If you liked the novel, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, this graphic novel is a nice companion to “flesh out” parts. If you have not read the book, this might be a way to be introduced to it, but it will color your feelings about the pictureless novel.
I did not picture the characters the way Clement Oubrerie has. It feels like it might be more authentic to what the author probably wanted, with the darker and bleak imagery. However, colors are used to set the mood, as there will be reds as well as the gray and white and bleaker colors. Black, brown, and gray are the main colors, but when there is traditionally brighter color, it is not there by accident.
Stephane Melchior-Durand’s adaptation is text driven. By being text heavy, it slows the story down, making it harder to sit and read for longer periods of time (or at least it did for me). There are only three parts (chapters) to the story, and due to length they do not help give easy pausing points. The illustrations support the text, and are not separate, or as a companion to the text. They are not a character themselves, moving the story along, but they are there to hold the text. The feeling I had was “old school” art from the 1970s, being edgy and grim.
If you have not read the story of The Golden Compass, we follow a girl named Lyra. She is a young girl who lives at a prestigious college her uncle has sent her too. The world she lives in is magical and dark. There are secrets, magic is used without thought, and everyone has their “soul” or daemon that represents their personality, their true self. It is an animal outside you but cannot be separated from you. As a metaphor for growing up, a child’s daemon is always fluctuating until it finally settles on a form. Lyra will learn truths about her past, follow the mystery of missing children to the dark northern, snow-covered lands, see horrible truths, and enter new worlds. The tone is very European (a mature, old worldly feeling) and is written to be read by anyone. However, it should be given to at least 10 and up as there is fantasy violence and some sensitive issues. (There was a movie a few years back, and I remember it glossing over a lot of the serious issues).
The Golden Compass Graphic Novel (I did the complete edition) makes the violence more obvious than text alone (beheadings are show, serious blood, killing of people and animals) and it makes the infidelity a bit more obvious as well. There are mature themes, therefore the sensitive reader is not the audience.
