Assassin's Apprentice comic book (possible spoilers)

[Chrischa]

I was surprised to learn about this comic book.

It's in French, distributed by the publisher Soleil Productions. I suppose Robin Hobb would definitely have needed to give her permission for it.

Personally, I don't like it very much. The drawings are very lifeless, obviously yet another artist who is good at lifelike portraits of people but who has very little talent in drawing comic book characters or expressions. And the colours are done with Photoshop. He should have read a bit more Blacksad before attempting this!

But then I've never been happy about having my own image of the characters spoiled by somebody else's artwork. I'm one of those crazy people who ripped out all the pages which contained artwork in my brand new copy of Stephen Kings' Dark Tower book.

[Liquid Ice]

Yea I've seen this one a while back. Didn't like young fitz, he looks a little Asian personally.

But then I've never been happy about having my own image of the characters spoiled by somebody else's artwork. I'm one of those crazy people who ripped out all the pages which contained artwork in my brand new copy of Stephen Kings' Dark Tower book.

Yea I'm a bit like that. Unless there's images of the characters on the first page I'm usually a little "Wha! He looks nothing like that in my head!"

[Nuytsia]

Hehehe a lot of the time I have no clear picture of what a character looks like ...... but I know what he/she DOESNT look like! So if I see a picture chances are it's not going to be right!
Geees I know nothing about comics, but it does look a bit boring.
Interesting that they put that bit about royal babies being given the descriptive names at the beginning....

Hah I love the look of that blacksad - never seen it before.
(not that I would have - I don't read comics and I can't understand it anyway - although I guess there might be an English version)

Ooooh I vaguely remember that book of the Dark Tower with pics in it ..... ( I read the whole thing via borrowing the books from someone).... I think I thought the pics were ok, but it's sooooo long ago !!!!! Not sure what I thought?????

[Farseer]

I, too, had seen a page or two of this before somewhere, but of a black and white version.

I'd be interested to discover if it has been given the go ahead by Robin...going on her publicly-expressed guidelines, the artwork would be ok but the text itself would be fanfic? Possibly both together in that format she's satisfied that it couldn't be confused with her work?

Hmm...I'd also have thought that she would consider a comic in a negative light as it could be seen as being similar to making a movie version of her books...that some people would be content with just reading the comic and then never take the next step to go back and read the original book (a reason why Robin is apparently disinterested in making any RotE books into a movie). There is another thread about that, and a link to Robin's comments, elsewhere on thePlenty somewhere...

I've always been a bit of a comic fan (I read anything!) so would consider reading this if it had Robin's permission and was available in English...actually, I'd probably still read it if it was in French:exclamation:..if it's RotE, I want it! I'd be less interested in the artwork than I would the text or the actual story that the artwork was communicating but I could see that it would be important to those who enjoy the artwork side of things more or who are familiar with the processes of creating the artwork.

In saying that, I also don't particularly like seeing other people's artistic interpretations of what a character looks like...or their choice of an actor to play a role that completely opposed my pre-conceived image.

A cartoon is due to come out here in Australia at the beginning of May and it is based on a popular children's series of books which has been a huge favourite of our family (mentioned previously in another thread). The main character has been given blonde hair as opposed to the very dark hair I'd pictured him with for the last nine years - it blew my mind and has altered my perception of him for all time!

Thanks for sharing Chrischa!

[Liquid Ice]

I'd be interested to discover if it has been given the go ahead by Robin...going on her publicly-expressed guidelines, the artwork would be ok but the text itself would be fanfic? Possibly both together in that format she's satisfied that it couldn't be confused with her work?

Pretty sure I found the link to that comics site from Robin Hobbs site it's self. (may have been an older version of the site) She was saying she was pretty happy with the comic so I guess she approves.

Edit: From her current FAQ:

Question: I’ve heard there is a graphic novel of the Farseer Trilogy. Is it true?

Answer:

Yes. And it’s incredible, even for those of us who don’t speak French and read only a smattering of that language. I recommend it without reservation. Soleil publishes them. You can see some pages at Assassin Royal

So yea

[Farseer]

That's pretty solid and convincing proof that she IS fully supportive of it...I'm sold then, thanks Liquid Ice !

[Chrischa]

Thanks, Liquid Ice, it good to know she approved of the whole project!

All my life I've been an avid comic book reader but the ones that are available here are very different from the American 'Spiderman #851234135". Sorry, I don't like all that superheros stuff much. There's a very long history of high quality comic books here, both for children and adults, spoken of as "the seventh art". I also draw some myself, haven't tried to get one published yet but I'm working on one in earnest so we'll see where that goes.

One thing I do like about this Farseer comic book is the camera's point of view... very good shots for each frame. I suppose it won't be easy to tell a story which was originally written in first person from the main characters' point of view. There will have to be a lot of narrator text!

Farseer, I don't know where you're based but if you want to read this book and you can't get a hold of it, let me know. The comic book store that I frequent has a lot of Soleil books so it's possible they can get a copy. We could always arrange something.

[Farseer]

Thanks for the offer, Chrischa. I am in Australia so will let you know how I go!

Interestingly, thePlenty actually reported an update on the comic books back in December last year so Mervi is way ahead of us all ! Here's a link I just found https://www.theplenty.net/index.php?c=10

From there I also found this pdf file from the time that Fitz was in Jhaampe http://www.soleilprod.com/public/extrait...oyalT3.pdf

[Nuytsia]

Hmm now I just have to cast my mind out to remember what's going on!
I must say, the female mountain fashions aren't what I envisaged for such a cold climate!
They look Roman?..... whereas the men's don't look anything like that ....

[Chrischa]

That looks horrible! Jonqui looks like she's got some sort of skin disease, not like a normal, strong elder woman. And you're right about the clothes. Did these people even do any research at all??

Ugh, I don't think I'll be reading any more. I thought I was looking at a picture of Regal, going from his haughty expression (if there is such a thing as expressions in this book), but it turns out to be Fitz.

Gee, I do wish people would learn to draw before they tackle a project such as this.