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armaget 's review for:
Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation
by Tim Hamilton, Ray Bradbury
Pretty excellent. Reminds me exactly of why I love a good graphic novel adaptation. I hope the trend continues : ) What was interesting about this instance was the contrast between a book about how books are epic and a graphic novel adaptation of this same book, which I suppose at it's heart is a pretty nifty contradiction.
A particular part was when Beatty came over to Guy's house and told him the 451 lore- How people just generally lost their attention spans and how books feel out of favor until they became a crime. There was a panel showing one of the transitions, how books were shortened down in "Shakespeare for Dummies" and "classic comics" editions of Treasure Island and Moby Dick.
So you can see that apparently this book would fall into the basic category of books turned into comics- A weird bit of intrigue that I was kind of amused to see addressed. So does this graphic novel have an identity crisis? Overall I think the answer's no- It's thoroughly what it's supposed to be. It knows this and makes some irony out of it, because it hasn't lost anything in adaptation. It's faithful as hell, though graphic novels usually are, but most importantly it's faithful to the theme and implications of the original novel.
Oh, here's a fun little Easter egg I found: So there was a "classic comics" illustration of Treasure Island. I read the illustrator, Tim Hamilton's, little bio thing on the back page- Turns out he has also done a graphic novel adaptation of, you guessed it, Treasure Island. Way to down yourself, man, but, again, I like the irony.
So back to why I like graphic novel adaptations and why I think this book was a very good adaptation-
First point, dialogue. As I was reading through, I noticed much more of what people were actually saying, particularly in conversations but also quotes. Perfect example of this was Beatty, the guy who spews quotes while still having a hateful agenda against all literature. he's a cool character.
Another excellent example which popped out at me: The scene where they burn the old woman's house and she says "Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." I looked it up and found this quote kind of stuck in a big thicc paragraph- A perfectly decent paragraph, but dialogue really can get swallowed up easily I think. That's where graphic novels are really useful. There's literally nothing else to really distract yourself from the dialogue, since it's the star alongside the art anyway.
Another perk is that the art can also enhance the dialogue. Speech bubbles are cool as hell! You can put them against anything you want, and I think this same scene/page did a really interesting job of it. The first part of this quote she says is set against a beautiful but disturbing image of the back lit profiles of the firemen storming her house, while the second part is spoken where you can see her, quiet and bleak in her home. So the way the dialogue is broken up really just enhances the reader's perception of it; It forces you to pick it out.
Another part that does this well is when Montag was reading poetry to Millie's dumb friends back at his house. The way this is done in the novel is really good, though the couple panels here really enunciate it, just like the last part I talked about it. The poem is broken up between only two panels, the first where Guy is hunched over the book, his eyes completely black from shadows. The second panel has one of the friends, Ms Phelps I think, crying a single tear set behind the line "...So various, so beautiful, so new, hath really neither joy, nor love..."
Graphic novels get to actually play with the story elements so exquisitely. It's not just visualizing things, though that's important, but remixing and enunciating anything that the story could use. That's why graphic novel adaptations really kill me. I think I read somewhere, or just thought up for myself, that Ray Bradbury meant all forms of media that make you think deeply and feel were included in the ol term "book." Or something about how anything could really have the spirit of a book if if did have that spirit.
Art review- At first I thought it was actually kind of ugly, and while it didn't exactly grow on me in those terms, I grew to really appreciate the art style, especially the use of color and shadows. This book is kind of fast and dark or flashes anyway, most of everything happening either at night or with fire or both. The compositions that I talked about above were also excellent, as well as all the speech bubbles and placement. So really nothing to complain about.
Art and written words are both gorgeous things. That's what you could say after reading this.
A particular part was when Beatty came over to Guy's house and told him the 451 lore- How people just generally lost their attention spans and how books feel out of favor until they became a crime. There was a panel showing one of the transitions, how books were shortened down in "Shakespeare for Dummies" and "classic comics" editions of Treasure Island and Moby Dick.
So you can see that apparently this book would fall into the basic category of books turned into comics- A weird bit of intrigue that I was kind of amused to see addressed. So does this graphic novel have an identity crisis? Overall I think the answer's no- It's thoroughly what it's supposed to be. It knows this and makes some irony out of it, because it hasn't lost anything in adaptation. It's faithful as hell, though graphic novels usually are, but most importantly it's faithful to the theme and implications of the original novel.
Oh, here's a fun little Easter egg I found: So there was a "classic comics" illustration of Treasure Island. I read the illustrator, Tim Hamilton's, little bio thing on the back page- Turns out he has also done a graphic novel adaptation of, you guessed it, Treasure Island. Way to down yourself, man, but, again, I like the irony.
So back to why I like graphic novel adaptations and why I think this book was a very good adaptation-
First point, dialogue. As I was reading through, I noticed much more of what people were actually saying, particularly in conversations but also quotes. Perfect example of this was Beatty, the guy who spews quotes while still having a hateful agenda against all literature. he's a cool character.
Another excellent example which popped out at me: The scene where they burn the old woman's house and she says "Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." I looked it up and found this quote kind of stuck in a big thicc paragraph- A perfectly decent paragraph, but dialogue really can get swallowed up easily I think. That's where graphic novels are really useful. There's literally nothing else to really distract yourself from the dialogue, since it's the star alongside the art anyway.
Another perk is that the art can also enhance the dialogue. Speech bubbles are cool as hell! You can put them against anything you want, and I think this same scene/page did a really interesting job of it. The first part of this quote she says is set against a beautiful but disturbing image of the back lit profiles of the firemen storming her house, while the second part is spoken where you can see her, quiet and bleak in her home. So the way the dialogue is broken up really just enhances the reader's perception of it; It forces you to pick it out.
Another part that does this well is when Montag was reading poetry to Millie's dumb friends back at his house. The way this is done in the novel is really good, though the couple panels here really enunciate it, just like the last part I talked about it. The poem is broken up between only two panels, the first where Guy is hunched over the book, his eyes completely black from shadows. The second panel has one of the friends, Ms Phelps I think, crying a single tear set behind the line "...So various, so beautiful, so new, hath really neither joy, nor love..."
Graphic novels get to actually play with the story elements so exquisitely. It's not just visualizing things, though that's important, but remixing and enunciating anything that the story could use. That's why graphic novel adaptations really kill me. I think I read somewhere, or just thought up for myself, that Ray Bradbury meant all forms of media that make you think deeply and feel were included in the ol term "book." Or something about how anything could really have the spirit of a book if if did have that spirit.
Art review- At first I thought it was actually kind of ugly, and while it didn't exactly grow on me in those terms, I grew to really appreciate the art style, especially the use of color and shadows. This book is kind of fast and dark or flashes anyway, most of everything happening either at night or with fire or both. The compositions that I talked about above were also excellent, as well as all the speech bubbles and placement. So really nothing to complain about.
Art and written words are both gorgeous things. That's what you could say after reading this.