My Comic Book Blog of Reviews and Such: September 2010

Troublemaker: Book One
Written by Janet and Alex Evanovich
Drawn by Joëlle Jones
Dark Horse Books

Its really odd when a popular, main stream author does a graphic novel. It reaches audiences that normally wouldn’t even consider picking up a “comic book”. And sometimes it fits. James Patterson’s Daniel X series. Brad Meltzer’s run on Justice League of America. The Stephanie Meyers graphic version of Twilight. And these books usually get big press in the comic book world. “Look!” the publishers tout, “we’re legitimate. We have this New York Times bestselling author writing a story for a comic.” Which brings us to Troublemaker.

At the Comic Con this year, Dark Horse was pushing this book. Janet Evanovich was at the convention and the comic book world was introduced to Alex Barbaby and her NASCAR driver friend Sam Hooker. All the characters are introduced to the reader, so a knowledge of the Motor Mouth series of novels isn’t required.

The story starts with Alex and Sam searching for their missing friend named Rosa. The clues lead them from breaking and entering to voodoo rituals. With the added benefit of some car chases and explosions, the action in this book is fast and the settings are very interesting.

One thing that I like about this book is that the characters are fully realized. Obviously, Janet Evanovich has been writing about them for some time and is able to translate them into a the story quite easily. The banter between Alex and Sam isn’t forced. Each character has their set personality and maintains their character. I guess that’s one of the benefits of having the author of the original also work on the graphic novel version of their stories.

The artwork is very good and fits well with the story. Jones uses a manga style, giving Alex big eyes and Sam a square jaw. One of the benefits of this style is that the level of expression the characters make is often exaggerated. The background are detailed, which helps place the setting of the story. And the camera angles she uses enhance the story by making it more dynamic for the reader.

When Troublemaker was listed in our catalog, just prior to it hitting the shelves, there were 9 requests from our patrons. Within a couple days, the holds list was empty. I can just imaging the middle aged women who love the novels coming in expecting a new paperback book and instead being handed this comic book. One glance at the pictures and they would hand it back to the clerk. I’m not sure that’s what happened. But to have a list of 9 holds disappear in a couple days is quite suspicious.

This book is in our teen area and would be a great selection to get comic book readers into novels. There isn’t anything outrageous that would require it to be placed in the adult area. But there are the typical sexual innuendos and violent scenes are pretty innocent and are in most mystery stories. Any public library would be well served having this book in their collection.