American Gods è un romanzo di Neil Gaiman, un autore importante nell’ambito del mondo dei nerd. E la trasposizione a fumetti è appassionante, le prime storie raccolte in un bello ed elegante volume pubblicato da Mondadori sono intriganti. Shadow Moon esce di galera dopo tre anni, l’attende la moglie e una vita normale. Ma durante il viaggio di ritorno apprende che la moglie di cui è perdutamente innamorato è morta durante un incidente mortale. E incontra uno strano tizio che gli fa una singolare proposta di lavoro. Il fumetto è tratto dal romanzo di Gaiman che incontrò un grandissimo successo alla fine degli anni Novanta. Il risultato è un lavoro molto bello che appassiona anche se in diversi passaggi si rischia di perdere l’orientamento. La sovrapposizione di storie, di ambienti, di sceneggiature viene attenuata dal formato, dall’ampiezza delle pagine, ma alla fine la sintesi che un fumetto impone rispetto ad un romanzo rischia di diventare un limite. Comunque un bellissimo libro. ( )

It’s probably been 16 years since I read American Gods, and I’ve forgotten a lot of the details. Still, this adaptation seems pretty thorough, and I did enjoy the refresher. Best of all, I was reminded of why I loved Shadow so much.
For a graphic novel, it’s on the lengthy side, and there’s more to come. I think it would be just as satisfying to someone new to the story as it was to me. ( )

This is both good and bad.

The good? Excellent source material, lovingly adapted to the visual medium.

The bad? It's a note-for-note adaptation, with no real creativity put into the story for those that know the story. For me, the series does a similar thing, but they play with it enough to make it feel new and fun, instead of rehashed.

It's like watching that shot-for-shot remake of Psycho. Interesting, but what's the point?

Where the creativity does come in is in the visuals. The main story's visuals are rather workmanlike, and not overly exciting. I kept thinking what a Neal Adams or Terry Moore would have done with it. But the side trips into the various gods' stories with different artists are much more fun.

I ask you, how freaking amazing—even with a note-for-note adaptation—would this have been with Neal Adams carrying the main story, and Bill Sienkiewicz, or Dave McKean handling the side stories?

I'll keep going with it, but the first volume was only okay. ( )

Adapted for the first time in comic book form ( )

American Gods: Shadows adapts the first part of the novel - also named "Shadows" - following Shadow as he is released from prison, hired by Mr. Wednesday, journeys to the House on the Rock, is attacked by two of Mr. World's goons, and ends up in Mr. Ibis and Mr. Jackal's funeral parlor. It took me a little while to really get into the style of this adaptation. It's less of an adaptation in the traditional sense and more of an illustrated novel. The script for these issues comes directly from the novel. Nothing is added, certain things are just tweaked to make the transition from novel-to-comic smoother. There is a lot of narration - told via captions in the screen - to help keep the action moving. It's a weird style at first, but after a while, you totally get used to it. 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. As the text is just the novel slightly tweaked, the real standout in this adaptation is Scott Hampton's artwork. 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. He delivers new, unique, and interesting designs for each of our characters, imbuing them with life and a personality that goes well with what was described in the book. His illustrations are every bit as faithful as Russell's script is to Gaiman's original book, and it's all for the better. It's really nice getting to see visuals for a lot of these scenes that were described in the novel - and have yet to be adapted in the TV series - so, I'm thankful that Hampton and Russell were so faithful with this adaptation. Shadows is, ultimately, the setup for the rest of the story, so much of this adaptation feels like it's setting up the subsequent volumes, but that's okay. Every good story needs some setup.

Dark Horse Comics' adaptation of American Gods is deeply enjoyable. While there's nothing new in the actual script of the story, the joy comes from how Hampton depicts the world of the story. A part of me wishes some changes were made to the script - like updating Tech Boy to be more reflective of the 21st century - but on the other hand, I am pretty happy that it's such a faithful adaptation. The style - both text and visual - of this series can take some getting used to, but once you get used to it, it's a thoroughly enjoyable read. It's a nice, quick way of refreshing the story of American Gods in your mind without having to devote a large amount of time to reread the book - though, there's nothing wrong with doing that. As the second season of the TV adaptation is just starting, it's nice to have a way of refreshing my memory of the novel quickly and efficiently, and this comic adaptation works wonderfully for that. Plus, the illustrations are gorgeous. I recommend it for anybody who's a fan of Gaiman or American Gods. ( )