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A review by lanternatomika
Joe Hill: The Graphic Novel Collection by Joe Hill, Jason Ciaramella
3.0
As amazing as Joe Hill's novels are, the thing he's really famous for is comics. To be more precise, Locke and Key. Well, this isn't Locke and Key, but this book does contain a few other graphic novellas. Here's how that breaks down:
The Cape: The thing that Hill has in common with Stephen King is an absolutely insane imagination, and yet the specific insanity of that imagination is also what sets them apart. So it was kinda disappointing to read The Cape and turns out it's just another of those stories where someone gets super powers and decides to do bAaAad things with them. Not great, not terrible, gonna give this a lower rating than 3.6 3/5
The Cape 1969: At one point in The Cape, it is mentioned that the patch on the super powered blanket/cape came home from Vietnam. On that flimsy little basis, we get the origin story of the cape. As a story, it's perhaps more interesting than The Cape was, but it's also an unnecessary origin story, so on the balance, it gets the same score as The Cape 3/5
Thumbprint: I don't know if I would tell you to get this book just for this story, but it is pretty good. I can't recall the horrors of Abu Ghraib being part of the backstory of any character I've ever seen, but Thumbprint is a pretty interesting and entertaining exploration of what happens when a soldier has to cut out their humanity to survive a war, and then they come home. Not essential, but a bright spot in the collection 3.5/5
Kodiak: In ye olde Europe, a guy kisses a noblewoman, which pisses off her brother, who then throws him into a dungeon with a bear, and the guy survives the encounter. There's nothing more to it than that, and it feels like an intermission in the book more than anything else 2.5/5
Wraith: NOS4R2 is one of my favorite books I've read in 2020, so you best believe I was interested in Wraith - that actually is the main reason I got this book in the first place. Some things about Wraith are good, some are not. Seeing Christmasland, with that weird-ass moon, was definitely good. Charlie Manx's backstory was good. But the overall story about how three prisoners and a cop have to survive Christmasland is so far removed from the kind of story of NOS4R2 was, it can be difficult to stay involved in it. Wraith does stick to the novel's themes of child abuse and parental love, but not in as interesting a way as the novel did. Fantastic artwork, though 3/5
Overall: 3/5
The Cape: The thing that Hill has in common with Stephen King is an absolutely insane imagination, and yet the specific insanity of that imagination is also what sets them apart. So it was kinda disappointing to read The Cape and turns out it's just another of those stories where someone gets super powers and decides to do bAaAad things with them. Not great, not terrible, gonna give this a lower rating than 3.6 3/5
The Cape 1969: At one point in The Cape, it is mentioned that the patch on the super powered blanket/cape came home from Vietnam. On that flimsy little basis, we get the origin story of the cape. As a story, it's perhaps more interesting than The Cape was, but it's also an unnecessary origin story, so on the balance, it gets the same score as The Cape 3/5
Thumbprint: I don't know if I would tell you to get this book just for this story, but it is pretty good. I can't recall the horrors of Abu Ghraib being part of the backstory of any character I've ever seen, but Thumbprint is a pretty interesting and entertaining exploration of what happens when a soldier has to cut out their humanity to survive a war, and then they come home. Not essential, but a bright spot in the collection 3.5/5
Kodiak: In ye olde Europe, a guy kisses a noblewoman, which pisses off her brother, who then throws him into a dungeon with a bear, and the guy survives the encounter. There's nothing more to it than that, and it feels like an intermission in the book more than anything else 2.5/5
Wraith: NOS4R2 is one of my favorite books I've read in 2020, so you best believe I was interested in Wraith - that actually is the main reason I got this book in the first place. Some things about Wraith are good, some are not. Seeing Christmasland, with that weird-ass moon, was definitely good. Charlie Manx's backstory was good. But the overall story about how three prisoners and a cop have to survive Christmasland is so far removed from the kind of story of NOS4R2 was, it can be difficult to stay involved in it. Wraith does stick to the novel's themes of child abuse and parental love, but not in as interesting a way as the novel did. Fantastic artwork, though 3/5
Overall: 3/5