BRODY'S GHOST review
(Reviewed by Melody Werner)
Brody's Ghost is a 6 volume long, grayscale mystery/thriller manga-inspired graphic novel series published by Dark Horse Comics. Created, written, and illustrated by Mark Crilley, a 13-time Eisner nominee, it follows the titular Brody as he tries to solve a string of murders before another person dies, with the help of Tania, a young ghost who won't be able to get into Heaven until this serial killer is stopped. So continues the string of Dark Horse reviews. What can I say? They've got a lot of stuff that interests me and is relatively short reading. BG at first seems to be a monumental task in reading, being that they're fairly long graphic novels and there are six of them. However, this is such a spell-binding series I finished it relatively soon after I began reading it.
The art is only white and grey, with lines and shading only. It has a manga-esque feel to it visually, with a lot of cartoonish but extremely expressive faces, calligraphic symbols in many backgrounds, at times taking a very sketch-like approach which accentuates something in a character (such as their anger or annoyance), and an emphasis on motion during action sequences. Now I'm not usually all that fond of this particular style, but it works perfectly for Brody's Ghost. The more comedic moments have a lot of visual humor to them, the emotional moments have a lot of weight to them, and so on. The city-scapes look incredible with cyberpunk elements abound. There are innumerable dynamic angles which make it absolutely pop. After reading Oink: Heaven's Butcher, something like Brody's Ghost is refreshing in just how smoothly it is to read from panel-to-panel. It's a blur reading this series, it's easy to get yourself lost and be surprised that you're like halfway through a particular book in the series. The covers are alright, not really stunning pin-up work if you happen to like more bombastic covers. The fight sequences are very kinetic and have some cool moves in them which spice things up.
The narrative of Brody's Ghost is masterfully woven, with plentiful twists and turns. As a mystery/thriller, Brody's Ghost is extremely compelling, one of the few I've read which is, like Bedlam. BG pulls the rug from underneath the reader multiple times and does so very well. Another big strength is how beautifully paced it is; there's no stalling, no fluff, and there's enough proverbial meat on its proverbial bones to proverbially chew on throughout. Proverbially. Not only that, but it always applies enough pressure to each situation that it feels very tense and thrilling, a necessity in a thriller. If I did have to nitpick, some of the cliffhanger endings for the books are a bit underwhelming and anticlimactic, feeling a bit too sudden. Not a big deal if you're reading it all at once though. And not only are the characters extremely deep and entertaining, but there's also massive amounts of spectacular character development throughout, something which is not often enough seen. Earlier books in the series feature quite a bit of comedy, and it left me laughing fairly often. The later books leave this out due to them becoming more tense and heavy tonally, so it wouldn't make much sense to be slinging jokes and humorous moments around. The dialogue in the series is very genuine and works extremely well.
Brody's Ghost is a stellar series and well worth giving a try. Wrought with tension and compelling writing. I suggest even if you discard it at first, to give this one a try. It's got some new, interesting ideas and excellent execution to back them up. It's a very interesting series to read from a great creator (who you can check out on YouTube for art and writing tutorials if you want to get into the industry or just want to see him do his work). Brody's Ghost had me nailed to my screen from start to finish, and gets a 9.5/10.
Must-read
Summary:
A brilliant manga/graphic novel series with an incredible narrative, wonderful characters, stellar character development, great art, exceptional dialogue, great action, buttery smooth pacing, hair-raising tension, and some hilarious humor. Highly recommended.
Brody's Ghost is a 6 volume long, grayscale mystery/thriller manga-inspired graphic novel series published by Dark Horse Comics. Created, written, and illustrated by Mark Crilley, a 13-time Eisner nominee, it follows the titular Brody as he tries to solve a string of murders before another person dies, with the help of Tania, a young ghost who won't be able to get into Heaven until this serial killer is stopped. So continues the string of Dark Horse reviews. What can I say? They've got a lot of stuff that interests me and is relatively short reading. BG at first seems to be a monumental task in reading, being that they're fairly long graphic novels and there are six of them. However, this is such a spell-binding series I finished it relatively soon after I began reading it.
The art is only white and grey, with lines and shading only. It has a manga-esque feel to it visually, with a lot of cartoonish but extremely expressive faces, calligraphic symbols in many backgrounds, at times taking a very sketch-like approach which accentuates something in a character (such as their anger or annoyance), and an emphasis on motion during action sequences. Now I'm not usually all that fond of this particular style, but it works perfectly for Brody's Ghost. The more comedic moments have a lot of visual humor to them, the emotional moments have a lot of weight to them, and so on. The city-scapes look incredible with cyberpunk elements abound. There are innumerable dynamic angles which make it absolutely pop. After reading Oink: Heaven's Butcher, something like Brody's Ghost is refreshing in just how smoothly it is to read from panel-to-panel. It's a blur reading this series, it's easy to get yourself lost and be surprised that you're like halfway through a particular book in the series. The covers are alright, not really stunning pin-up work if you happen to like more bombastic covers. The fight sequences are very kinetic and have some cool moves in them which spice things up.
The narrative of Brody's Ghost is masterfully woven, with plentiful twists and turns. As a mystery/thriller, Brody's Ghost is extremely compelling, one of the few I've read which is, like Bedlam. BG pulls the rug from underneath the reader multiple times and does so very well. Another big strength is how beautifully paced it is; there's no stalling, no fluff, and there's enough proverbial meat on its proverbial bones to proverbially chew on throughout. Proverbially. Not only that, but it always applies enough pressure to each situation that it feels very tense and thrilling, a necessity in a thriller. If I did have to nitpick, some of the cliffhanger endings for the books are a bit underwhelming and anticlimactic, feeling a bit too sudden. Not a big deal if you're reading it all at once though. And not only are the characters extremely deep and entertaining, but there's also massive amounts of spectacular character development throughout, something which is not often enough seen. Earlier books in the series feature quite a bit of comedy, and it left me laughing fairly often. The later books leave this out due to them becoming more tense and heavy tonally, so it wouldn't make much sense to be slinging jokes and humorous moments around. The dialogue in the series is very genuine and works extremely well.
Brody's Ghost is a stellar series and well worth giving a try. Wrought with tension and compelling writing. I suggest even if you discard it at first, to give this one a try. It's got some new, interesting ideas and excellent execution to back them up. It's a very interesting series to read from a great creator (who you can check out on YouTube for art and writing tutorials if you want to get into the industry or just want to see him do his work). Brody's Ghost had me nailed to my screen from start to finish, and gets a 9.5/10.
Must-read
Summary:
A brilliant manga/graphic novel series with an incredible narrative, wonderful characters, stellar character development, great art, exceptional dialogue, great action, buttery smooth pacing, hair-raising tension, and some hilarious humor. Highly recommended.
(originally posted: 2/23/2017)
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