Unless you’ve been living under a rock in a cave or spider hole for some time you know that one of the biggest sensations to hit the reader market is George R. R. Martin’s multi-award winning New York Times best-selling series of novels A Game of Thrones (first published in 1996) is a high fantasy series. The novel has gone on to be translated into numerous spin-off items, including a collectible card game,a board game, a video game, and a roleplaying game. It is also the basis for two seasons of Game of Thrones, on HBO. Well, in case you don’t know it, it has also spawned a comicbook adaption from Dynamite Entertainment. Already up to issue #16 the comicbook series has managed to do a rather amazing job of capturing and the presenting multiple points of view and convoluted plot-lines contained in the books and on HBO. So even here in comicbook form readers can closely follow the loves and lives of the noble houses of Westeros, The Starks, learn about the Wall, the Targaryen plot-line and more.
Faithfully adapted by acclaimed novelist Daniel Abraham and illustrated by Tommy Patterson they bring the epic fantasy masterwork to a magnificent new life in the pages of this lavishly rendered series (the initial six issues form a story arc that is gathered together to form a graphic novel). Within the pages of the comic, Martin’s characters garner a new lease on life as they all but leap off the pages in glorious color as the art simply draws you into the world of the Thrones. Perhaps the most interesting part of the comic series is how easily it manages to convey all of the intricate plotlines, mosaic history, and complex character relationships contained in this imposing prose work bringing it to new life as it makes the work available to new fans.
Further, it proves to be surprisingly accessible for someone who may not have read the book or seen the HBO TV show, while — at the same time — providing both unique insights and a new take on the series and show. So now that you’ve read the books; watched the TV show, played the video, card, and board games, you can now read the comicbook.
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