Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Sherlock Homes: Year One (Volume 1) : A Review

Sherlock Holmes: Year One
Volume 1
by
Scott Beatty and Daniel Indro

I looked forward to reading this graphic novelization of Sherlock Holmes, but ultimately found myself less than satisfied. The stories were certainly not the same quality as I would expect from a Holmes author, be it Arthur Conan Doyle or otherwise. The title attempts to lay down an early history for Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. Watson. It is a collection of six stories originally published as individual issues. At the time of writing, Sherlock is a little known problem solver; Dr. Watson is an employee of London’s Criminology Lab. They have a growing admiration for each other as they stumble through their early cases together.

I did enjoy the artwork, as a whole; though occasionally it did become difficult to track individual characters - I suspect, however, that this may have been a result of reading an electronic copy of the book rather than a printed copy.

The stories introduce us to some of the characters that will become familiar to those who have read Doyle’s original stores: Inspector Lestrade and Irene Adler are good examples.

I expect that the knowledgable Holmes reader would get a great deal from the title. The average reader will enjoy the stories for what they are, stories.

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