Graphic Novel Review – The Tower Chronicles Book One: Geisthawk by Matt Wagner, Simon Bisley (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Graphic Novel/Urban Fantasy
Length: 288 pages
Publisher: Legendary Comics
Release Date: August 13, 2013
ISBN-13: 978-0785185277
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Tower Chronicles
Source: Bought
Rating: 3/5 stars

“He is known as John Tower, a supernatural bounty hunter whose services are available only to the truly needy or well financed. Embarking on perilous adventures that lead him from one treacherous corner of the globe to the next, his life’s mission is to track down the unknown and vanquish unimaginable monsters that have been all but forgotten by the modern world.

Evil now has its own reason to fear the darkness.”

I have had this graphic novel on my to be read shelf for quite a while and was excited to finally get around to reading it. I was drawn to the colorful artwork and the interesting premise. This ended up being okay but not great.

As mentioned I enjoyed the deep and vibrant colors in the artwork; however the artwork itself was a bit lacking. A lot of the characters are overly muscular and shiny looking. There were also many scenes where characters just didn’t look in perspective or were distorted. Given that I wasn’t a huge fan of the artwork. The style was very inconsistent as well; some scenes the people were very realistic and some very cartoony…it was odd.

The premise sounded interesting but also ended up being very cliche’. Tower is older than he looks and has claimed a vendetta against all things dark because of a mysterious past that involves the loss of a loved one. All very typical dark urban fantasy here; nothing all that interesting and creative. It was okay but nothing spectacular.

I felt the same way about the the story and dialogue; it was okay but not great. The dialogue doesn’t flow all that well and scenes come off sounding either very over-the-top or just awkward.

Overall everything about this was just okay and I wasn’t super excited to read any more about John Tower by the end. The premise is interesting and I did enjoy the color palette of the drawings, however everything else was just a bit off for me. This is one of those graphic novels that held a lot of promise and could have been something epic, but fell flat.

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