Written by Denise Mina
Art by Lenonardo Manco and Andrea Mutti
Colors by Giulia Brusco
Printed by Vertigo
Well Vertigo is doing something pretty awesome by releasing a free preview of their upcoming comic book “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Of course this is going to be nothing like the movie, nor the book, but like most Vertigo products will somewhat stand on its own and add to the body of the entire idea that is the “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” works. The free preview is a lot like your standard issue 0, so you get a little bit of background that will not be apparent until much later on in the series. In this book you get to meet the general cast of characters, get some back plot, get some of the story lines down and then prepped for the rest of the graphic novel that is going to hit the streets in September if they stick to their time line.
Like the book and the movie, the story revolves around money, death, and blackmail. The preview does a very nice job of setting up the story line and introducing the characters. Mr. Vagner is a sad lonely old man who gets a beautiful pressed flower every year for his birthday. The only problem is that he is getting them from his niece who died in 1966. In the preview, we get a good take on this story line and how it intersects with Lizbeth, the girl who not only has an amazingly awesome tattoo, but some of the more interesting investigative abilities out there. Where the mother figure in the old folk’s home fits in and why Lizbeth brings her cigarettes we will just have to wait to find out. Will Mr. Vagner be able to find out who is really sending him pressed flowers and what the meaning is behind all this? Then there is the potential for murder and mayhem hinted at darkly on the last pages of the preview making this pretty close to the original story line.
First of all I am really happy they are doing their best to stick to the original story line. It looks like there will be many cut scenes in the book, but that it something that will make sense for the comic book medium. Second of all, I am really overjoyed with the art, lettering and colors because they are perfect for the mood that is being set in the preview. This bodes well for the book that is coming out in September, and maybe with any luck we will get a monthly serialization coming out so that we can diligently purchase them online or in a local comic book shop somewhere. There is some real potential here and it looks like they are going to live up to the entire story. That alone makes this one five of five stars, and something to look forward to. You can read the preview on Comixology free, it is worth trotting on over and taking a look at the story.
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