Storm Born Graphic Novel Volume 1 & 2

Author: Richelle Mead and Grant Alter

Artist: Dave Hamann

Publisher: Sea Lion Books

Publish Date: May 2011

Format: PDF file from Sea Lion Books (Thank You!!)

Series: Dark Swan Graphic Novel

In this post, I am reviewing both issues one and two of the graphic novel Dark Swan by Richelle Mead.  I am not very experienced in reviewing graphic novels, so I will give both summaries and then review them together.

Eugenie Markham never asked for any of this.  Until now, she’s been content with her job as a freelance shaman, battling and banishing Otherworldly creatures.  When a prophecy suddenly makes her the Otherworld’s most popular bachelorette, Eugenie finds herself fighting off unwanted supernatural suitors, as well as the evils that begin emerging from her past.

Eugenie Markham is a freelance shaman, guarding our world from the invasion of Otherworldly creatures.  Those who try have “The Dark Swan” to contend with.  But Eugenie is about to cross into the Otherworld alone to rescue a girl that nobody else will.  Will she make it back across alive?

 

This is the story of Eugenie Markham.  She is a shaman who sends Otherworldly creatures back to their world and prevent them from invading ours.  This is her normal job and she is known as “Odile” or “The Dark Swan.”  Her last job request is different.  It is from a guy who claims that faeries kidnapped his sister and she is being held by a King named Aeson.  This knowledge is very disturbing to her as she has never crossed over into the Otherworld.  On top of that, finding someone and retrieving them.

After all the stress this meeting caused, she goes out that evening and that is where she meets Kiyo, a veterinarian who she ends up spending the night with.  When they are sleeping, they are met by an ice elemental.  Yet another gentry who knows Eugenie’s real name.  He propositions her and then is banished with the help of Kiyo.  Both Kiyo and Eugenie are surprised that the other was able to defend against the gentry and is trying to figure each other out when Kiyo jumps off the balcony and disappears.  The only reminder of that night with Kiyo is the mysterious scratches that Eugenie has on her back that will not heal.

When she finally decides to go after the girl, her step-father, who is retired from the business, is the one who helps her prepare.  She summons the help of some gentry who she has enslaved.  This is the end of the second graphic novel.

Having read the storm born series, it was good to see the story in pictures and compare it to what I thought when I was reading it.  I found that the storyline matched that of the books well.  The art in the graphic novel is amazing.  These graphic novels give you enough of the story line that having the prior knowledge of the story isn’t necessary.  

•Seeing the characters in pictures and being able to infuse that with what I had imagined the story to be like.

•That the graphic novel stayed true to the story and they were parallel in the events that happened.

•Eugenie Markham.  I have always liked her character.  I have only read two of the Dark Swan novels and this has renewed my interest in this series.

•Kiyo.  You don’t get a real sense of him yet in the series, but I like his character also.

•Having the different dialogues in the same bubbles.  It sometimes got confusing as to who should’ve been talking.  That is the way it is with graphic novels.