Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Dresden Files


Welcome to the Jungle
Dresden Files graphic novel
Written by Jim Butcher, Illustrated by Adrian Syaf
One of my favorite total-pulp entertainment series of novels of the past few years has been the Harry Dresden books. Harry D is the only consulting wizard in the Chicago phonebook – mid-20s, recently ‘graduated’ as a wizard (with plenty of baggage) and sort of a cross between a goth-noir occult detective and another young Harry… In fact…
When you think of ‘Dresden’ what do you think of – I mean beside thinking of apocalyptic bombing? You think of those little figurines, the china, the, er, pottery… We can say that Harry Dresden is sort of Harry pottery. All that aside, they’re lovely fast, funny adult-ish adventure novels – guaranteed to pass a plane-flight happily.
Jim Butcher seems to be the sort of authentic weirdo that many of us would recognize - sword-swinging, con-going, gamer who really lives in the pulp culture he writes in. This is a good thing, imo. His observations on fan culture, even on Pagan culture is respectful but as funny as the rest of his writing.
The graphic novel in the pic is a great place to start, (or the free stuff on Butcher's website) if your dignity will allow you to read ‘comic books’. The story is by Butcher, and the art does a great job of capturing the characters, and the pace and occult weirdness of the series. It’s an expensive hardback right now, but I got mine from my local library – watch for a cheaper paperback, I suppose.

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