Like the text, it does take a bit of time to fully get used to exactly what Hampton is doing with his illustrations, but once you get used to it, you see the beauty in his artwork.

As the text is just the novel slightly tweaked, the real standout in this adaptation is Scott Hampton’s artwork. Personally, I do kind of wish there were more changes made in the adaptation from novel to comic, but it’s not a particularly big deal. It’s a weird style at first, but after a while, you totally get used to it. There is a lot of narration – told via captions in the screen – to help keep the action moving. Nothing is added, certain things are just tweaked to make the transition from novel-to-comic smoother. The script for these issues comes directly from the novel. It’s less of an adaptation in the traditional sense and more of an illustrated novel. It took me a little while to really get into the style of this adaptation. Wednesday, journeys to the House on the Rock, is attacked by two of Mr. The bizarre road trip across America continues as our heroes gather reinforcements for the imminent god war! Shadow and Wednesday leave the House on the Rock and continue their journey across the country where they set up aliases, meet new gods, and prepare for war.Īmerican Gods: Shadows adapts the first part of the novel – also named “Shadows” – following Shadow as he is released from prison, hired by Mr. Wednesday, who employs him to serve as his bodyguard–thrusting Shadow into a deadly world where ghosts of the past come back from the dead, and a god war is imminent. Defeated, broke, and uncertain where to go from here, he meets the mysterious Mr. Shadow Moon gets out of jail only to discover his wife is dead. It’s an adaptation that many fans have desired for a long time – given Gaiman’s beginnings in the world of comics with The Sandman – so, with two (of three) volumes of the American Gods comic now complete, how is this adaptation holding up? Answer: very well. American Gods is a story that lends itself very well to the medium of comics as it’s a very visual book, with characters and locales that are large than life. Craig Russell and Scott Hampton – as a comic book. Lastly, it was adapted by Dark Horse Comics – and P. Then, it lingered in development hell for a decade – first as a film, then as a TV series – only to finally be picked up by Starz and given its first season in 2017 (and currently airing its second). First, American Gods was an award-winning novel by Neil Gaiman.

Neil gaiman american gods book series