Werewolves discussion

This topic is for discussing Fall 2022's group read, starting November 1, Alabaster: Wolves by Caitlín R. Kiernan. The ISBN number for the 136-page graphic novel is 9781616550257, provided in order to distinguish it from the Dark Horse comic book series which ran five issues back in 2012. The graphic novel (2013) we will be reading collects all five. Plenty of used copies of this graphic novel can be found for well under $10 total, some as inexpensive as $7, including shipping. I recommend the meta search engine bookfinder.com for locating these copies.

This graphic novel features Dancy Flammarion as the protagonist. She "may look like a frail teenage girl, but her journey through the swamps and byways of the American South brings her into battle with werewolves, monsters, and grotesque secrets, armed only with a knife and a mission to destroy the deadly creatures that lurk in shadow."

This looks like a fun, easy read. Come join us November 1 for it, won't you?

I read the first chapter, first thirty pages, and it sure was strange. We pick up right in the middle of a Dancy verbal fight with a werewolf.

The art is okay, what it needs to be for the story being told. What really impresses me is that the author of the novel this comic book series is based on is doing perfectly well writing in this visual media. I don't know of many authors who could do that or would even try. They usually get someone versed in the media form to adapt their novel for them.

Anyway, I really found the first thirty pages to be great.

I finished this book last month and enjoyed it. It is an adaptation of material Kiernan has already written in prose form, only converted into graphic novel form. I recognized the third story because it was the one story I'd previously read most of in the form of a standalone short story written elsewhere.

This graphic novel has a few differences. A werewolf, and then a werewolf's ghost, and a blackbird that don't exist elsewhere (as far as I know) accompany her through the graphic novel as allies in order to link the stories and give them a much needed coherence.

I liked this overview Kiernan's work using her Dancy Flammarion character. Clearly there are many more stories Kiernan told with this character but doesn't use here. For example, the setting in the graphic novel all takes place in a small South Carolina town that looks a lot to me like Saluda, although it's not named here. Most of Dancy's adventures take place in rural Georgia apparently.

I also really liked the artwork. It contained so many renditions of werewolves. I really liked the artist's rendition of the transformation of the nice looking girl, who looked a lot like Krysten Ritter (of the Jessica Jones TV series) to me, into a werewolf.

Nevertheless, despite Kiernan's efforts, the story never really comes into place in this graphic novel as a truly integrated whole. It still feels a bit like a patchwork quilt. I don't know if I'll seek them out, but I'd read another Dancy Flammarion story in prose form if I came by one.