Graphic Novel Review – Pretty Deadly by Kelly Sue Deconnick, Emma Rios, Jordie Bellaire, Clayton Cowles (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Graphic Novel/Historical Fantasy
Size: 120 pages
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-1607069621
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Pretty Deadly TP series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

I got a copy of this graphic novel to review through netgalley. I was immediately drawn to the artwork on the cover and after reading the synopsis I was hooked. This is a very intriguing graphic novel that has an interesting illustration style to it.

This is a story about Death, his daughter by a woman named Beauty (Ginny), and a young girl born from blood who is meant to rule the dead. Ginny rides on a horse made of smoke and her face bears the skull-like features of her father. Ginny has sworn to avenge any wrong doing and is vicious about her vengeance.

The story is very dark and violent, so it’s an adults only read. I mean really, really violent. There are also a couple of sex scenes and nudity.

There are a ton of quirky characters that I really loved. You have Sissy the young girl who wears a cloak of crow feathers and Fox the blind man (who is deadly and seems to be able to still see some how) who travels with her. There is of course the deadly vengeful Ginny. I absolutely loved the mysterious Alice who seems to be Death’s right hand.

The story can be classified best as western fantasy. The art style and story setting have a very western feel to them. There is a lot of gun slinging and old cowboy towns. It reminded me a bit of Stephen King’s Dark Tower graphic novels and a bit of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. I loved the nostalgic western feel, couple with all the mysticism.

The art style (yes this was more art than illustration) is phenomenal. All sketchy and dark while also being detailed and dreamy, it was just absolutely stunning. Seriously I wish I could hang some of the pages from this book in my room as art. It is just very different and very well done, I loved it.

The only downside to this book was that the story got a bit confusing. It takes some time to figure out what’s going on with the story. It also took a bit of rereading and careful examination of the illustrations to figure out who was what and what was going on. Once I figured everything out though, I was in awe at the cleverness and mythological feel to the whole thing.

Overall I really enjoyed the style behind this graphic novel; it was absolutely stunning. I love the western feel couple with both supernatural and mythical elements. The only downside was that the story is a bit confusing as first, however if you persevere you will figure it all out in the end and be so happy you read this. As mentioned it is ultra-violent. I would definitely recommend to fans of western fantasies or mythological type fantasies. This is definitely a series I will continue to read.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Ebook Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge