. That said...

I liked the artwork here though at times I found it to be more difficult than I would have liked to follow the characters show more and whether we were still in a flashback. These were not major issues and usually I reoriented myself within a frame or two. I would have liked to have seen a bit more emotion in the drawings but I think that is largely a personal preference.

The story itself was quite good and the various twists and turns of the story were plausible for this genre. The end was particularly rewarding (or irritating if you hate these kinds of things) for being both foreshadowed but not overly so.

I would recommend this to fans of both spy thrillers and graphic novels, though readers who are resistant to "comics as literature" should probably skip it since this is indeed a novel, told with pictures and text, and thus is literature, so you'll only make yourself upset when you get caught up in the story when you dislike the idea of a graphic novel.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss. show less

I kind of want to give this one star because I was soooooo not into it - but the writing isn't actually bad so I won't do that.

I saw the movie first and I *loved* it. While I realized the comic would be different, I thought I would still enjoy it. Little did I know, I was wrong.

First, it was in black and white, which I wasn't expecting. That's ok, but sometimes it's hard to see the details when there's only two colors and I struggled to tell what was going on. Turns out, that didn't really show more matter, because action/movement wise little was going on. This comic is all talk. All the political intrigue is done via dialogue and I just tuned out.

There was like, one fight scene, one shooting scene...

The movie is utterly unlike the comic and I'm grateful for that. This comic just wasn't for me. I do think it's useful for maybe clarifying what happened in the movie? Only the plot does seem different in the movie, so maybe it's not even good for that.

Just ugh. If you loved the movie, the comic might not appeal to you. show less

read in anticipation of the upcoming adaptation, atomic blonde.

the plot felt a little thin, to me. a few twists and turns, sure, but not much meat to it. i absolutely adored the art - the sparse, shadowy very stylistic illustrations were stark and beautiful. but they did make it difficult to keep track of characters (as i kept forgetting names). still, it was an enjoyable and quick read. and i'm looking forward to the film adaptation.

Not understanding all the low-ball scores for this one, aside from the fact that they wanted a hot Charlize Theron Atomic Blonde to be kicking all sorts of ass and didn't get it.

Instead, what was presented was a spy thriller much more in line with Ludlum or even Fleming. It takes its time introducing the characters, and runs them through their paces. The art is understated but well done.

I'm guessing the same people who would get upset with this would be the same ones that would read an Ian show more Fleming Bond book and get pissed that there aren't as many boobs, wisecracks, and explosions as the movies.

Me? I enjoyed it for what it was. A decent spy thriller. show less