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geekwayne's review against another edition
4.0
'Complete Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll, adapted by Leah Moore & John Reppion with art by Erica Awano is an ambitious graphic novel which works in spite of the challenges of the source.
The problem is that the first book, 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,' is more narrative in nature, in spite of the loopy story. Young Alice chanses a White Rabbit down a hole. She meets a series of strange creatures and shrinks and grows and shrinks. She has a weird encounter with loyalty and makes it home intact and perhaps wiser for her journey. It is the better known book of the two, and has been adapted many times.
The second book, 'Through The Looking Glass,' is a bit more free-form in nature. Alice finds a strange world by following her cat through a mirror. She still meets really unusual characters, but the interactions consist more of long poems. There is some of this in the first book, but they are much longer here. That doesn't mean they aren't good, just that it's more poetry than prose. So it's still Alice, but the character journey is different.
The adaptation is quite good. This could be used by a scheming student to write a fairly convincing book report on the two books. The language rings true to the book and the illustrations are marvelous. The artist has not necessarily tried to copy a previous version we've seen of Alice, and yet, she was still familiar to me.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Dynamite Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
The problem is that the first book, 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,' is more narrative in nature, in spite of the loopy story. Young Alice chanses a White Rabbit down a hole. She meets a series of strange creatures and shrinks and grows and shrinks. She has a weird encounter with loyalty and makes it home intact and perhaps wiser for her journey. It is the better known book of the two, and has been adapted many times.
The second book, 'Through The Looking Glass,' is a bit more free-form in nature. Alice finds a strange world by following her cat through a mirror. She still meets really unusual characters, but the interactions consist more of long poems. There is some of this in the first book, but they are much longer here. That doesn't mean they aren't good, just that it's more poetry than prose. So it's still Alice, but the character journey is different.
The adaptation is quite good. This could be used by a scheming student to write a fairly convincing book report on the two books. The language rings true to the book and the illustrations are marvelous. The artist has not necessarily tried to copy a previous version we've seen of Alice, and yet, she was still familiar to me.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Dynamite Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
amandawije's review against another edition
2.0
I just read this off of NetGalley. I haven't read any of Alice's adventures and only have the movies as background information prior to reading this. I really liked reading this story in graphic novel format! I personally am not the biggest fan of how the original stories were written and I liked this condensed format so it wasn't as wordy. I also like all of the adventures it encompassed and I liked that I was able to note similarities and differences between this and the 3 versions of movies I've seen. Overall, I just wish that the graphics were brighter. I liked the style of the graphics but they seemed washed out which I think was the intended effect because it looks aged as if the story has been around for a long time (which it technically has). I just personally prefer brighter, more eye-catching graphics.
Overall rating is 3/5 stars. I enjoyed it and would continue to read more graphic novels from this author if given the opportunity!
Edit Sept 2016: after reflecting back on the books I've read since reading this book and how I went about rating them, I am downgrading my rating to 2 stars
Overall rating is 3/5 stars. I enjoyed it and would continue to read more graphic novels from this author if given the opportunity!
Edit Sept 2016: after reflecting back on the books I've read since reading this book and how I went about rating them, I am downgrading my rating to 2 stars
marimoose's review against another edition
4.0
This graphic novel pretty much acts as a direct adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, dialogue and scenery and characters all, plus smatterings of extras, etc. For those who haven't read the stories, I'd definitely say pick up this graphic novel, because the illustrations are lovely and helpful and canonly, vividly rich!
book_nerd_1990's review against another edition
4.0
I really loved the illustrations in this graphic novel. While I enjoyed Through the Looking Glass, especially the flowers in the garden, I liked Alice in Wonderland better.
wanderlustlover's review against another edition
4.0
This made me so happy. No, it couldn't do the whole of the entire book of either, but it did so much of both. And it kept so much of the storyline and so many of the quotes. And the artwork really worked for me so much. My heart was so intrigued and happy.
leor3ads's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
dr_ju's review
5.0
I have to admit I am greatly biased as Alice's stories are my favorite tales. The illustrations were beautiful, they reminded me of some childhood Russian fairy tales book.
I liked how the emotions of the characters surfaced abruptly and their madness was much more expressive than the regular playful silliness you see in other adaptations . It is the kind of book you can read as many times you like and get the same satisfaction out of it. Now these wonderful illustrations are a good reason to do it even more often.
PS. Recommended along with any Pink Floyd album.
I liked how the emotions of the characters surfaced abruptly and their madness was much more expressive than the regular playful silliness you see in other adaptations . It is the kind of book you can read as many times you like and get the same satisfaction out of it. Now these wonderful illustrations are a good reason to do it even more often.
PS. Recommended along with any Pink Floyd album.
kiramekihoshi's review against another edition
4.0
Easily the best Alice graphic novel. I love Erica Awano's Tenniel-inspired illustrations. This edition includes the entire 4-part comic of both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. She even illustrated A Wasp in a Wig!
sammymantha's review against another edition
3.0
I love the Alice stories and have read them several times before, so I thought I'd love a graphic novel version. I did not. The art style was pretty enough, but I felt like I kept getting lost in it. The story itself is so much nonsense that distilling it down into individual frames, so that often the story in one frame is completely different from the one next to it, made it harder to follow.