This is a sponsored review. I was contacted by Andrews McMeel Publishing and given an advanced review copy.
Ilona Andrews is a particularly famous author-duo (a husband and wife team) in the urban fantasy genre, with their Kate Daniels series that currency sits at 14 books, the first book publishing back in 2007. They have a couple other major series, one of them being The Innkeeper Chronicles, Clean Sweep being the first book. The book was originally adapted on Tapas in a serial format by ChrossxXxRodes and Shinju Ageha and is now being collected into a graphic novel by Andrews McMeel. The first volume is set to be released tomorrow, March 5th.
If you haven’t had the chance to read the original, Clean Sweep is an urban fantasy set in a small town in Texas where a seemingly normal Bed and Breakfast holds a fantastical secret and an even more fantastical Innkeeper. Dina Demille may seem normal. She owns a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast and is the perfect neighbor. But Dina is a bit different than her neighbors. For one thing, her broom is magic, her inn can think for itself, and she has an intergalactic refugee as a permanent guest. And when dogs start turning up dead in her neighborhood, killed by something with very big teeth and claws, Dina feels it’s her responsibility to get involved. But now she has to deal with one very annoying and attractive werewolf and a cosmic vampire soldier. Finding what’s threatening her neighbors might just cost her everything.
I never knew that this title was picked up by creators over on Tapas, and I really like this trend that we’re seeing now of more comic and graphic novel adaptations being created from published works. I’ve always thought that the medium of comics increases accessibility to certain stories that people may not otherwise pick up. Classic books are one example, and titles like Shakespeare’s plays or The Count of Monte Cristo have been successfully adapted before. I really like seeing this focus on fantasy and romance now, and I think it makes sense with how popular the genre is across mediums.
I really love the concept of The Innkeeper Chronicles, or at least what I’ve seen of the first book. I haven’t gotten around to reading the others yet, which is something I hope to do soon. The authors managed to find a way to merge fantasy and sci-fi, combining aliens and folklore into something new. Werewolves are no longer an earthly monster, they’re a race of people genetically engineered to shift into wolves that used to live on another planet. Vampires are treated much the same: transformed into a carnivorous humanoid from outer space, not the undead night prowler we’re used to. I love how this all comes together with the concept of a magical inn that caters to these cosmic guests, neutral ground for a variety of different life-forms.
While there is the reference to the infamous Twilight series as Dina seems to be caught between a werewolf and a vampire towards the end of this first volume, I think the story has great potential. Building on top of this cosmic waystation for all sorts of potential people to show up, we have the disappearance of her parents, the where-abouts and activities of her brother, a werewolf who knows nothing of his own people, and a vampire on a mission of revenge, and a regular human cop that suspects too much. All of this makes for a great story that can go all sorts of ways.
The graphic novel adaptation itself is fairly well done, and I want to complement the team on how they managed to keep very close to the story and the characters. I only had a few minor issues that stem in general from adapting to a new medium, but otherwise, I think the graphic novel is pretty solid when compared to the book. The personalities and snarky banter of Dina and Sean come across quite well in the comics as compared to the original. Ageha’s art is fairly strong, and I liked seeing how Dina’s magic was depicted throughout the pages.
A couple things that I think were a challenge for this adaptation is capturing the sense of suspense you felt in the book. This often happens in comics sometimes when the artist doesn’t utilize a page turn to correctly impart a feeling of suspense. It’s tougher here because the comics were originally on vertical scroll, and then collected in a novel format with pages. The scroll could allow for more suspense if the artist implemented greater space between the panels, allowing for that pause and a creation of timing to sink-in to the reader. I’m not sure that was necessarily captured here.
If you’re interested in fantasy, romance, sci-fi, and mystery, I think this series would be a great read for you. If you specifically want to read the comics, I would suggest picking up the graphic novel as Tapas’ reading format can be a little restrictive to those of us who like to binge our comics. The first volume comes out tomorrow! Pick it up and let me know what you think in the comments.
~~Thanks for Reading!~~
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