Neverwhere #9.

[invisiblist]

Well, at least my collection isn't incomplete now.

I imagine it's very difficult to take a novel like Neverwhere and compress it into a comic format. I know for a fact it's impossible to compress into nine issues and have anywhere near the same feel as the book.

After the first three issues, I went to the library and checked out the novelization. I say "novelization" because I believe the TV series actually came first. Anywho, the novel was really good. It wasn't exceptionally long for no reason, you really felt the characters, and what happened in the story mattered to you.

The Neverwhere comic series started of great. Again, it's the reason I picked up the novel. But JESUS, it turned into plot-o-rama quick-fast-in-a-hurry. I don't know if it was originally scheduled for nine issues or if they cut it to nine because of sales....but it really feels like there came this sudden turn where everyone involved said "Okay, the characters are established, let's just have them do stuff for the rest of the series. What major plot points do we hit? Okay, we'll do those."

I give Carey/Fabry and Vertigo credit for undertaking this project, because I'm sure it's intimidating. You're taking a genius and his art and smashing it into 9 issues. It just didn't come off, though. Sorry, guys.

MAN, I'm scared for Dark Tower now.

[Ye Olde Iowa]

I totally agree with you on this. I read Neverwhere in college and it is one of my favorite modern novels (I really detest most modern fiction...give me anything written before Hemingway deficated on literature), but the comic turned into a huge letdown. It seemed to go really strong from the beginning, but it just started to trail off towards the end. I admit, its hard to read something like this due to the delays (some books, like Civil War, can handle the delays and still read well because of the book's prominence and plot structure, but this book certianly cannot). While the writing is good and the art is exceptional, I just found myself slowly caring less and lessfor the last 5 issues or so (I haven't read # 9 yet and I only really purchased it because its stupid to buy the first 8 and skip the last issue...dropping a mini early on is okay, dropping it with an issue to go seems silly to me).

If anyone read the first few issues or was even remotely intrigued by the premise, I highly recommend picking up the novel and skipping the comic.

[muddlepud]

While I haven't gotten to this issue yet - I've loved it so far.

To me, I guess I've made it more of a companion piece to the TV series and the book. I've read and watched them many times and it's one of my favourite stories.

So when it came to comic, I got it to see a different interpretation on the whole thing. I knew the story, so there wasn't going to be any surprises.

Visually, the comic has been brillaint. A great re-imagining of the look of the whole piece. And that's a big part of why I started collecting the comic version.

I guess the other thing to look at was the pacing - it has been a bit slow in coming, and that's probably my only complaint. But it will be nice to look back over the whole thing once I get the final issue.