At first I thought this was simply an illustrated novel, not really a graphic novel, in that it was seemingly just illustrations next to the text. But in the second section, he uses the medium very effectively to convey the creature's growth.

His illustrations are superb, and incorporate their own allusions to the modern world, set beside the somewhat archaic text of Shelley. Overall, a really outstanding book that has made me go back to the original in order to revisit what I first read many years ago.

(Update after re-reading the original novel: Grimly did an outstanding job of selecting what to include in this book, and what to leave out.) ( )

Just a quick review, since I read this (at least twice) a while ago. I'm rereading/skimming because I'm on a Frankenstein kick...again.

The illustrations are excellent and engaging, but there's nothing particularly new added to Shelly's text. The illustrations tend to favor the old black and white movies rather than being completely original, which is a bit disappointing, and Clerval looks more like an untrustworthy care salesman than a carefree friend. Starting with a grungy look doesn't leave much room for Victor to degrade.

But it still does. The key is to watch the details...for example, the haircuts of Victor and Elizabeth reflect their states of mind: the less hair, the madder (it seems after three readings--I haven't actually gone through and studied all the hair styles to see if this pattern holds true throughout).

The world is a delightful steampunky creation, though we do not, unfortunately, see many details of the of the world around the characters (each deliciously odd vehicle comes as a bit of a shock) or any improvements to the usual lack of diversity. Guess I was hoping for more interpretation rather than straight-up illustration, but we only get it in the places where this version deviates from the book, and again these tend to follow previous adaptations: Agatha and Felix are husband and wife instead of brother and sister, the creation burns down the farmer family's home (as if he doesn't have enough crimes on his list already!).

The creature himself is brilliantly designed: properly looming, a little lopsided, with bits of the machine that brought him to life still sticking out of him. I love the concept of the external bones on both the male and the female creature--even if the female creature showed a sadly typical lack of creativity when it comes to designing women. Yes, you could interpret the similarity as a sign that Victor is pining for his love, but the evidence of that love is little more plain than in the original (illustrations of time spent together do make a difference, but no more so than siblings might), so I'm not buying it.

A highlight of the book for me, as in the original, is the creature's story. Through visual media we literally get a new point of view. The illustrations are charming and simple, slightly more cartoonish and more reminiscent of a graphic novel--largely because much of the text has been omitted in favor of showing us the creature's experience as he felt it. Before he learned language, there are no real signs of it. Only after he learns that the sounds people make have meaning do the speech bubbles appear, and then words come gradually, and only the ones that mean something to him. It's a beautiful sequence that I've gone over more than any other part of the book--partly, I'll admit, because the lack of text sometimes leads me to fly through without properly appreciating the art.

In sum: a beautiful book, no substitute for the original, with great world (when you can get it) and creature design, but not quite as interpretive as I had hoped. Yes, yes, the note on the front says "Assembled from the original text by Mary Shelley," but Victor on the cover looks so rockin' I was hoping he'd have grown a bit of a backbone. ( )

I was familiar with the story of Franenstein before I read Gris Grimly's illustrated adaptation, but I had never had the urge to pick up the full novel. Mary Shelley's prose is a bit too grandiose for me to want to read casually, so this short version - which uses chyunks of, but not all, of the text - is much more approachable. Most of the story is told clearly enough through the illustrations (which are wonderfully monstrous), so the text can almost be entirely forgone. What the illustrated version does possibly better than the full version is that Grimly and the layout designers can call on visual cues to clearly delineate between the framing story and the tale being told to our narrator by Doctor Frankenstein. Their use of different fonts (for letters, speech, and storytelling) was artful, to say the least. ( )

The sections of the story where the creature narrates its own tale are illustrated in stark, lovely black and white, and are the best parts of this graphic novel adaptation. ( )

Enchanting

Splendid, evocative, in turn amusing and horrific, a world unto its own--I lived there, immersed, while I read. Thank you, Grim, for the transcendence.

(And I love the nod to Bride of Frankenstein in Elizabeth's streak of white hair) ( )