The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel

The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel by Diana Gabaldon

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I should preface my review by saying that graphic novels are not really my thing. I love reading comics in the paper and all, but this is only the second graphic novel I have ever completed reading. It's not going to make me a GN convert, let's put it that way.

I had a hard time following along in the GN version of Outlander as told from Jamie's (and Murtagh's, among others) point of view. The artwork was lovely, but I could NOT keep the men's faces straight. They all looked nearly identical to me, and I had to rely on the skimpy dialogue to follow the story. Thank God I'd already read the real novels!

While I'm on the subject of the artwork, what is up with the artist's inability to keep Claire clothed?! I know Claire had a very curvy figure and all, but seriously, no matter what the outfit or context, she always had to be falling out of her flimsy bodices?! WAY too much cleavage to be believable. Capt. Randall's assumption that Claire was a prostitute became utterly logical and rational. She's drawn to look like a blowsy barmaid, for crying out loud!

I'm not certain who the target audience is for this GN version. Perhaps Diana Gabaldon wants to whet GN fans' appetites and get them to read the original series? The nature of this format is such that at least 85% of the story is missing, along with 98% of the character development and back story. It's like reading an abstract for a doctoral thesis. *sigh* In this case a picture really is NOT worth 1000 words. Ah well, I tried. And I stuck it out for the whole thing, just to be sure.

For readers' advisory: story doorway...or people with short attention spans?



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