The Quest for Alzerzen

    (iBooks, 2003)
™ and © iBooks

Ibooks’ new, nearly tabloid-sized format is a great innovation for publishing European-size graphic novels. (We lost this “album-size” format some time in the ’90s, when publishers realized a certain number of fan boys wouldn’t buy it, if it couldn’t fit in a comic box.) It’s a shame this inaugural edition has mostly small, cramped panels that doesn’t use the format to its best advantage.

It’s really pretty, but it’s also saddled with a standard epic-fantasy plot that lopes along, taking its sweet time to make its minimal points (giant bug invaders, bad; raised from dead hero, good) without using the space to flesh out the characters. And it doesn’t help that the scratchy European-style lettering can be difficult to read and a barrier that prevents the reader from becoming involved in the story.

Would it have really compromised the artist’s creative vision, if it had been done in a more American style? (After all, we do it all the time with manga.)

— S.A. Bennett
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Cover Price: $12.95
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