Reviews

A Distant Soil, Vol. 1: The Gathering by Neil Gaiman, Colleen Doran

geekwayne's review against another edition

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4.0

Colleen Doran began writing A Distant Soil when she was twelve. Neil Gaiman gives a great tribute to this and the stories he wrote when he was 12, and how Colleen's saw print and his didn't (sort of).

This is an epic story of a brother and sister who are espers, aliens, cops and gangsters and even a knight from King Arthur's round table shows up. It seems like every few pages another character is showing up. In another story, that would seem to be too much, but it's all done pretty well here.

The art has been digitally restored, and you can really see the artistic progress from the beginning of this graphic novel until the end. The characters hair and clothes are very much from the 80s, with everyone sporting big hair. The characters look a bit similar in the way they are drawn, so I got confused occasionally, but the backgrounds in the later issues reminded me of the cosmic comics of the 1970s like Doctor Strange and the Silver Surfer. It's a fun book.

tezmahonee's review against another edition

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4.0

Not sure what to think of it actually

ofearna's review against another edition

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5.0

re-read 4/12/2013
I'd *really* like to buy the new edition... checking amazon.com gc balance...

eoghann's review against another edition

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1.0

I recognize that A Distant Soil is a highly significant comic book for several reasons including its self-published status and having same gender couples as prominent characters. And so for those reasons I would probably recommend that people read this for themselves.

Unfortunately at least for me, this doesn't have much else to recommend it. I like a lot of Colleen Doran's artwork, but not this early stuff. I find it too stiff and cold and a lot of the characters faces are very samey.

To make matters worse the early sections of the book contain some major info-dump portions without nearly enough in the way of character building. The end result unfortunately is I just don't care about these people and what they're doing.

There are some interesting ideas being thrown about in here but they just didn't keep my attention. There are some Arthurian references going on which will probably appeal to some, but I grow increasingly tired with Arthurian myth being thrown into anything and everything.

It's entirely possible that later volumes better justify the praise this series receives, but based on this volume, it's doing nothing for me.

bardinhell's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I picked this up on a complete whim and don’t regret a thing. No idea what was happening for most of the time but it’s characters and plot keep you flipping the pages. 

librarycobwebs's review

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

shinychick's review against another edition

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1.0

I tried to get through this, I really did. But, after reading the first installment, it just wasn't working. For some reason, comics/books with otherworldly/alien creatures never seem to quite make sense to me.

hunterhawk52's review against another edition

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5.0

amazing gay gender queer graphic novel series

katiegrrrl's review against another edition

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1.0

Didn't finish this one, just couldn't get into it.

multimindz's review against another edition

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The art is wonderful and the story is captivating. I really wish I could find the entire series instead of most of it