‘The Arctic Incident’ and ‘Mad with Wonder’

There’s nothing like unpacking loads of boxes to remind of all the books you should have been reading but never got round to. While they’re in the ‘to read’ pile they can more or less be safely ignored but when they’ve fallen out of a box and into your hands…? That’s a different story.
Here then are a couple of comic books that should have been mentioned a long time before now. Both ended up being a lot better than I initially thought they would be…



‘Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident’ – Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, Giovanni Rigano & Paolo Lamanna (Puffin Books)

How do you judge the worth of an adaptation when you’ve never read the original books that it was adapted from? That was the question I found myself asking when going through the graphic novel adaptation of Colfer’s sequel to ‘Artemis Fowl’ (a book that I’d never read). The only way round it was to scrap the whole idea of judging the book in that manner and just see what it was like in it’s own right. The answer? Very good indeed…

Young criminal genius Artemis Fowl is still out to find the truth behind his father’s disappearance but the world of Faerie has other plans for him first. Someone is supplying human batteries to the goblin gangs (to power their lasers) and Artemis’ past form makes him the prime suspect for the Faerie police…

I wasn’t so keen on the way it was all laid out, being more of a fan of stuff happening all over the page rather than having it all lined up in little boxes happening one after the other. That was the only real issue that I had though, ‘The Arctic Incident’ was a lot of fun from start to finish. Rigano and Lamanna combine well to give the reader a bit of a visual treat on each page. I’m not really all that familiar with Artemis and his friends but really started to get an idea of what they were all about just by how they were displayed on the page. Colfer and Donkin also combine to similar effect with the plot itself. Like I said, I don’t know how this compares to the original novel but what I do know is that the story here is very engaging with plenty of twists and turns that kept me reading. I don’t know if I’ll have the time to read the original books but I will be keeping an eye open for more of the graphic novels. 9/10



‘Mad with Wonder’ – Frank Beddor, Liz Cavalier & Sami Makkonen (Automatic Pictures Publishing)

Reading ‘Alice in the Country of Hearts’ the other day had me remembering another ‘Alice in Wonderland’ book that had been lurking around the ‘to read’ pile for a long time without being read. Frank Beddor’s ‘Looking Glass Wars’ books are a pretty big deal apparently, I’ve never read them though and ‘Mad with Wonder’ seemed like as good a place as any to start…
That’s what I thought anyway. ‘Mad with Wonder’ is the second book in the ‘Hatter Madigan’ series and seems to also draw on events that have taken place in the ‘Looking Glass Wars’ books as well. As such, ‘Mad with Wonder’ assumes that the reader has been around for these earlier events and takes off without really considering the likes of people like me who are only just jumping on board. As annoying as this is, it’s fair enough really.

Alyss has gone missing in the real world and Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan will move heaven and earth to find her. His journey takes him through the American Civil War where the madness of war collides with madness bleeding out of Wonderland…

Once I’d mentally caught up with myself (not easy when you haven’t read the preceding book) ‘Mad with Wonder’ turned out to be a gripping read. This wasn’t so much in terms of things going on but very much so in it’s depiction of a land bled dry by war and ever so slightly tainted by the surreal qualities of Wonderland. Hatter Madigan is also an interesting character to follow as his pledge to find Alyss is tested more and more. Sometimes though, the pace felt rushed to the extent that some of the trials facing Hatter felt forced and lacking in the impact that they were clearly meant to have.

Sami Makkonen’s artwork is difficult to get into first, to begin with it feels like it’s all about what he can do as oppose to what he can do for the story. Once the story gets going though, both plot and art mesh together to form something that’s a little disturbing yet compelling at the same time. I’d certainly be interested in seeing where the story goes next; I might even have to see what happened with the story in the past… 8.25/10