The Golden Compass, Volume 1 [graphic novel]

His Dark Materials is one of my favourite book series of all time, so I was totally shocked and excited to stumble upon this graphic novel adaptation during a random browse of my local library's comic book section. The story a bit more simplified than I would like to see, but it's a long and complicated book, so I'll forgive them somewhat since they get the main gist of the story. What doesn't really make this a higher rated book is that the artwork falls somewhat short. In most graphic novels the emphasis is on the dialogue, with the visual narration meant to fill in any descriptive elements that the book would normally contain. The style of artwork used in this book - which to me is immediately identifiable as being quite French and show more highly simplified without being truely minimal - doesn't really convey the full depth of Pullman's literary masterpiece. His narrative style is both subtle and rich in description, which creates a highly atmospheric text that just doesn't mesh well with this style of art. It largely left me feeling like I was reading a story for little children with no active imagination, and left me yearning for the dusky eves of Lyra's gambols around Oxford, the majesty of Lord Asrael's daemon snow leopard, and the highly tense atmosphere of Lyra's time with her mother - as originally described by Pullman. I'll read the second volume to complete the story, but I wish that a better artist would have gotten hold of the story or that they had left it alone completely. show less

Not really feeling the artwork...

Let me preface this review by saying that I'm a huge (HUGE!) fan of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Not the World's Biggest Fan, because that honor obviously goes to Laurie Frost (author of The Elements of His Dark Materials, an exhaustive, 560-page HDM reference book endorsed by the man himself). But big enough that I own more than a dozen non-fiction titles about the franchise, including a quiz book, and have been planning a HDM-themed menu for the Vegan Month of Food (google it!) for years. (The pressure! I want everyone to love the series as much as I do, you know?) In times of grief, I turn to certain passages from The Subtle Knife for comfort. I know I tend to throw around the word show more "favorite" in book reviews, but His Dark Materials is my all-time favorite book. (And yes, I count the omnibus as a single entity.) So, pretty big.

When I saw that the series would receive the graphic novel treatment, I was predictably psyched. I instantly pre-ordered a copy - but by the time it arrived, months later, life had gotten pretty chaotic. I had barely enough time to flip through it before I was forced to relinquish it to ye ole TBR pile. What I saw was not encouraging: the artwork put me off right away. Having already been burned once by the film adaptation, excitement gave way to dread.

But you know what? Now that I've read it, I'm actually pleasantly surprised. Granted, I'm still less than thrilled with the illustrations. Everything is hard lines and sharp angles. Lyra in particular is scrappy, and not in a good way; her hair seems to have fought a losing battle with a weed whacker, and in some panels the twelve-year-old girl looks more like a thirty-year-old smoker. (Hard living, man.)

To be fair, though, the daemons are as lovely as the humans are unattractive. The golden monkey, in particular, is just as I imagined him: gorgeous and fierce and full of hate and evil. Likewise, the cover art is simply stunning. I wish the inside was even just half as colorful and vibrant.

For a graphic novel, it's a little more dialogue-heavy than I'm accustomed to; as a result, on certain pages (or even spreads) the artwork is absolutely dwarfed by speech bubbles. (Though you could count this as a positive or a negative, I suppose.)

Yet the adaptation by Stéphane Melchior-Durand is actually pretty good. Volume 1 spans the period when we first meet Lyra and Pan hiding in a cupboard in Jordan College at the time of Lord Asriel's return, through her tutelage and escape from Mrs. Coulter, right up to the point when Lord Faa agrees to let Lyra accompany the Gyptians on their rescue mission to the North. This is the first of three planned volumes and, if the first one is any indication, the set should come in somewhere around 250 pages. While some scenes are changed a little - for example, to provide needed context and detail - the comic is true to the spirit and feel of the original story.

That said, I wouldn't recommend reading it cold. There's a lot of information left out - as I read, I could feel my brain spinning to fill in the blanks - and without the necessary background, the story's bound to feel confusing or incomplete. This is a series best suited to existing fans. Once the entire series is available, I can definitely see myself re-reading it when I need an HDM fix but don't have time to tackle the novels.

It might also be useful for parents who want to introduce their children to Lyra and Iorek and the world of the mulefa. Even though the trilogy is classified as YA, it's a complex and nuanced story; and at more than 1,000 pages, it might prove too much for younger readers. The graphic novel could make a nice stepping stone for this audience in particular. For adults, though, I'd recommend reading the source material first.

On a final note, what most concerns me about these adaptations (above and beyond the artwork, even) is the time line: if each book translates to three volumes, with a new volume released every year, then it'll take a decade (okay, nine years) before the project is done. WTF!? It doesn't take artists this long to create new material from scratch! Nine years is kind of bonkers, especially considering that Philip Pullman wrote the trilogy in seven! Egads.

Four stars for my fangirl heart; two or three, probably, for new readers.

www.easyvegan.info/2016/03/23/the-golden-compass-graphic-novel-volume-1-by-stephane-melchior-durand/ show less

I've never read the book series before, and I quickly got confused as to sudden jumps in time and plot points that were barely fleshed out. It did make me want to go out and find the source material, so it might work better for a fan of the series than it did for me.

Since I haven't read the novel in a while, I felt that I was able to enjoy the story as it is in this medium. Even so I did feel like things moved a bit fast sometimes, but that's usually my problem with graphic novel adaptations anyway. Overall, I enjoyed it. I have volume 2 and hope to start that soon. Unfortunate that volume 3 won't be out until September. XP

Pretty good adaptation. Wish it was longer.

This is a story of fantasy and adventure.

The world of Philip Pullman’s internationally bestselling His Dark Materials saga is brought to visual life in book 1 of a three-volume graphic adaptation of The Golden Compass.

The above is the summary provided by Goodreads.