King David

Rating:
Summary: A GN format to learn David ( & Goliath) story
Review: "King David" GN is essentially a book extracted from the bible story of David. As in David and Goliath. The writer/artist of the book Kyle Baker, in my opinion did a masterful job inspite of hearing some complaints from others. The book, turns out more than above average of the retelling of this particular Bible story. Kyle Baker decided ultimately, to combine a narrative style in his arts using illustrated formats & the basic comic book format.Most pages are done in the more conventionals comic book format, but the words & dialogues are found entirely below his art, not within or inside the artwork. The illustrated style, through my observation, are primarily used when a lot of words employed such as 3rd person narrative/introductions. In this format, somehow he also employ the basic dialogue exchanges (2nd person). The outcome or the look of his illustrated style, is like one big picture per page, more often than not, placed on the right-hand corner & thus, the texts can be found in the left-side corner, below & under the picture. His texts or letters are highly-dependent on his artwork & thus, follow the flow basing on his artworks.

On the contrary, mixing or using an unconventional storytelling style does not in anyhow, detracts or destroys Kyle Baker's effort. In fact, I think the book is quite an excellent reading, highly enjoyable, contains a lot of heartfelt emotions & thoroughly interesting story based from the Bible. So, for people unfamiliar or only with a passing understanding of "David and Goliath", want to learn or gain a better knowledge, & in addition to that, want a book or GN easy to read, enjoyable, & intersting, this book is for you. I highly recommend this book to all, specially to novice or with only a slight understanding of this story based from the Bible.

The high points of the book, with the exception of learning the story of King David, is the dialogue exchanges. Specially beween King Saul & David himself. The dialogues between the two, are excerpted directly form the bible. It came out extremely meaningful though the texts were archaic & also their talk are full of emotions - heartwarming & heartening.

In the end, David become the King when King Saul himself and his son Jonathan died in one of there battles, as David is chosen to lead his country as the newly-crowned king.During his tenure,it clearly depict & show us the other side of David, unlike his heroic past such as being a spanky child & the one who killed the giant Goliath,as a king,the book show us his penchant for womanizing & significantly chronicling the famous incident when he notoriously stole his one of his soldiers wife, Batsheba in particular.

My overall comment, a good to own.The book format is softcover,large size- 8.5 X 11 ( like the typical oversized GN), but with below average thickness and feeble glossy paper.Nevertheless, Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A GN format to learn David ( & Goliath) story
Review: "King David" GN is essentially a book extracted from the bible story of David. As in David and Goliath. The writer/artist of the book Kyle Baker, in my opinion did a masterful job inspite of hearing some complaints from others. The book, turns out more than above average of the retelling of this particular Bible story. Kyle Baker decided ultimately, to combine a narrative style in his arts using illustrated formats & the basic comic book format.Most pages are done in the more conventionals comic book format, but the words & dialogues are found entirely below his art, not within or inside the artwork. The illustrated style, through my observation, are primarily used when a lot of words employed such as 3rd person narrative/introductions. In this format, somehow he also employ the basic dialogue exchanges (2nd person). The outcome or the look of his illustrated style, is like one big picture per page, more often than not, placed on the right-hand corner & thus, the texts can be found in the left-side corner, below & under the picture. His texts or letters are highly-dependent on his artwork & thus, follow the flow basing on his artworks.

On the contrary, mixing or using an unconventional storytelling style does not in anyhow, detracts or destroys Kyle Baker's effort. In fact, I think the book is quite an excellent reading, highly enjoyable, contains a lot of heartfelt emotions & thoroughly interesting story based from the Bible. So, for people unfamiliar or only with a passing understanding of "David and Goliath", want to learn or gain a better knowledge, & in addition to that, want a book or GN easy to read, enjoyable, & intersting, this book is for you. I highly recommend this book to all, specially to novice or with only a slight understanding of this story based from the Bible.

The high points of the book, with the exception of learning the story of King David, is the dialogue exchanges. Specially beween King Saul & David himself. The dialogues between the two, are excerpted directly form the bible. It came out extremely meaningful though the texts were archaic & also their talk are full of emotions - heartwarming & heartening.

In the end, David become the King when King Saul himself and his son Jonathan died in one of there battles, as David is chosen to lead his country as the newly-crowned king.During his tenure,it clearly depict & show us the other side of David, unlike his heroic past such as being a spanky child & the one who killed the giant Goliath,as a king,the book show us his penchant for womanizing & significantly chronicling the famous incident when he notoriously stole his one of his soldiers wife, Batsheba in particular.

My overall comment, a good to own.The book format is softcover,large size- 8.5 X 11 ( like the typical oversized GN), but with below average thickness and feeble glossy paper.Nevertheless, Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning!
Review: This book is awesome. I love the way Kyle Baker melds a variety of art techniques, juxtaposing lush Disneyesque renderings with rough charcoal sketches which recall the work of legendary cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman. Baker also employs a variety of narrative techniques in the text, ranging from the witty dialogue which is his trademark to multi-page wordless sequences (the Publishers Weekly review above details Baker's handling of the Goliath fight, and I loved the silent scene of Saul and David in the cave), all combined with a healthy portion of actual Biblical passages (which are already so beautiful, Baker was wise not to try "improving" the Word of God). The result is a delightful variety of rhythms which keeps the reader engaged. I hope there will be more Bible stories from Kyle Baker.

Rating:
Summary: Astonishing! Another Breathtaking Triumph!
Review: This is one of the most spectacular graphic novels I've ever seen! Of course, that should be expected from one of the pioneers of the medium, but still! I've had this book for three days now, and I can't stop staring at it! The amount of detail, labor and research that must have gone into creating this must have been, uh -- impossible! How could one man create the kind of product it takes 400 Disney animators years to produce? And the story is true to the Biblical source material! You could read this book in Sunday school or Hebrew school! I mean, sure there's a lot of sex and violence, but it's all from the Holy Bible. I can't say enough wonderful things about this book. If you love the Bible and the incredible story of one of the greatest leaders of all time, you will LOVE this book.

Rating:
Summary: A few glowing moments, largely mediocre
Review: Touted as Kyle Baker's "Biblically Acurate Telling of the David Story", King David is an interesting read, but its stuttered rhythm and the inconsistent level of quality found in the artwork makes for an admirable, though somewhat ham-fisted, effort.

Long-time Kyle fans will pick this one up out of sheer duty to the man who brought us the hillarious now-classics Why I Hate Saturn and Cowboy Wally Show. However, in an obvious attempt to broaden his appeal, Baker has sacrificed the clever semantics and biting wit that caused us to fall in love with him in the first place.

Much of the art is beautiful, full-color work in which Kyle applies his signature cartoony style. Every 10 or 20 pages, he treats us to a gorgeous pin-up, deftly showing off his astounding skill. Unfortunately, littered throughout are pages on pages of cranked-out sketches with dumped-on color, barely worthy of a concept character-study, much less final art in this otherwise beautiful book. It's far too much visual whiplash, between the lovingly-rendered and the hastily-scribbled, and the storytelling is sacrificed as a result.

Also, Kyle makes poor use of the comics medium, awkwardly bouncing back and forth between illustrated prose and traditional comics conventions. The writing itself resembles the art... wonderful in certain spots, glaringly sub-par in others.

A valiant effort, I suppose, but for my money I'd have preferred a book half the length at twice the quality. Buy it if you must, but don't expect the Kyle Baker brilliance of yesteryear.