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audleigh's review against another edition
3.0
As a huge fan of Christopher Moore, I was excited for his foray into the world of graphic novels. Unfortunately, this book isn't what I was hoping it would be. The story line is decent but not stellar with a few moments that give you the familiar, warm, silly feeling of reading Christopher Moore. However, the artwork left a lot to be desired. The actual look of the characters and overall art was pleasing to the eye but didn't feel terribly new, especially for a story of this kind. The real downfall of the art was that the artist wasn't particularly adept at paneling. Many panels at critical plot points failed to give any feeling of smoothness to the flow of the art. At times the art seemed to skip around as though the artist wasn't sure how to portray what was asked of them. Considering this story was originally conceived as a film script, I think I expected a fair amount of weight to be put on keeping the visuals smooth and clear with an easy flow. While Moore claimed in the intro that he was consulting with some heavy hitters in the comics industry while making this book, it doesn't seem to show. This feels like a sophomoric first attempt, I believe mostly because the creators didn't gel as one might hope.
chwaters's review against another edition
3.0
Giant griffin-looking creatures descend on Earth and destroy the vast majority of the world's population. This is a story about a few of the survivors.
Christopher's Moore's first graphic novel attempt is generally OK. Entertaining enough. Fast-paced and well-illustrated. Not a ton of depth to the characters and the "why" of the premise never gets answered, but it still works pretty well.
Christopher's Moore's first graphic novel attempt is generally OK. Entertaining enough. Fast-paced and well-illustrated. Not a ton of depth to the characters and the "why" of the premise never gets answered, but it still works pretty well.
calistareads's review against another edition
3.0
I love Christopher Moore and I only found out that this existed a few months ago. I had to give this a read. The art and graphics were well done and some of the panels didn't give enough information so that some transitions took some time to figure out what happened. There wasn't enough for the transitions to make sense some of the time.
The story is rather funny. Dragons basically come from space and take over the world. They come in huge hoards and kill everyone around. It's scary, but of course a few people have made it and live on. Our characters are in NYC and decide to head south to Florida where a huge space ship has recently blown up down there. Who did it, they are curious?
I love the twist at the end. It works out very well. It's not the same dialogue and humor as a Christopher Moore novel, but you can still feel the humor to a degree. I think he just needs to do another graphic novel and it will be better now that he has done it.
It was an interesting concept. We are not prepared for living animals coming from space to attack us. I did wonder how they made it through space. Being an animal they would have to breath something. I thought this was a nice twist on alien invasions. It's certainly unique.
The story is rather funny. Dragons basically come from space and take over the world. They come in huge hoards and kill everyone around. It's scary, but of course a few people have made it and live on. Our characters are in NYC and decide to head south to Florida where a huge space ship has recently blown up down there. Who did it, they are curious?
I love the twist at the end. It works out very well. It's not the same dialogue and humor as a Christopher Moore novel, but you can still feel the humor to a degree. I think he just needs to do another graphic novel and it will be better now that he has done it.
It was an interesting concept. We are not prepared for living animals coming from space to attack us. I did wonder how they made it through space. Being an animal they would have to breath something. I thought this was a nice twist on alien invasions. It's certainly unique.
jmanchester0's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting story. I picked it up because I've enjoyed Christopher Moore's writing, and thought I'd check out his graphic novel. It seems that it was originally a movie idea, but it's obvious that the budget would be massive to film a story about a bunch of dragons from outer space attacking the earth. I'm not sure the story does as well as a comic. It seems to jump around a bit. Overall, I enjoyed it, but wasn't something I'd necessarily recommend or read again.
alexctelander's review against another edition
4.0
Bestselling author Christopher Moore got to know Ian Corson some time ago, as they began working on the screenplay for his book, Coyote Blue, but the movie never happened. Years later Moore got this idea for a story that could best be told through the medium of the graphic novel. The image he had was of attacking alien dragons from outer space. He finally got together with his friend, Ian Corson, and they wrote The Griff.
Moore and Corson don’t spend long telling of the invasion, but before you know it, most of the world has been wiped out, as these terrifying dragons wreak havoc. There are of course some survivors, who are our intrepid heroes. In New York there is Mo, a geeky Gothy gamer; Steve, a skateboard wielding dude; and Curt, who has some sort of complicated history with the military, but knows a lot of stuff. They begin making their way south, to Orlando where there is a downed spaceship and hopefully the secret to stopping these alien vermin. In Florida there are two other interesting characters: Oscar, who spends his days dressed as a squirrel, and Liz, a killer whale trainer from Ocean World, who have their own plan.
Once the main story is grasped, it becomes quite predictable with some obvious characters, but it is nevertheless an entertaining read with some good jokes and character banter, as well as some great artwork of alien dragons destroying our planet and killing people.
Originally written on August 15, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.
For more reviews and exclusive interviews, go to the BookBanter site.
Moore and Corson don’t spend long telling of the invasion, but before you know it, most of the world has been wiped out, as these terrifying dragons wreak havoc. There are of course some survivors, who are our intrepid heroes. In New York there is Mo, a geeky Gothy gamer; Steve, a skateboard wielding dude; and Curt, who has some sort of complicated history with the military, but knows a lot of stuff. They begin making their way south, to Orlando where there is a downed spaceship and hopefully the secret to stopping these alien vermin. In Florida there are two other interesting characters: Oscar, who spends his days dressed as a squirrel, and Liz, a killer whale trainer from Ocean World, who have their own plan.
Once the main story is grasped, it becomes quite predictable with some obvious characters, but it is nevertheless an entertaining read with some good jokes and character banter, as well as some great artwork of alien dragons destroying our planet and killing people.
Originally written on August 15, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.
For more reviews and exclusive interviews, go to the BookBanter site.
sedey's review against another edition
3.0
I read this story because I like most of Christopher Moore's work. Well, his early work. This story is just really confusing. Yes, I get the main point. Survivors of an alien attack are trying to get to Florida and find out why the alien spaceship has gone down, all the while avoiding monsters that are somewhat like Griffins. Thus, the name The Griff.
What messed me up was the way the story jumped around. One minute we're in New York doing one thing, then we're in Flordia with a second group doing something different, then back to New York but the story is missing parts.... confused.
All in all, it was worth reading once, and are artwork is great, but it's not Mr. Moore's best story.
What messed me up was the way the story jumped around. One minute we're in New York doing one thing, then we're in Flordia with a second group doing something different, then back to New York but the story is missing parts.... confused.
All in all, it was worth reading once, and are artwork is great, but it's not Mr. Moore's best story.
stacieadavis's review against another edition
1.0
If I could award half stars, I’d give this book 1.5 for the pretty artwork, although even it was far too fanservicey (one of the two female characters spent the apocalypse in a bustier, ripped fishnets, and a miniskirt; the other, a bit more practically dressed in a skintight wetsuit) for my taste. In terms of narrative value...oof. The plot was lackluster, the characters were shallow, and the art, while nice, frequently had me rereading to figure out what the heck was going on. The introduction and afterword reveal that the book was based on an unfilmed screenplay. This felt more like a nicely presented storyboard. Not a winner.
graybrit's review against another edition
3.0
It was an all right read but it didn't feel like a Christopher Moore book. It lacked the wit and absurdity I've always enjoyed about his work. Maybe his writing style just doesn't translate well to the graphic novel medium.
drtlovesbooks's review against another edition
1.0
There are some Christopher Moore books I've really enjoyed, and some that I've been "meh" about. I was intrigued by the idea of a graphic novel from the guy who created one of the more interesting vampire stories I'd read in a while. Unfortunately, this story did not live up to my expectations.
The foreword explains that this story came from a script that was supposed to be filmed. I can't even imagine how that would have gone - in theory, a graphic novel can be as long as you want it to be, and a movie is constrained by time limits; and yet this graphic novel feels like it's missing large chunks of story throughout.
I was also astonished that the artist seems to be a woman, because the women in this book are drawn like pinups, and they are dressed in the least-practical clothes I've seen outside of a male-drawn super hero comic book. As a male, I am not complaining - it was great eye candy - but it surprises me that a female artist would be just as sexist as a male artist.
In short, this is not the pinnacle of graphic novels. I wouldn't even call it a decent execution of the form. And the plot is loose, at best.
The foreword explains that this story came from a script that was supposed to be filmed. I can't even imagine how that would have gone - in theory, a graphic novel can be as long as you want it to be, and a movie is constrained by time limits; and yet this graphic novel feels like it's missing large chunks of story throughout.
I was also astonished that the artist seems to be a woman, because the women in this book are drawn like pinups, and they are dressed in the least-practical clothes I've seen outside of a male-drawn super hero comic book. As a male, I am not complaining - it was great eye candy - but it surprises me that a female artist would be just as sexist as a male artist.
In short, this is not the pinnacle of graphic novels. I wouldn't even call it a decent execution of the form. And the plot is loose, at best.
larayn's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
I love Christopher Moore but this is boring and predictable.