Jim Butcher's Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin: Review

Title: Jim Butcher's Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin
Author:
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Publication Date: December 2013
Length: 152
Series: The Dresden Files Graphic Novels (Stand Alone story)
Reason for Discovery: ARC

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book meets the requirements for COYER, because it is an ARC, and I read it in November.

From GoodReads: 
Harry Dresden, a Chicago private investigator and wizard, heads to a small, isolated Missouri town terrorized by Nevernever monsters. The singularly unfortunate Talbot family has suffered a curse that has decimated their number for generations, and only our hero can save them... that is, if he can survive hostile lawmen, the dark secrets of townsfolk, an ancient guardian spirit, and two deadly carnivores! Can Dresden cleanse the Talbot bloodline of its curse without a blood sacrifice of his own?

Harry Dresden, a wizard for hire, takes a job in a small town in Missouri. The town's deputy sheriff is concerned that a family is being murdered by something supernatural. Dresden has to rush to save a family that is not sold on the idea of supernatural while avoiding the sheriff who thinks that Dresden is at the least a conman and at the worst a murderer. 

I have started reading the Harry Dresden books, so when I saw this graphic novel I had to give it a chance. This is a great addition to the Dresden universe. It is a stand alone story and can be enjoyed by someone who has read all of the Dresden books or who is just starting out with the series. I would recommend at the very least glancing at the Wikipedia article, because it will help to be a tiny bit familiar with who Dresden is and his powers. I was happy to discover that the people who help Dresden out in this story are from the Missouri town, so the reader doesn't have to worry about being up-to-date with any Chicago-related story lines. 

I was pleased to see that Dresden was well written and reminded me of the Dresden from the books. This is most likely due to Butcher writing the story. The secondary characters were fully formed characters as well. Everyone appeared to behave consistently from the first to last page. This consistency helped me believe in who the characters were as people. 

The plot was also pretty fantastic. It was simple, and there were no extra plot lines of which to keep track. This made me happy. Sometimes stories try to take on too much, and with only 153 pages, you need to make every word count. Butcher wrote a very clean story, and I was able to follow it. 
I feel that I should write a quick word about the graphics and speech bubbles. I read this story as a galley PDF on my tablet, so your mileage may vary, if you are reading the physical book. The drawings were good, but they were not very crisp. Normally, I would not mention how crisp the drawings were; however, the speech bubbles were added in on a computer. This made the text appear very crisp. The drawings looked a bit "soft" in comparison. I did like the drawings, and I appreciated the crisp text because it was easy to read. Unfortunately, the pairing of these two things gave them a conflicted look. Again, this is not a problem, just something that I noticed.

Overall, this was a great graphic novel, and I look forward to reading other graphic novels in the Dresden universe.
I give this graphic novel 4 out of 5 kitties.


8 comments:

Chanzie said...
December 3, 2013 at 3:28 AM

I think you had me at wizard for hire - *Tee Hee*! Great review Pamela :)

Chanzie @ Mean Who You Are.

Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer said...
December 3, 2013 at 10:17 PM

Love Jim Butcher..eep! I am behind on this and need to get moving.

Unknown said...
December 3, 2013 at 11:47 PM

I forgot that you are an urban fantasy fan! This is a fun series. The first few books are a bit meh, but they are supposed to get better. I just read book #2 recently.

Unknown said...
December 3, 2013 at 11:49 PM

This book is a "monster of the week" story, so you can just pick this book up, if you are interested in it. I just finished book #2, so I am way far behind!

Angela's Anxious Life said...
December 5, 2013 at 12:26 AM

I love this series soooo much. I have this from NetGalley but I am not going to request graphic novels from them anymore. I read them on my Nook but I can't see anything.. the words are always blurry. I just saw my library ordered it so I put it on request with them. Then maybe I can see the words (or perhaps I need reading glasses????) :)

Tabitha (Pabkins) said...
December 5, 2013 at 12:40 AM

I find that is so very true whenever i download e-galleys of graphic novels none of the graphics are as crisp and clean as they would be in the print version. I have to say I haven't purchased any digital comics because I fear they would be the same way. I'm reading this one before the week is done!

Unknown said...
December 5, 2013 at 12:48 AM

I was watching a YouTube video about comics the other day, and the vlogger was discussing different painting techniques. I wonder, if it is just the painting technique doesn't work so well for getting lots of detail. In any event, the drawings were good, it was just looking at the text and drawings side-by-side that was jarring. I just read an X-Files comic from NetGalley and the text and drawings were both done at the same time, and I couldn't read the text without zooming in a ton, so I really appreciate the clear text in the Dresden comic. :)

Unknown said...
December 5, 2013 at 12:50 AM

I know what you mean. I got an X-Files comic, and reading the text was so cumbersome. I found this text to be the most readable out of all the NetGalley comics that I downloaded. I put these comics on my Kindle Fire and zoom in a lot to read them.

Leave a Comment

Back to Home Back to Top Reading Is Fun Again. Theme ligneous by pure-essence.net. Bloggerized by Chica Blogger.