195. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 Graphic Novel

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation by Tim Hamilton. Introduction by Ray Bradbury.

Pages: 149
Ages: 13+
Finished: Oct. 30, 2009
First Published: Jul.21, 2009
Genre: graphic novel, science fiction
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

It was a pleasure to burn.

Reason for Reading: Cybils nominee

Comments: At this point I think it's fair that no summary of Fahrenheit 451 is needed. I'm a fan of the novel having read it a handful of time plus I've seen the 1966 movie a couple of times. Obviously, I was no stranger to the plot when I sat down to read the graphic adaptation. I was very pleased to find a very faithful adaptation to the novel had been rendered. It's amazing to see a novel transformed with a minimal amount of text and the addition of graphics to tell the same story. Though one hopes an adaptation will never replace the original, this is a beautiful compliment to it.

The illustrations are very interesting and match the mood of the story done in a limited palette of colours using a trio of colours plus black for the most part though occasionally going down to 2 colours plus black at times. He uses warm reds, yellows and oranges for the fireman scenes while reverting to cool blues, greens and purples for the rest of the book. It sets a dark, oppressive feeling without the need for a narrative to do so.

I can't quite give this a rating of 5 as I know Mr. Bradbury's work can't be equaled but Tim Hamilton has done an excellent job in bringing the novel to the graphic format in a stunningly faithful rendition.



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