Temudjin

Temudjin #1-2

by Antoine Ozanam, Antoine Carrion (Artist)

A child is born in an ancient distant land, celebrated by the shamen Ozbeg who senses the spirit of greatness inside him. This boy, Temudjin, must be guided to listen to the voices of nature around him, for one day, he will lead the Mongol clans to glory as the great Genghis Khan.
A lush, lyrical, almost operatic fable speculating on the youth of the first Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. Filled with mysticism and surreal visions, this grand epic takes on a fantasy quality lightly infused with just enough nuggets of history to set in time. Torn between a destiny he is told to have and a life he would otherwise chose for himself, the mind of a legendary warlord is laid bare to readers in a cinematic and poetic narrative breathtakingly illustrated by Antoine Carrion.

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Mythology, Fiction, Comic Book

200 pages, Hardcover

Published November 29, 2022

Reviews

[Fátima Embark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una obra de arte a nivel visual y magia en estado puro a nivel narrativo. Una delicia ❤️

[Terry Mulcahy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The description is as follows:

"The shaman Ozbeg saw him during his trance, an exceptional child will be born. All the signs are there: the third eye, the protection and support of the spirits. He will achieve great things. If he can rally the Mongol clans, torn apart by infighting, he will lead them to victory and he will be the new Temudjin. His fate will be similar to that of Genghis Khan, who had the same name many generations ago. Fruit of the union of a mortal with a spirit of the forest, Temudjin will be the new Khan, one of the greatest."

The art is good, and the story is good, but as often happens with such books, the artwork overwhelms the pages, leaving less room for nuance and actual storytelling, but it is worth a look. In fact, it is worth spending some time on the images, otherwise, the book ends far too quickly.

[Reagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars because the presentation is so good. It feels good to hold, the cover is cool, the art and coloring are interesting and really make the story.

The story itself is decent but not great. This is a translation so something may have been lost but even so. It felt like a lot of times things happened too quickly when we needed more development and explanation, which made some parts hard to follow.

It felt a bit like a fairy tale, though, and that was cool.

[John Blacksad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Havalı bir kitap. Kocaman. Ciltli. Tüm cilt gümüş gibi bir tonla kaplı. Çizimleri de çok havalı. Biraz mit biraz masal. Fakat bu #hardware dışında öykü içerik ve anlatım olarak yeterince etki bırakmıyor. Fiyat etiketi de düşünülünce… bilemedim.

[Murat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Öncelikle bunun bir Cengiz Han biyografisi olmadığını belirtmekte fayda var. Eser, belirsiz bir sonraki dönemde Cengiz Han'ın yazgısına benzer bir yazgıyı yaşamaya "mahkum" bir kahramanın fiziksel ve ruhsal yolculuğunu anlatıyor; mitolojik anlatıların, şamanların, efsanelerin gölgesinde kader ve özgür irade gibi kavramları irdeliyor.

Sarışın doğa tanrıçası gibi figürler ve yer yer Fransız kaçan çizimler sert step atmosferinden uzaklaştırıyor. Türkçe çeviride "Gazan mübarek olsun" gibi konu edilen dönemin ruh ve kültürüne uygun olmayan çeviriler mevcut.

Anlatıda genel anlamda bir odak tema problemi olduğunu düşünüyorum. Mitoloji, şamanizm, kader, özgür irade gibi birçok katman var ama bunlar yeterince derinleştirilmeden veya birbirine bağlanmadan yığılmış gibi duruyor.

Bir de isyan yok isyan. Pasif bir kabulleniş, mistik bir sürükleniş ve uysal bir teselli var daha çok.

"But why" penguene selam ve saygıyla.

[J MaK · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.0) This book explores Mongolian folklore woven into the rise of Temudjin, better known as Genghis Khan. It captures both inner and outer turmoil, expressed through layers of mysticism and fraught relationships. The artwork, meanwhile, is striking—otherworldly in its atmosphere and undeniably beautiful.

[Tihomir Trifonov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Уникални илюстрации, не чак толкова впечатляваща история 🐯

[Frank Lang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Antoine Ozanam nimmt sich sehr viele Freiheiten, um in zwei umfassenden Teilen, eine Legende um den großen Führer Dschingis Khan zu schreiben, die nur noch wenig mit der historischen Figur gemein hat. Vielmehr spielt diese »Version« in einer Parallelwelt der Geister. Es beginnt bei seiner Zeugung, geht über in seine Ausbildung, verstärkt sich in seinen Kriegen und endet mit seinem weltlichen Tod.

Um die historische Figur ranken sich natürlich viele Mythen und Legenden und vieles in seinem Wirken ist historisch nicht gesichert. Ich bin jetzt auch kein Historiker, aber bei meinen bescheidenen Recherchen zu Dschingis Khan ist mit dieser Präsenz von Mystik nicht begegnet. Bei der Darstellung von Ozanam kann man den Eindruck gewinnen, dass Dschingis Khan mehr in der Welt der Geister unterwegs war als in den hiesigen Gefilden.

Die Zeichnungen, die unter der Regie von Antoine Carrion entstanden, sind farblich markant und spiegeln recht gut die jeweiligen Stimmungen wieder. Manchmal sind die Darstellungen für mein Empfinden etwas zu eckig ausgefallen. Dennoch dürften viele von den großformatigen Darstellungen beeindruckt sein, die hin und wieder in dieser Graphic Novel auftauchen.

Fazit
Ich hatte bei dieser Graphic Novel erwartet, etwas mehr vom Leben und Wirken der historischen Figur in Erfahrung zu bringen. Diese Erwartung konnte nicht erfüllt werden. Es ist vielmehr eine Geistergeschichte vor einem wagen historischen Hintergrund entstanden, die unterhaltsam sein kann. Ich kann mir aber gut vorstellen, dass so mancher von dieser Umsetzung enttäuscht wurde. Deshalb rate ich dazu, im Zweifel zuerst die Leseprobe zu lesen.

[Lacrimosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up for the art. Absolutely adored the art style and enjoyed the story although I feel like the first half of the book with the shaman is much better than the second half.

I understand that this is supposed to be a type of period piece but it would have been nice to see a female characters in any role other than mothers and wives. The goddess although powerful, was regulated to nothing more than his girlfriend for most of the story and was used mostly for sex scenes. The second goddess near the end was very interesting and I wish we got more of her.

Otherwise I loved the shaman character in the beginning and the secondary warrior characters added later on were nicely designed but lacked some over all substance. I think the tricky thing with stories like these is making sure that the side characters have their own aspirations and motivations and that they aren't all there solely to further the main characters goals.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this one to have beautiful artwork and a really nice layout to everything. The story was good and the culture presented in. It was interesting as well, but I feel like in some places of the book the artwork overwhelms the story. So you lose a little bit of the nuances from that, but also from the fact that this is a translation of the story so there’s a little bit of the nuance up from the original language that you lose when it’s converted over to English. But overall, I found it to be a very good graphic novel.

[Furkan Kaplan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tarihin gördüğü belki de en büyük komutanın hayatı biraz daha mistik bir bakış açısıyla ele alınmış. Yazar bizi kendisi ile özdeşleşen askeri yönünden çok çocukluk ve iç dünyası arasında geçen bir yolculuğa çıkarmış. Özellikle Cengiz Han ismini bir kenara bırakıp Timuçin'e odaklanmaları çok hoşuma gitti. Bu tarz tarihi figürleri veya olayları anlatan çizgi romanları oldum olası çok ilgimi çekmiştir. Umarım bunun gibi başka çalışmalar da olur.

[Mayte Sánchez · Rating 3 out of 5]

200 páginas de una historia con un guion aceptable, un poco flojo a veces, pero un dibujo magnífico. La historia me ha resultado un pelín ajena, no soy yo muy de batallas, guerras o conquistas, pero el disfrute visual ha sido enorme y la edición que han hecho las gentes de Spaceman Project es una gozada.

[David Turko · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is outstanding yet the rest of the book doesn't hold up. The story is decent and I enjoyed most of the characters however the main character got on my nerves several times throughout the story. I think this is a graphic novel that should be read because it is unique, however it didn't grab my attention as much as I would've liked it too.

[Tazitazitazi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Priča je mistična, a crtež prekrasan. Reklo bi se recept za uspjeh. Međutim, sva previranja glavnog lika (a bitan su dio priče) su gubljenje vremena, jer je sve predodređeno, i taj dio mi nikako nije sjeo.

[TheMadReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. It was a bit underwhelming. Could have done so much with the title and the premise but seemed drawn out without a solid ending. What was even the purpose of this story?

[Aurora]

Gave up about 40% of the way in. Sometimes the art was nice but the story was lackluster.

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mythological take on the rise and conquest of the titular character, better known to history as Genghis Khan. The art is absolutely fantastic, as one would expect from an oversized graphic novel like this, but the story moves a little too quickly for one to truly enjoy it unless one makes an effort to stop and savor it. It may have benefitted from some more expository text to flesh out the story, but this is still a highly enjoyable and brilliantly illustrated tale. Well worth tracking down a copy to experience.