45. War of the Worlds

By: H.G. Wells
Illustration by: Ian Edington D'Israeli

At first I wasn't so impressed by the faithful reproduction of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds in graphic novel form. The familiar opening that I once read not so long ago, and saw reproduced in three movie versions didn't seem to hold any new insights into this classic. The illustration didn't strike me as anything special, and this graphic novel came quickly on the heels of the second installment of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen- a unique and new retelling Wells' story.

However, after a bit of time with it, it delivers. I'm a big fan of the original novel and the classic film (and I have to say, as stupid as it it, I did enjoy the Tom Cruise remake for pure giant-machines-blowing-shit-up factor). Hohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifwever, neither film visualize the original Victorian setting that Wells described, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen doesn't focus on the story in the same way. There was another terrible movie adaptation of the original story, but its not even worth mentioning as a serious effort. In fact, I showed it to my students one day as a joke.

Once D'Israeli's version gets rolling, the imagery brings new life to the story. The panels are often drawn from extreme angles that give a sense of how small the humans are compared to their massive invaders.

The nice thing is, that the whole graphic novel is available online for free. Thanks, Dark Horse!