Graphic Novel Review – Ravine Vol 1 by Stjepan Sejic and Ron Marz (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Graphic Novel/Fantasy
Length: 160 pages
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: March 14, 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1607067221
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Ravine series
Source: Gift
Rating: 5/5 stars

I have had this book to read for quite awhile. I was drawn to the beautiful illustration throughout. It ended up being a very good read. The illustration is amazing and beautiful. The story is a complex epic fantasy and is fairly easy to follow (although a ton of characters are introduced).

This book is the introduction to a complex new fantasy world in which the evil Nebezial tries to reclaim the magic of the land people for his own. A group of ragged and unlikely heroes are introduced in this volume and I assume they will band against him as the story progresses.

The illustration of this graphic novel is phenomenal. It is absolutely stunning, full color, and beautiful. Seriously I could just stare at these pictures for hours.

This is just the introduction to the story. We get some backstory on Nebezial and why he is so power hungry. Then we are introduced to a series of characters, all who have a lot of depth and issues of their own. You can tell the story is being set up for these characters to come together eventually (although they don’t quite get there in this volume).

The most amazing part of this graphic novel is the amazing appendix (which is ~30 pages). The appendix immerses the reader completely in this world. This includes an index, some origin stories, and other stories that fill out this world and make it completely realized.

My only complaints are that there are a ton of characters introduced and some of them we only see briefly. This is definitely an epic fantasy trait, but it means that the story evolves slowly and you don’t get a lot of page space with the individual characters.

Overall this is an excellent start to this graphic novel epic fantasy story. The illustration is true artwork and absolutely stunning. The characters are all well done and have a lot of depth to them. The world building is very well done and really immerses the reader in this new world. I would recommend to those who love graphic novels and epic fantasy. I am eager to read the next volume in this series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge