Just finished Elk's Run, the new graphic novel by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon and Scott A. Keating. Fialkov is the author and Tuazon and Keating are the artists. This story started out as a black and white from a small company that went out of business and than moved to another company only to see them collapse before their first issue could come out (or maybe an issue did come out from the second company, I'm not entirely sure on that regard) to only be picked up by a major book publisher to finish the graphic novel.
It's the story of a young boy and his friends living in an isolated compound created by a group of men and women basically fleeing from the government and wanting to set themselves up without any interference from the government. A story of a what if Waco in a sense. The boy and his friends decide they want to leave and it's the tale of the day all this happens, with a bit more involved.
It's a good story, but to me it felt like it was written as a movie. I can see this as a movie very easily. Everything happens quickly and while there is some back story it all fits in the main plotline very easily and quickly. I guess it's the same problem I have with certain prose writers like John Grisham. When I read them I always feel like they're writing their book for a movie and don't want to put too much into the story that might slow the movie down. That's kind of how I felt while reading this book. I enjoyed it, but maybe because I've read so much about it and it's been built up so much in my mind it just didn't live up to all the hype. And that's not the book's fault.
A good story and overall good art, though there were times I couldn't tell characters apart. Besides the sameness of some of his faces the art was very good, creating the right type of atmosphere for this story.
2 comments:
When I read something that seems like it was written as a movie, I always wonder why the author didn't just write a screenplay.
I love the details. It's why I read. There are some things I hope to discover on my own, and I don't want everything spelled out for me.
But I do want to be able to see the characters as the writer sees them. And follow them through a world that is alive. And see them solve the problems and resolve the central conflict.
If it moves too fast, or leaves too much to my own imagination, then reading it becomes too much work.
I think a lot of time it was probably written as a screenplay first and couldn't get sold, so the writer went a different way. I'm not saying that's what happened here, I don't know. But that's why I don't read Grisham any longer, and one of the reasons I don't read Michael Chricton. When I read Jurassic Park I felt like I was reading the novelization of the movie that was to come.
You're right I want the writer to give me more than just an adapted screenplay. Add to the character.
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