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A review by aasplund
Basil by Wilkie Collins
2.0
This comic had a lot of potential, but it really missed the mark for me. I sort of think that translation difficulties could have been a problem, but I also think that the story wasn't my sort of thing.
This comic follows two street urchins in London who end up solving crimes that the famous Sherlock Holmes is working on. The two main characters, Basil and Victoria, are best friends and (sort of) young lovers, but also seem to hate each other half the time.
My biggest problem with this comic was that I wasn't sure who the audience was supposed to be. In many ways, it seemed dumbed down and simple, like it was intended to be read by kids. However, a lot of the comic discussed whoring and death in very matter-of-fact terms, which made the comic feel a lot more grown up as well. It was too simple to be completely intended for adults, but had too many difficult situations for it to be completely for kids. In a lot of comics, this could work very well, but for this, it mostly just confused me and made the comic a lot less enjoyable for me. Part of me thinks that this may have been more a problem because of the translation - the comic was somewhat choppy and it didn't flow the way it should have because of translating, so it wouldn't be too far off to think that other issues could have come from that.
The characters could have been really fun, but they mostly just got on my nerves. They were constantly bickering (in more of an obnoxious way than an endearing way) and that drove the plot more than almost anything else. They were probably a lot more like a normal street urchin than a lot of other accounts I've read, but something about them felt very wrong and was quite off-putting for me.
Overall, this graphic novel was more annoying than intriguing. There are better ones out there to spend your time reading.
This comic follows two street urchins in London who end up solving crimes that the famous Sherlock Holmes is working on. The two main characters, Basil and Victoria, are best friends and (sort of) young lovers, but also seem to hate each other half the time.
My biggest problem with this comic was that I wasn't sure who the audience was supposed to be. In many ways, it seemed dumbed down and simple, like it was intended to be read by kids. However, a lot of the comic discussed whoring and death in very matter-of-fact terms, which made the comic feel a lot more grown up as well. It was too simple to be completely intended for adults, but had too many difficult situations for it to be completely for kids. In a lot of comics, this could work very well, but for this, it mostly just confused me and made the comic a lot less enjoyable for me. Part of me thinks that this may have been more a problem because of the translation - the comic was somewhat choppy and it didn't flow the way it should have because of translating, so it wouldn't be too far off to think that other issues could have come from that.
The characters could have been really fun, but they mostly just got on my nerves. They were constantly bickering (in more of an obnoxious way than an endearing way) and that drove the plot more than almost anything else. They were probably a lot more like a normal street urchin than a lot of other accounts I've read, but something about them felt very wrong and was quite off-putting for me.
Overall, this graphic novel was more annoying than intriguing. There are better ones out there to spend your time reading.