Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars Volume 1
Author:
Genres: Children's Books, Teen & Young Adult, Comics & Graphic Novels
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genres: Children's Books, Teen & Young Adult, Comics & Graphic Novels
Book Type: Paperback
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This is supposed to be a telling of Hatter M's adventures during all of those years he was searching for Princess Alyss in the real world. The idea is that it is pieced together from his own journals left behind in our world along with random ephemera concerning him like old newspaper articles and what not.
The art in this book was what I found most lacking. The dialog ran like a manga. It was sparse and tried to allow the images to speak instead. The only problem was that the art was so ephemeral it was often hard to piece together the characters actions. Most pages did not have backgrounds, and was set up like an American comic with all squares and an easy to follow format. Again the issue here is that this format should have relied on heavy text, which was absent.
The plot itself was also somewhat lacking. The first attempt he makes at finding Alyss is in Budapest and leads him to a violin prodigy who is kidnapped by some kind of cult who want her glow. The idea was solid, but the execution lacked detail, characterization, and believability (for as much as a fantasy story warrants at least).
All in all I really enjoyed the first book The Looking Glass Wars and had hoped that this iinsallment would add some more depth and tension to the original novel. I thought it might help to fill in the blanks where we were experiencing life with Alyss. Instead though it has only muddled and confused the character of Hatter and lessened him a bit by trivializing him. This added nothing to the world of Wonderland and instead seems to be an attempt on the part of the author to continue to cash in on his ideas.
I do have volume 2 on hold for me at the library though so I will read the next volume and can only hope that it improves over the first installment.
Be aware this will be highly confusing if you have never read the original books by Frank Beddor since the story related here is so disjointed and hole-y.
The art in this book was what I found most lacking. The dialog ran like a manga. It was sparse and tried to allow the images to speak instead. The only problem was that the art was so ephemeral it was often hard to piece together the characters actions. Most pages did not have backgrounds, and was set up like an American comic with all squares and an easy to follow format. Again the issue here is that this format should have relied on heavy text, which was absent.
The plot itself was also somewhat lacking. The first attempt he makes at finding Alyss is in Budapest and leads him to a violin prodigy who is kidnapped by some kind of cult who want her glow. The idea was solid, but the execution lacked detail, characterization, and believability (for as much as a fantasy story warrants at least).
All in all I really enjoyed the first book The Looking Glass Wars and had hoped that this iinsallment would add some more depth and tension to the original novel. I thought it might help to fill in the blanks where we were experiencing life with Alyss. Instead though it has only muddled and confused the character of Hatter and lessened him a bit by trivializing him. This added nothing to the world of Wonderland and instead seems to be an attempt on the part of the author to continue to cash in on his ideas.
I do have volume 2 on hold for me at the library though so I will read the next volume and can only hope that it improves over the first installment.
Be aware this will be highly confusing if you have never read the original books by Frank Beddor since the story related here is so disjointed and hole-y.
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