Daomu: The Complete Saga

Daomu #1-9

by Colin Johnson, Kennedy Xu, Ken Chou (Illustrations)

Sean Wu had no idea of the secrets kept by his estranged father -- until his death kicked open the gates to a mysterious world of international tomb robbers and ageless myths! Now the sole heir to this critical legacy, he must survive the darkest terrors haunting the most sought after treasures buried within a globe-spanning labyrinth of ancient catacombs in order to solve his father's murder and perhaps even save the world... Based on the best-selling Chinese novel series Daomu Journal, written by Xu "Kennedy" Lei, this original graphic novel collects the sold-out series created by the celebrated art directors at Concept Art House, with over 20 million fans declaring Xu 'China's Stephen King'. This 244-page hardcover features a soft-touch textured cover with embossed elements, highlighting the strikingly rendered painted artwork on both front and back cover. The epic storyline is supplemented by concept artwork and additional design material further exploring the world of Daomu.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Supernatural, Adventure

244 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Magdalena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sean Wu meets his father for the first time in ten years. But they don’t get much time together before Sean’s father is killed by a mysterious assassinator. Before Sean’s father died he told him to travel to China and burn a coffin that he has in the basement of his house. But when he comes to China he meets his uncle and he discovers he is the heir to a family of protectors of tombs. They are the Daomu! Now he must take his father's place...and the first task is to find a special skull...

The art in this graphic novel is splendid. I wish I had it in paper form so that instead of reading it on my computer/iPad I could browse through the pages and really enjoy the glorious art.

The story is full of adventure and some horror and even though I was a bit confused about what was going on sometimes I still enjoyed the graphic novel immensely.   Think Indiana Jones but with a lot more creepy monsters.

I recommend this graphic novel to anyone that likes adventure and really good looking graphics novels.

This graphic novel is based on the best-selling Chinese novel series Daomu Journal written by Xu “Kennedy” Lei.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sean watches as his father is killed before him, in the aftermath of his death he learns that his father was part of a secret society who protect ancient tombs from raiders. His uncle initiates him into the dangerous world of underground tombs where nothing is quite what it seems and he soon realises that no one can be trusted, not even his uncle as he is pushed into fulfilling his birthright as leader of the Daomu.

Although I have limited experience in graphic novels, this one has the most amazing art of anything I've viewed before. In a word it is stunning. The colours are muted but still vibrant and the amount of detail in each panel is absolutely astounding. Since I viewed this through a ebook file I would imagine the hardcover version coming out in Feb 2015 would be jaw droppingly good.

The story was quite complex and kept me on my toes, there are quite a few twists and turns as we learn along with Sean who is to be trusted and who is not. Sean is a fairly engaging character, neither too perfect not too bratty to get behind and I was completely invested in how his story would end.

The mythology used in this is also fascinating and anything that has lots of monsters and beasties gets the thumbs up from me.

One of the best graphic novels I've viewed and I highly recommend this.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF- 1.5 stars

This was Killing my eyes trying to read this and decipher pictures. Way too dark and the font style and colors did not mix. I could not read more that 5-10 pages of this in a sitting. I have NEVER had that problem with a graphic novel like this, to be so bad.

So why not 1 star for a dnf? Because some of the images were very well done and even based on real images to an impressive level. Plus I still saw potential in the story. not much but I think, based on what I did read, that if the coloration and font were not atrocious this would have earned at least 2.5 - 3 stars.

*I was loaned a digital copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review*

[Susanna Neri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bello anche se a volte mi sono un pò persa, chissà se ha avuto un seguito...

[Marco Cian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this because I was interested in dipping my toes into the pop cultural phenomenon that is the Daomu franchise.

It was... not very good, in my opinion.

A lot of what I didn't like about it was simply that it relies on tropes which were probably passable in the early 2000s, when Daomu first came out, but which I now just find tired and dull. For instance, the ancient organizations that have persisted unchanged for millennia (seriously, name me a SINGLE organization that has worked like that in real life) and the female lead who is a very specific level of competent (like, she's been doing this tomb raiding thing for far, far longer than our novice protagonist, but she still needs to be saved by him).

But an aspect of Daomu which I just find utterly baffling is how passionately it sticks to the idea of geography determining morality.

Like, okay, fine, I get it when every single American is eeevil specifically because they're American. But why does the author insist that everyone from Southern China is also eeevil because they're from Southern China? Like, if a Chinese character behaves abhorrently, someone will say "Well, clearly they're from the South" and they're right! They're always right! What's with that?

It doesn't help that good and evil are defined in Daomu by what one does with the shit one robs from tombs. If you hoard it for your own personal wealth, you're a goodie. But if you sell it, you're a baddie. And forgive me, but I don't think hoarding wealth necessarily makes you better than generating wealth by selling what you steal. Maybe this is social commentary, blaming Southern China for selling off ancient artifacts to Westerners or something. But I don't see how "these Chinese artifacts should stay in China" equates to "I, a Chinese individual, should hoard these Chinese artifacts where no-one else gets to see them, just so I can proudly proclaim 'I'm rich, bitch!'", which is the goal of all our "heroes".

I dunno, maybe that's just me, but I kept hearing Harrison Ford gruffly growl throughout the comic.
https://tenor.com/view/indiana-jones-...

[Mountainroot · Rating 1 out of 5]

Το βιβλίο το δανείστηκα απο έναν φίλο που το αγόρασε blind buy.

Είναι εντυπωσιακή η αλήθεια είνια η βιβλιοδεσία και το σκίτσο επίσης αν του ρίξεις μία γρήγορη ματιά αλλλά εκεί σταματάνε και τα ωραία που έχει. Μην ξεγελαστείτε. Με τιμή που αγγίζει τα 30€ υπάρχουν πολύ καλύτερα διαμάντια να επιλέξετε.

Το πρόβλημα με το βιβλίο είναι πως είναι για μένα κακογραμμένο. Δεν βγαίνει και πολύ νόημα, οι διάλογοι είναι λίγο χάλια και περίεργοι και φυσικά συνεχώς ένας commentator να σου λέει μέρος της ιστορίας χωρίς να σε βοηθάει.
Το βιβλίο είναι βασισμένο απο ότι λέει σε μία πολύ γνωστή σειρά βιβλίων...μπορεί τα βιβλία να είναι όντως φοβερά γιατί η ιστορία είναι εκεί και την καταλαβαίνεις αλλά αισθάνομαι οτι το graphic novel απλά το βγάλανε για να πουλήσουν σε αυτή την αγορά και να πιάσουν λίγο κοινό και απο εκεί και γι' αυτό δεν έχουν κάνει καλή δουλειά.

Αν και χάζευμα το σχέδιο συνέχεια, η μυθολογία της ιστορίας είναι ωραία και με έκανε να θέλω να μάθω και άλλα δυστυχώς η κάκιστη εκτέλεση με χάσανε εντελώς.

[Cedric Zhao · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly interesting adaptation of the original work 盗墓笔记. The protagonist was given a Chinese-American background and a new back story which (spoiler alert) involves a resurrection of his father.. The color and style seems quite dark so not an easy deciphering process.

[Francesca Giardiello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ritmo poco coinvolgente, tantissime, troppe parti parlate dove invece dovrebbe essere l'azione a farla da padrona. Bisognerebbe porre una differenza fra romanzo e fumetto, qui, lo sceneggiatore, non è stato completamente in grado di usare il giusto mezzo di comunicazione.

[Amanda Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this through Comic Con at Home, the story and art seemed intriguing. Liked the showing of Chinese mythology on display as well as interesting interactions between characters.

[Pop Bop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puts the "Graphic" Into Graphic Novel, With Authority and Assurance

This graphic novel is based on the best-selling Chinese series "Daomu Journal", written by Xu “Kennedy” Lei. The premise is that there are elaborate underground tomb systems all over the world that link to an older age of mystery and myth and that contain artifacts of great power and value. These systems have been plundered over the centuries by various groups of tomb raiders. The ancient protectors of the tombs are the Daomu. But now, the Daomu have been corrupted by a splinter group, Coral, which seeks to control, pervert and destroy the tombs, and to misuse the powerful and mystical objects that have been hidden there. We begin with our hero, Sean Wu, (which translates as "Dodge Evil"), who is only just learning that he is the heir to the leadership of the Daomu, and who must navigate the complicated allegiances and double-crosses that mark the border between the Daomu and Coral.

Lots going on here. The foundation story, the novel series "Daomu Journal", is a popular phenomenon in China, and the first task of the translator and artists was to stay true to the book while creating a worthy graphic version. The larger task was to produce a graphic novel that wasn't just faithful to the original, but entertaining in its own right. Well, as far as I'm concerned, mission accomplished.

Our hero is pretty callow and angsty in an aimless sort of way when we first meet him, and a little bit of his whinging goes a long way. Luckily, he gets caught up in his own life and story and adventures as quickly as we do, and while his uncertainty and confusion are a continuing theme, it doesn't dominate. What does take over is the excitement of Sean's introduction to the world below, and the intrigue and adventure of his underground explorations. In the first half of the book we head to China to go underground at the Palace of the Seven Stars, and in the second half of the book we go underwater to enter Cang Hai's sunken tomb. This is where the book shines. The drawing is gorgeous, with numerous compelling and moody and immersive full page spreads. The book is worth it just for the pages that cover Sean's cliffside hike through the jungle and dragon ranges on the way to the Palace. Don't let the cover illustration fool you; this is practically a coffee table art book, not some katana swinging actioner.

In keeping with the mystical premise there is some heavy-handed narration and blocks of dialogue that go right up to the border of pretentious. This is not a casual, Indiana Jones adventurer story; it leans toward big issues and heavy portent. But, it's all well intended and in the service of a deep story, so I was willing to make a lot of allowances in the character development, dialogue and plotting departments just so I could keep exploring the tombs and their mysteries. (Not surprisingly, I should also note that with all of the monsters, creatures, conflict and threat there is a tremendous amount of stylish, but still explicit, gore, violence and mayhem on the page.)

In a way, more than most of what I've read lately, the graphic elements don't merely serve the story, they are the story. The upshot is that you get a sort of two-fer, in that the adventure/horror story is intact and compelling and the graphic work is equally worthy. How often do you get both in one book? This was a nice find.

Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

Daomu ("Tomb Robber") is the graphic novel adaptation of one of China's biggest selling novel series. Part Indiana Jones, Part Tomb Raider, and part Stephen King horror, the transition from series to illustrations is smooth though a bit wordy. Lavish illustrations add rather than detract to this moody atmospheric story, completing a full plot arc.

Story: Sean is half American, half Chinese living in the seedier side of Detroit. He has a missing father and an attitude problem - life in his early 20s is not looking good. When his father shows up suddenly and then is suddenly murdered by a demonic looking entity, Sean is drawn back to China to discover his father's legacy: a leader of the Daomu tomb raider clan to which Sean is now the successor. Taken under the wing of his Uncle Tsai, Sean will have to prove himself if he is to succeed to his father's wealth and legacy. That means descending to the depth of the Earth and the horrors that await in long forgotten but powerful warlord tombs. But there are other organizations out to find the same secrets - some financial and other supernatural - that lay buried. Sean is about to find out that there is so much more to the world, and himself, then he could ever have dreamed. And most of it isn't pleasant.

Daomu is impressive - beautiful and expansive drawings using a murky and half formed dream feel to convey the mysticism of the plot. The colors are beautiful, mostly monochromatic in aquas and reds and far better than the cover would lead one to believe. If for the art alone, this is well worth the price of admission.

The story is smooth and honestly not as shallow as I've come to expect from many manhua. This is a true Western style of graphic novel adaptation and not a manga-type serialization with monsters of the week. Clearly, with the strength of opularity of the origin novels, attention was lavished on this adaptation. The writing is crisp, translation excellent, and the story flows smoothly.

Daomu isn't perfect - it stayed perhaps a bit too close to the novels in that there are far too many text boxes and this is very word heavy, as if the translators/writers couldn't bear to leave out anything from the novel. I wold have enjoyed this far more if the pictures were allowed to tell the story more. As well, the use of the third person in the text boxes began to sound a bit silly and pompous after awhile (e.g., "The warrior waits.." "The Warrior recedes.").

While I really liked Sean and most of the other characters, the female roles here are almost a joke - a rocket scientist super model with a huge chest popping out of her usually unzipped skintight wetsuit or tank top was a bit much. She's pretty much the only female in the cast and Lara Croft she isn't. Nor is she believable or even remotely interesting as a love interest for Sean.

So while not a perfect adaptation or story, this is still leagues above most graphic novels. The horror is heavy and graphic but the story really is imaginative and different enough from Western stories to be intriguing.

Reviewed from an ARC provided by the publisher.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Daomu' is a graphic novel of a whole genre of tomb-raiding books in China. The word Daomu actually means 'Tomb Robber.' So, if you think Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, you might nail this, but only if you add in a really healthy dose of the weird supernatural stuff.

Sean Wu finds out his estranged father had some strange secrets. Now Sean has found out about them and is joining an elite group of treasure hunters. His first mission, which about kills him, is a "simple" initiation test: steal a skull from a tomb. He finds himself on this mission with his Uncle Tsai, his dad's star pupil Pan and a strange warrior known as Kilan. There is a rival corporation named Coral Knight also out to make things more interesting. Along the way, more people join the team like Gordo (who is only on the team for laughs as far as I can tell), and Lyn, a woman who works for Coral. Will they find the skull and what they need for their next adventure (which is also in the book)? Will Sean find out what happened to his father?

It's the kind of story that's right in my zone. I love this kind of thing. Creepy tombs, traps, and strange treasures, and I did like it, but I didn't totally love it. For one, there are these odd gaps in the story's timeline. Action takes place between frames and the story seems a bit jarring because of this. The art is really good most of the time, but sometimes, it's uneven and I had a hard time figuring out which character I was viewing. My review copy also made it hard to read some text. In some of the scenes the text is almost opaque, to simulate whispered conversations or distant dialogue, and it was tough to read. And the female character Lyn, while a capable enough character, seems to only be in the book to show off way too much cleavage in what should be a functional wetsuit. I liked it, but I wanted it to be just a bit more than I got.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, Magnetic Press, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit that I didn't love this as much as I was hoping. The idea was great, demons and monsters beneath the surface of the earth and various groups trying to keep them their or steal their treasure. It is based on Chinese novel series and as someone who loves Chinese mythology and folklore I thought this would be really great. The art work was gorgeous, black and engulfing. It looked like a French BD rather than an English language comic. The only problem was the characters and the plot. First of all one of the things I enjoy the most about Chinese fiction, be it Ming dynasty tales or modern martial arts films, they tend to have a really good gender ratio. Lots of women doing things, on both sides of good and evil and in-between. This book had ONE woman in the entire thing! Everyone else was a man. This was terribly disappointing. The plot wasn't very straightforward, with the captions being diary entries about things in the past, but due to the narrative jumping around, it got a bit confusing. What the book did do well was create a beautiful images of underground caves with monsters. It felt a lot like the later seasons of Sanctuary. (But with less women). It was an interesting idea and the art was gorgeous. If they do more I will definitely get it. I've found the original Chinese novels online and will definitely have a stab at reading those though I think my Chinese isn't quite good enough yet.

[Waru · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this via Netgalley. Thanks for letting me read. :)

I think this is a solid first book. I can assume there will be more adapted from the novels.

I generally like this type of story; it doesn't take much to get me hooked when weird stuff is happening, and I always like the "estranged child finds out more about parent" bit. The art is really dreamy, like some of my favorite modern chinese fantasy painters, then there are contrasting parts that are creepy and gory. I like that. :) I enjoyed this and yet sometimes I felt like I was lost a little bit storywise, maybe bordering on confused. I might chalk this up to culture shock or translation gaps, maybe?

I would have liked to have seen more come from the female characters, and maybe not see...boobies popping out of tops in comics. I've come to expect it but that doesn't mean I enjoy seeing it on every female.The character design could be tweaked in this version, but as for female involvement in the writing, I understand that this is adapted for a novel so they can only play with it so much.

Also, a word to the publisher: reading this as an ACSM file was kind of difficult. I tried not to let the pixels and tiny letters skew my judgement of this comic, but it may have happened inadvertently. I have a huge screen, but this was still...not quite a quality image. I bet the real thing looks very nice.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book only had flashes of interest for me, which is very much in keeping with the effort the creators put in – at times the artwork is stunning, with near-Turneresque smudgy landscapes and so on, and other times just drawn characters against a plain digital airbrush background. Similarly the plot abandons the reader at times, with large time gaps and a distinct lack of closure. It's all about closure for the main character as he has to learn his destiny is not in America but travelling the world like a human Hellboy, smashing beasties in subterranean vault systems, and following on from his recently dead dad's mysterious and lavish lifestyle. The prologue suggests three warring factions of similar tomb-raiders, but it's not clear where on the scale any of the people lie – or what is what. Similarly it's not easy to know who is who in the all-important action scenes. I'm sure it'll all make more sense to those familiar with the behemoth of original novels in China, but this adaptation didn't enlighten me in any fashion.

[Jennifer Brinkle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daomu is the graphic novel adaptation of the best-selling tomb-raider series Daomu Journal, written by Xu “Kennedy” Lei. The story follows the adventures of Sean Wu who is sucked into the legacy of his tomb-raiding family after the death of his estranged father.

I have never read the original series so I cannot give a review on how well the author did with the adaptation. The story line was pretty solid, and this is one graphic novel that is laden with text. There were parts in the story that jumped around and were a bit in-cohesive but the artwork made up for it. Being a horror story and dark by nature with the plot of tomb-raiding, the panels are all a bit dark, depressing, and definitely moody. To do this review I was granted a digital copy of the book, but I think this is definitely one title I will track down in physical form to peruse the images once more.

Overall, not a bad read and one that I recommend!

[Elle Markov · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story concept had a lot of potential and even the art was semi-good. What really killed this book for me was that the color scheme, I get that it takes place in a lot of caves / underground location, but you can't have a dark page and a fog shaded text box. The color scheme made reading the text very difficult to read, which detracted from the appeal of the story.

Now, I may be wrong and on print this looks a lot better, but on the digital ARC that was provided, I say needs improvement.

But as I said before the story concept if good, you get the supernatural action, with tomb robbing and because in all action anything, a rich white guy sitting in his tower office in New York. The ? ending was good, because it lets us know we can expect more and maybe have some questions answered; like say, who Knight.

Rating 3 out of 5
Read@Book

[LittlePiscesReading · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly can't believe what I've just read. For all its many, many flaws the books are my favourite. I didn't think author Xu Lei could have done worse by the series than the tv show and I'm not happy to be proven wrong.
The narration is so stilted and it sounds so pretentious. It's trying for grand and all-knowing but it's just annoying. The characters are so different here from whitewashing to just making everyone a terrible person. They were always terrible people but their camaraderie was always one of the best bits of the series. They really hate each other here. And I hate them all.
The only good thing is the art which can be gorgeous. But even that can be too dark to make out - especially if you're in a place with less than quality lighting.
I'm so disappointed.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm intrigued by the character of Kilan/Kylin/Qiling Zhang. Not so much the other characters.

I'd like to read the original manhwa this is based on. I always struggle with graphic novels because sometimes if a character isn't rendered totally accurately, I think it's a different person and can't figure out who's saying/doing what. In fact, overall with comic-book-style graphic novels, I sometimes can't figure out what happened and what people are reacting to when it's only shown and there's no narration or explanation.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sean Wu grew up thinking that his father had abandoned him and his mother years earlier. Then his dad was killed in front of him, he takes the body back to China and finds out his legacy. Plenty of action involving weird plant life, creatures out of myths, grave robbing and death/rebirth. Enjoyable in a creepy, check over your shoulder way. And this is just the first volume in the series!

[James Zhang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing art. Cool story. Kind of like LOST meets TOMB RAIDER with some horror/suspense.

[Mark]

http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.co...

[Carlos Alves · Rating 2 out of 5]

Graphically it's great but the narrative have a lot of problems with continuity with strange jumps in the story. After a while, I kind of lost interest