With regards to books made into movies, I almost always favor the source material -- citing the inability of a screenplay in successfully capturing all the details and nuances, and in portraying the descriptions contained in the written word. This, for part of the same reasons, turns me off from graphic novels.

That said, this book impressed me very much and deserves 5 stars. Emotion and sentiment were depicted in dialogue and elucidated via facial expressions, 'scene grabs', and all in various shades of grey pencil drawings. The story was very well-paced, and reads very much like a worded novel would, which is the reason for my liking it so very much.

A little hitch (my own doing) was that I kept thinking that the story was set on the Mississippi, instead of the Hudson River because of the "Twain" reference in the title.

Basically, I just wasn't engaged enough.

Well, damn it, this book made me feel like a dummy. I followed the entire story - even liked it - up until the last quarter or so. The tale turned frantic and somehow I got lost.

I'm going to go back and re-read the last 40 pages, maybe I can figure out where the story (not me!) went wrong.

this is just a lovely book, an objet d'art beautifully packaged in a way that's increasingly rare these days. i liked the charcoal drawings in this hardbound graphic novel, particularly the scenic shots of the riverboat on the water very much. the protagonist, captain twain (not, not mark -- this one, elijah, reminds us that twain was not his real name and that he's some other writing riverboat captain) sort of looks like the count from sesame street but i eventually got over the resemblance.

the story is told in flashbacks and there are several narrative strands. siegel does a pretty great job with his visual storytelling and i was very engaged in the various romances, and friendships and nightmares presented. i do think that the ending was a little weak -- discussing it with patty, who let me read her copy, i agreed with her that he was attempting to leave it open, but to me, it just felt confused and unresolved, and honestly, a teensy bit like a cop out. but! overall a fun little read and i'd be curious to read more of his work.

rounding up to four stars. n.b. for those who like charcoal drawings of cartoon naked lady boobs, there are a LOT of cartoon naked lady boobs (sort of hard to avoid when one of your main characters is a mermaid. :)

Creepy, different, haunting, weird, even a little disturbing. But original. Some really fantastic artwork. And mermaids!