Ruled by the murderous King Ulric for too long, its people are desperate for justice. Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, is their last hope. Now of age, Arthur can fulfill a long-standing prophecy by freeing the enchanted Caliburn from its sheath on Stone Hill. Finally the land will have its true king. But Arthur's future is uncertain. Not only does his half-sister Morgana, have a vengeful score to settle; those whom he trusts most are also destined to betray him.
A New York Times Best-selling Graphic Novelist, Tony Lee was born in West London, UK in 1970. Informed by a teacher that he had a comic book style of writing, (a comment meant more as an insult), Tony decided that one day he would write for comics.
Tony has written for a variety of mediums including Radio 4, The BBC, commerical television in both the UK and US, magazines and both local and national newspapers. He has also written several award winning local radio campaigns. In 1991 he wrote for a small press comics publisher, of which only one project, The Cost of Miracles in Comic Speculator News was ever printed, and remains his first printed commercial comic work.
Moving away from comics, he went back into trade journalism and media marketing/creation. His small press magazine Burnt Offerings was a minor seller on both sides of the Atlantic, and was the first esoteric magazine to interview mainstream creators like Terry Pratchett and Pat Mills.
Since returning to comics in 2002, he has written for a variety of publishers including Marvel Comics, DC Comics/Zuda, Games Workshop, Panini Comics, Titan Publishing, AAM/Markosia Enterprises, Rebellion/2000ad and IDW Publishing amongst others, writing a variety of creator owned titles and licenses that include X-Men, Spider Man, Doctor Who, Starship Troopers, Wallace & Gromit and Shrek.
He is the writer of the ongoing Doctor Who series of comics from IDW, beginning in July 2009, and his award nominated, creator-owned miniseries Hope Falls was collected by AAM/Markosia in May 2009. His next book with them, From The Pages Of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula': Harker, was released in November 2009 to critical acclaim.
Added to this, Tony adapted Pride & Prejudice & Zombies into a graphic novel for Del Rey Publishing, with art by Cliff Richards - this was a New York Times #1 Bestselling Paperback Graphic Novel for May 2010 - he is also adapting Anthony Horowitz's Power of Five series into graphic format for Walker Books, the first - Raven's Gate is due out in late 2010, and he has adapted four Horowitz Horror books with Dan Boultwood for Hachette Children's Books.
His other book with Walker Books, Outlaw: The Legend Of Robin Hood (drawn by Sam Hart) was released in 2009 and has already been awarded a Junior Library Guild: Fall 2009 Selection, and 'best for 2010' awards from both the American Library Association and the New York Public Library in the USA, among others. In March 2010 it was announced that it was also a finalist for the Children's Choice Book Awards. The next in the 'Heroes & Heroines' series, Excalibur: The Legend Of King Arthur by Tony Lee & Sam Hart is scheduled for March 2011.
Outside of comics he is writing several books for children.
Tony is represented by Julian Friedmann of the Blake Friedmann Literary, TV and Film Agency.
Tony is also an accomplished Bard and performer, and has held the High Bard chair of the East Sussex Broomstick Rally on several occasions. His lecture Creating Gods for fun and Profit and his series of lectures on Bards and Ritual Magic were received to critical acclaim, and he still lectures occasionally in London, the Midlands and Sussex. As a Covent Garden Street Performer in the 90's, he performed 'The Scarlet Blade' Street Theatre show at the Edinburgh Festival and at locations across the UK, convincing members of the public to act out an insane pantomime for his amusement.
Added to this Tony is an accomplished storyteller and lecturer on writing, and has performed at libraries, events and schools around the world including the 2009 Edinburgh International Book Festival, a 2009 tour of India for the British Council, and in 2003 around the Wadi Rum bedouin campfire in Jordan.
Tony currently lives in London with his fiancée, Tracy.
I wasn't enthused by this. I'm by no means a huge fan of Arthurian legend, so it's not like it bothers me when a new work deviates from the standard. It only bothers me when the changes lead to moments that don't ring true. For some reason, Lee felt like he had to make the whole Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot love triangle even more complicated. See, Arthur was really in love with Vivianne, the Lady of the Lake, all along. He just had Merlin erase his memories of loving her because as king, he would have to get married. And marrying for love was totally something that royalty was worried about back then. So when he does remember, he's really not all that upset about Guinevere cheating on him with Lancelot, because fair's fair, right? Yeah, no. The art didn't wow me either, and on several pages looked more like a rough draft than a finished product.
Obviously, when I saw this in the library, I couldn't pass it up. It's Arthurian, it's a graphic novel, and it's not just a straight retelling of the original stories. To me, that's actually a good thing as long as it hangs together, and this more or less did. I think the main problem is that there's far too much of the Arthurian legend to reduce into a single volume. Either you have to pick something particular to focus on, or you have to take your time. This felt a bit rushed. (On that score, there's a rushed quality to the art, but mostly I quite liked it.)
I'm not really sure what to think of how they put this together, which sources they used or ignored. The whole Vivianne thing was a little confusing to me, as Nimue and Vivianne are meant to be the same person.
It's hard to believe in deep enduring love when it takes about two pages to set up, if you're lucky, so emotionally this story didn't really work for me. I don't know if Arthur will ever transfer well into comic book form (though this now makes me tempted to make my comic for my class be based on Arthuriana), but this is a good effort. Apparently the same people did a Robin Hood comic as well, and I'm willing to bet that worked out better -- Robin Hood ballads were the comics of their day!
Really? This is what you give me for an Arthurian legend? You keep Cei from the sword in the stone, but you make him the funny, sunny foster brother? Then there's all that stuff about Avalon and you've got good fairies (I'm not going to call them Fae or Faeries, I'm going to spell like we spell now!)...I just don't buy it.
Look, we've all had a lot of fun with Arthurian legend, but until you're ready to produce a full scale, really well put together cohesive legend,* (and by well put together, I include not having drawings in the middle of pages that look like they were the conceptual drawings for what would become the final drawings) don't go making up a brand new set of things that have whole back stories that we cannot possibly know about.
*Let's also not forget that this is a LEGEND. Arthurian legend is based on a 6th century leader, and while the whole thing has probably been blown WAY out of proportion, it is still based in some ancient stories. I'm not saying that we can only write Arthurian legends that are 100% historically accurate, but I do think that adding this much stuff is going a little far. This might as well have been the story of Fernando and the Axe in the Tree but for a few details that linked it to Arthur.
Illustrated novel brings to life King Arthur and the Knights of the round table, Lady of the Lake and Avilon, Morgana and the Unseelie, Merlin, Sir Lancelot and Lady Guinevere, and King Ulric and the land of Albion.
Warning: I don’t know the legends of Arthur very well… and by very well, I mean that everything I know has been told to me by either one of my best friends, or from the BBC television show Merlin (which, don’t freak out, I know is VERY inaccurate according to the legends, but is fun to watch nevertheless).
In a graphic novel, the most important thing to me... is the art. A good story can be ruined if the art doesn't match the tone of the book or if the art is just plain bad. Fortunately, the art matches the feel of the book well and stands on its own as well. I love the way the Vivianne/Arthur/Gwen/Lancelot love plot resolves itself. Mostly because, Arthur and Vivianne are an amazing couple and I feel bad that he WAS STUPID ENOUGH TO HAVE MERLIN ERASE HIS MEMORIES. Ugh. What.
I was really surprised about how Merlin was portrayed in the beginning of “Excalibur.” I suppose that’s because of Merlin BBC and how he is such an adorable fellow but Merlin being so mysterious and seemingly unfeeling toward Arthur and Camalot’s plights… that was just weird to me. However, he is an old wizard; I really shouldn’t have expected anything else. I was very happy the way Arthur and Merlin became such good friends while in Avalon though.
I was so glad Morgana was redeemed! I wanted her to be redeemed in Merlin, before she got annoying by never dying. I’m glad Merlin helped her in “Excalibur.”
The Arthurian Legend is an enduring classic of epic proportions. It has been tweaked, twisted, twirled and rewritten from varying viewpoints over the ages. And when you translate it into a hefty graphic novel and add the supernatural element of the Faery realm to it, you have yet another superb retelling of the ultimate medieval hero-king.
While it is difficult to encapsulate all the trysts and adventures of King Arthur, what we have here is a coming-of-age tale. The transformation of a scrawny lad who pulled a sword from a rock and claimed his lineage to one of the greatest kings that ever lived is captured in a tight and almost-never meandering plotline. Throw in the unwavering allegiance of the Knights of the Round Table, the despairing blend of deceit and loyalty by Lancelot and Guinevere, the abiding love of The Lady of the Lake, the magical support of Merlin and the evil (rooted in painful origins) mechanizations of Morgana and the story has the power to transport the reader to Camelot and a forgotten time.
The artwork is simple yet powerful, awash in shades of brown and yellow. And for me, the story is clearer thanks to the graphic representation. The fanciful twist with the involvement of the Seelie and Unseelie courts just ups the ante and makes this book an assured winner .
I love these guys, and I love their tales. Rick Geary's style is to tell True Crime tales moment by moment. Geary is the best at that.
Hart and Lee? They tell legends, in the original version of the legends.
Each tale is not quite what you are accustomed to - but it shows it in its full form.
Expect Faeries, both Seelie and Unseelie here, Morgana Le Fey, a conflicted Lancelot, a conflicted Arthur and more.
Tony Lee and Sam Hart tend to tell legends in the best way possible. So do I have a favorite of their collection? Perhaps not - because they are all equally incredible.
Best story I’ve heard yet about King Arthur. This story is concise but entertaining and allows Character development for most of the familiar characters from our childhood, King Arthur, Lancelot, lady of the lake, Merlin, Morgan’s etc. It doesn’t flesh out all of the stories fully but it tells the story of King Arthur his rise to power, loyalty earned, and inevitable downfall. This is definitely a grittier version of the “sword and stone” we know from being kids, but so much better.
The art and story get a bit muddled here and there. However, this serves as a decent introduction to the sometimes complicated world of Arthurian legend. A good addition to my middle school class library!
Excalibur The Legend of King Arthur by Tony Lee is the first graphic novel that I have ever read. I enjoyed this book but it also didn’t exactly blow me out of the water. The story of King Arthur is a well known one. This novel didn’t copy it down word for word which was a positive in my opinion because nobody likes hearing the exact same story over and over again. The thing I enjoyed most about this graphic novel was the art style. The imagery was very descriptive of the dialogue and helped keep the the plot somewhat understandable. The plot of this story is extremely confusing with many different characters, settings, and twists. The main character is Arthur Pendragon, son of Uther Pendragon who was the king of Albion. His father was stabbed in the back by his former friend and advisor Ulric. His mother also dies so Arthur is adopted by Sir Ector who raises him like his own. When the time is right, Arthur pulls Caliburn the sword from the stone it is sheathed in which marks him as the true king of Albion. From that moment, het begins his journey. Throughout the rest of the book Arthur faces many foes and difficult challenges that make for a great and classic story. I gave this book 3 stars. It was fun to read and I really enjoyed the imagery. My biggest complaint is the plot was extremely confusing at times. There were so many characters and different places that the story jumped around from. Grahpic novels are not my first choice of genre but I would indeed recommend this book to anyone that does read a lot of graphic novels.
I liked the illustrated pages that weren't in grids, they were more like a collage. Very well done. This is an interesting mix of versions of King Arthur. I've read and watched a lot on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, about Merlin, Camelot, everything... I was half expecting some sex scenes, cause it's a graphic novel, but there weren't any. Lancelot's fall from grace in this instance is just a kiss. There was a lot of magic and the Seelie & Unseelie fae were involved.
*Spoilers*
I like that Arthur's true love in this book is The Lady of the Lake, that was very different.
This was a great graphic novel representation of King Arthur's story. It did still have some of the traditional parts such as Uther disguising himself as Gorlois to get to Igraine, Arthur being raised by a foster father, Morganna Le Fey, Merlin, and the Guinevere-Lancelot-Arthur love triangle. However, the author added in a romance between Arthur and Vivianne, the Lady of the Lake.
If you like King Arthur and don't mind a lot of legend in a small book, then you'll enjoy this. If not, this isn't the Arthur retelling for you.
I wanted to give it 5 stars, but there were a couple of personal things that bothered me.
However, those few things didn't bother me enough to stop reading, and it was so good to be taken back to Camelot. After the TV series Merlin, however, I grew to love the portrayal of Uther.
It's a really nice retelling, and I would read it again.
This was an interesting book on the effects of the mentality. Only the few can actually enjoy the fantasy and faeries of this oddly sculpted book. First you have Arthur dying then he ends up at constant war with himself. It really shows us how hard it is to be a good king. Along with your loyal knights.
I found this take on Arthurian legend to be an interesting one but it didn't really add too much (in fact in the instance of the love triangle it made it a bit more convoluted/confusing) The artwork was not my favourite, sometimes it felt kind of unfinished but it wasn't too off putting.
Interesting but not something I would re-read I think.
King Arthur stories aren't my favorite, but I love the work Tony Lee and Sam Hart have done together. They put so many of the Arthur legends in this book, but they made it blend and flow well. If you like the stories of the Knights of the Round Table or historical graphic novels, this one is worth reading.
I generally already know the story of King Arthur, which I think is true for a lot of us, but this was a wonderful version of the tale. I loved the art and was both delighted at certain parts and sad at certain things that I knew had to come but didn't want to happen. I have a couple more graphic novels by Tony Lee from the library, and I'm excited to read them.
Wonderful in terms of clearly explaining a story and drawing in elements. The foundation was there and this was really fun to read. This story and telling was different than the other iterations I have seen in popular culture. Enjoyed this and would read again.
My Review: This was a YA read for class. Rich discussions with comparative analysis occurred. The students loved the alternative approach to King Arthur's tale.
I’ve had this graphic novel for years and I probably read it once a year. It’s probably a strong reason why I love swords and knights and all that fantasy stuff. I read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight recently and now I want to read more Arthurian tales.
This is an amazing story about King Arthur. It's visuals are vivid and and compliment the story well. I would recomend to anyone interested in this topic.
Nicely done graphics and a deeper side to the story then I remember. Well pointed characters and profiles. Happy to see strong female characters with a large presence.
I loved it!!! I looooooove King Arthur and that whole story, so reading it in a graphic novel form was so great. It made the story easy to follow, it was concise, and incredible. Good good good.