The Odyssey (All-Action Classics) - Softcover

Homer; Mucci, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1402731558 ISBN 13: 9781402731556

Publisher: Union Square Kids, 2010

Synopsis

Welcome the next entry in the fabulously received and brilliantly created ALL-ACTION CLASSICS series. The brainchild of former Marvel Comics artist Ben Caldwell, these graphic novels are the freshest, coolest approach to the classics ever. Each one takes a famous work of fiction and translates it into a kid-friendly comic book narrative—with full-color illustrations and a fast-paced tone that will have even reluctant readers flying through.Shipwrecks, angry gods, magical lands, beautiful nymphs, and siren songs: this vivid retelling of Homer’s legendary Greek epic follows Odysseus on his long, arduous journey home from Ithaca after the fall of Troy. Done in comic-book style, it features the highest-energy kid-grabbing details and plot twists, all dramatized in brilliant, action-packed images. It’s the perfect way to introduce kids and fans of graphic novels to one of literature’s great works.

 

 

About this title

About the Author:

In addition to comic, toy, and animation work, artist Ben Caldwell has created the Action! Cartooning how-to-draw series and the comic series The Dare! Detectives.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* It is not a stretch to consider Odysseus history's first action hero, with the derring-do spirit of comics and summer blockbusters founded on his exploits. But the similarity ends just beneath the surface. Odysseus' quest is simply to get home and put his house in order. The enemies he battles are merely impediments to that homecoming and the greatest virtue of his day: fealty to the gods. While his might and wit are on display against the cyclops, his trials were mainly resistance against the temptations of Circe and Calypso. Crucially, Odysseus was a husband and father, fuelled by his sense of responsibility. This All-Action Classics adaptation (following bang-up versions of Tom Sawyer and Dracula, both 2008) brings these themes out unobtrusively but brilliantly in a crackling adventure that also penetrates the recesses of the human heart, in contrast to Marvel's recent adaptation, which created a fun and precise but more sensationalist version that pushed the story's elements of sexuality. Here, Caldwell's art has the force and vibrant life of a Samurai Jack cartoon, and especially comes alive in the weird purple light of the Underworld and in the nightmarish sea creature Scylla. The best yet of the Homer graphic-novel adaptations, which are coming fast and furious in this format. Grades 5-8. --Jesse Karp

About this edition

• Publisher: Union Square Kids
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1402731558
• ISBN 13: 9781402731556
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128
• Illustrator: Caldwell Ben, Tenderini Emanuel, Lacy Rick