20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

One of the best

I was immediately gripped by this well illustrated tale. As I have gotten older it has been increasingly difficult to find engaging comic book art and stories. This is one of the best I have read recently. The art work is reminiscent of Franklin Booth. I suspect it is pen and ink on scratchboard and the artist has gone in afterward and scratched out some of the line work which gives the work a moody, old-world feel. There are several full page illustrations and they are beautifully rendered. Overall the book has a nice steam punk vibe, befitting since Jules Verne was practically the inventor of the genre (although I have heard that this author is the actual source: Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention). One favorite panel about 1/4 of the way into the book is of the Nautilus with several cross sections. The pacing of the panels is nice, retaining a traditional feel, but with a lot more diversity than the classic six panels per page. Gianni has done an excellent job staging and pacing the action. My only criticism is that the story ends rather abruptly, but that is the mostly the fault of Verne. But it did occur to me that maybe the action could have been stretched a bit. The color is adequate. I might have preferred to have seen more warm and cool color contrasts, which could have been included and still preserved the vintage look. But the color certainly doesn't detract from the story. In addition to the main story there is a four page introduction by Ray Bradbury that is obviously recycled from another edition. I would have preferred an intro by the artist or even the colorists as Bradbury's writing doesn't add much to this edition. At the end of the book is an eight page story by H. G. Wells that is illustrated in chapter book format. The nine illustrations are well done but I haven't read the text as yet (the design reminds me of the illustrated version of Sherlock Holmes). In short this volume is a great entertainment value that I highly recommend...