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3.16 AVERAGE
3.16 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great ideas that don’t quite come together how you hope. It’s still a fun read, but the creators could have spent a little more time in the kitchen cooking this into a more cohesive story.
I picked up the whole 4 volume collection for dirt cheap, so I will read it through to the end. Maybe Barbiere and Mooneyham find a better rhythm to the story as things go on.
I picked up the whole 4 volume collection for dirt cheap, so I will read it through to the end. Maybe Barbiere and Mooneyham find a better rhythm to the story as things go on.
Interesting concept, poorly executed. Story was very heavy on cliches, too many troupes. I also had difficulty following the action scenes. Likely won't read the rest of the series.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
Five Ghosts is a definite nod to the pulps of the 1930s and 1940s. Adventurer Fabian Gray has an accident that causes the ghosts of five literary adventurers to seal themselves to him (one is Sherlock Holmes, one is Merlin, one is Dracula). He can draw on their power as needed, but the ghosts can try to overwhelm him. As a result of the accident, his sister lies in a comatose state and Fabian is determined to right the wrong.
Fabian finds out that someone is after him, and he enlists unusual help. Along the way, he has to confront each of the five ghosts in a test in order to get them to help him. Fabian's sidekick is brainy, bespectacled Sebastian, who is there to guide him and look out for him.
The story by Frank J. Barbiere is very retro with cults and spiders and lost cities. The art by Chris Mooneyham is straight from the Joe Kubert School or Cartoon and Graphic Art where he graduated from. The art has strong lines and is great to look at.
I was given a review copy of this graphic novel by Image Comics and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for letting me review this book.
Fabian finds out that someone is after him, and he enlists unusual help. Along the way, he has to confront each of the five ghosts in a test in order to get them to help him. Fabian's sidekick is brainy, bespectacled Sebastian, who is there to guide him and look out for him.
The story by Frank J. Barbiere is very retro with cults and spiders and lost cities. The art by Chris Mooneyham is straight from the Joe Kubert School or Cartoon and Graphic Art where he graduated from. The art has strong lines and is great to look at.
I was given a review copy of this graphic novel by Image Comics and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for letting me review this book.
I thought the artwork in Five Ghosts was excellent but the first volume didn’t really do it for my story and character wise. The series was recommended to me on the London Bookshop Crawl so I imagine it’s one that improves if you persevere. This felt too much like an introduction, where as other Image Comics first volumes have read have plunged me right into the story and wanting to read more.
Fabian Gray is an Indiana Jones type figure, an adventurer and treasure hunter. When he and his sister try to steal the Dreamstone, things go wrong leaving his sister in a coma and him haunted by five literary ghosts. There’s some Nazis too and each ghost gives him a test…I’m not entirely sure why. The tests are all over very quickly and I didn’t really get the point of it all. There’s probably a lot of mileage in literary ghosts but, to me, the ghosts could have been anyone.
Other than Sherlock Holmes, I wasn’t sure who the ghosts were meant to be either. A quick look at Wikipedia tells me: “Ghosts” referred to as "The Wizard", "The Archer", "The Detective", "The Samurai" and "The Vampire". It has been suggested these correspond to Merlin, Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, Miyamoto Musashi, and Count Dracula.
Anyway, I did really like the style of Chris Mooneyham's artwork, there’s some interesting use of colour palettes and a range of styles. Each episode has a vintage style comic cover (by Ben Templesmith) and there’s plenty of full page drawings, as always with Image, which stand up well on their own.
Fabian Gray is an Indiana Jones type figure, an adventurer and treasure hunter. When he and his sister try to steal the Dreamstone, things go wrong leaving his sister in a coma and him haunted by five literary ghosts. There’s some Nazis too and each ghost gives him a test…I’m not entirely sure why. The tests are all over very quickly and I didn’t really get the point of it all. There’s probably a lot of mileage in literary ghosts but, to me, the ghosts could have been anyone.
Other than Sherlock Holmes, I wasn’t sure who the ghosts were meant to be either. A quick look at Wikipedia tells me: “Ghosts” referred to as "The Wizard", "The Archer", "The Detective", "The Samurai" and "The Vampire". It has been suggested these correspond to Merlin, Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, Miyamoto Musashi, and Count Dracula.
Anyway, I did really like the style of Chris Mooneyham's artwork, there’s some interesting use of colour palettes and a range of styles. Each episode has a vintage style comic cover (by Ben Templesmith) and there’s plenty of full page drawings, as always with Image, which stand up well on their own.
Rando pickup from used bookstore, fast-moving (mebbe a little too much). But looking forward to more. So picturing Henry Cavill and Tom Hiddleston as main characters . . .
Just not a style I like as much as others. I may pick up the second trade to see if it gets better.