This was an interesting concept but I don't think it was delivered well enough. The art and story could be better.

Now that was one entertaining piece of work. Really enjoyed that it a little bit of everything in there-horror, history, and fantasy. Was a fun read- and will enjoy checking out more work by the artist/author. The only thing I wasn't a huge fan of, was the artwork-was a little too cartoony and childish to me. Overall though, great comic.

I want to thank Peter David, Nicole D'Andria and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A strange mix of Oliver Twist and Van Helsing. I wasn't sure what to make of it, but at the same time couldn't put it down. I don't know that I'd go in for a sequel, but it was a quick read and not bad.

This is an interesting story about what happens to the Artful Dodger after the events in Oliver Twist. It is an entertaining adventure with a range of other characters including the Baker Street Irregulars, Van Helsing the vampire hunter and certain members of the royalty.

The Artful Dodger is busy on the streets of London with his usual ducking and diving, but when he rescues a young lady from an altercation on the back streets of London, he is thrust into a new adventure and finds that he is facing new enemies and an old ally who is not what he seems.

It is a really good adventure story with a creative spin on the famous classic. The art is ok. I thought it overused blue as background but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the story. I enjoyed the twists and turns, and finding out what happened after. We also get a quick glimpse of Oliver but this story is definitely an Artful Dodger story and an excellent one.

This is the graphic novel version of the text story and I think that the text story would probably be worth reading too.

Copy provided by publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Great for fans of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen & extended retellings.

Let me just start by saying that I've never read Oliver Twist. I think I saw the Wishbone episode like 15 years ago? So really I have no idea how in character everyone is, but this was a pretty enjoyable little story and I don't think you need to have more than like a working cultural knowledge of Oliver Twist to read it. The story was your standard take [classic novel] and insert [paranormal creature] thing, but it was fun and I liked how they included other things like Jack the Ripper and VanHelsing. The art and coloring was a little bit unpolished in my opinion, but it wasn't awful and except for a few panels where the characters were making REALLY weird faces I don't think it distracted me from the story. A fun story, but it definitely wasn't reinventing the wheel or anything.

Peter David does Dickens? No thank you. This suffered from the same conceit as Dacre Stoker's Dracula the Un-dead. I felt that it completely failed to understand its source material and tried to give a sense of history by simply crowbarring in every historical figure or literary character from the time period.

This seemed like a cool graphic novel, but due to the watermark throughout I could not finish it.

I can't really review this one properly as it was very difficult for me to read due to the copyright notice covering the entirety of EVERY page including over the writing itself.

Book – Artful
Author – Peter David, Nicole D'Andria, Laura Neubert (Contributor)
Star rating - ★★★☆☆
Cover – Gorgeous!
Would I read it again – Yes!
Genre – Comic, Historical, Vampire


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **


This was a wonderfully authentic take on the Artful Dodger storyline. It had the accents, the gritty feel, the backstory and the intrigue to be a great addition to the Oliver Twist story we all know and love, with some exciting new twists that fit surprisingly well. Historically, it was brilliantly accurate in both accent, feel and storytelling, keeping that old penny dreadful feel without going into the gore, which would have eliminated any YA lovers from reading it.

I loved that it took place after the events of Oliver Twist, giving us a timeline that fit into the familiarity of the old story while rooting us in the timeline of the new. I had a soft-horror feel to the illustrations that was brilliant, while maintaining an easily readable text, font and format of storytelling. The illustrations themselves were gorgeous. Perfect for the era and eye-catching, while perfectly illustrating what was happening within the story.

There was a lot of familiar stuff in here that we're not used to associating with Oliver Twist or the Artful Dodger, but I loved it. It felt right for the era, the story and made sense from the way it was told. We had a 'narrator' who wasn't really given a name until late in the story, but it was intriguing to watch it all unfold and figure it out as I went along.

The addition of vampires, Queen Victoria, Van Helsing, the Baker Street Irregulars, Bedlam, Spring-Heeled Jack and Jack the Ripper might have felt like overkill for another story, but the way they were seamlessly drawn into this story made so much sense that I never questioned having so many memorable and familiar characters in one story. They were all era-appropriate and explained cleverly, at the end, so much so that I only enjoyed the big reveal all the more for the surprise of it all.

The evolution of Fagin, the clever twist at the end, the cunning and yet vulnerable side of the Artful Dodger that we saw, along with the exploration of Drina's part in the story all came together to make a brilliantly pulled together original plot in a stunning wrapper.