For those who love Brian Jacques's Redwall, there is now a graphic novel edition of the first book. One thing fans need to keep in mind is that you should approach a graphic novel version of a book like it is a movie based on a book. You get the basic idea of the story but not the details like the character's thoughts or the setting description. Ideally, the illustrations should take the place of setting information.
Redwall: the Graphic Novel is beautifully illustrated. If you can't get enough of the cover art of the series, the graphic novel is sure to please. Bret Blevins, a comics artist, did an excellent job. The main character, Matthias looks less like the type of mouse you see scurrying around but by no means cartoonish. The rats, badgers, birds and other animals are also drawn in a manner that makes them appear more animated than on the cover art of the series.
If you are familiar with the series, you will notice the story is an abridged. The graphic novel retains much of the basic story in the conversations and in the action. It depends on how you feel about condensing stories to fit a certain format. I can't speak as someone familiar with the series since I read the graphic novel before reading the actual book. This helped me learn the basic story and become familiar with the characters. However, I think the condensing of the story resulted in a feeling like something was missing. Reading the book filled in those gaps and made me wonder why I had never tried to read the wonderful series in past. The graphic novel is a great way to introduce people to the Redwall and possibly encourage them to read books in the series.
