For those familiar with the broadway musical, this paints a slightly different picture and works closer to the original work. It's well adapted (I assume, but it feels like the essence of the story is there) and the artwork is perfect to go with the story. Overall, a lovely adapatation that tries to fit the basic plot points in the story while staying true to the original. Fans of the musical or the book, or classics in general will enjoy this adaptation.

This graphic novel abridges Gaston Leroux’s “The Phantom of the Opera” and improves it in the process — the prose fits far better into the 21st century than Leroux’s does. Nonetheless, I recommend familiarity with the original because, in a few spots, there are references that are not explained within the graphic novel, specifically who Mauclair is (operator of the gas lighting system) and what the Persian’s title (the daroga) signifies.

Varga Tomi’s illustrations are extraordinary. He succeeds in showing the increased stress through dark circles under Christine’s eyes. He also captures the horror of the original Leroux tale — Erik does look like a death head here, and not the half-scarred individual of the Broadway musical who, while damaged, is obviously human. The illustrations are no simple comic book outlines, but true portraits worthy of hanging on walls. I expecially like the elongated body style he adopts, similar to that of El Greco.

This book is to be savored, and returned to again and again to help readers re-immerse themselves in the world of Leroux’s Erik.

I enjoyed reading this graphic novel version of Phantom of the Opera. Thank you Netgalley for letting me read and review this graphic novel. The art style was beautiful, and matched the moods of Phantom story.

Visually stunning graphic novel that paints a more gruesome picture of the events as told by Christine.

I was unable to download before it was archived. I was really excited about this title and sad that I missed it.

Love the phantom of the opera, and this novel really captures the gothic romance of it all. The artwork is detailed and liked the style of it a lot.

The Phantom of the Opera é um dos meus clássicos favoritos. Essa graphic novel é incrível, os traços são ótimos e passou todo o sentimento que a história tinha que me passar enquanto eu lia.

The visuals were gorgeous and I enjoyed how faithful it was to the book. Though readers should be aware that it is more like the book than the musical.

Graphic novels aren't really my thing, but I thought I'd try this out as I want to expand my horizons and all that. This was a really fun way to read the story, and I encourage people to give it a try.

Great art and visuals. I loved the original novel and this version gave the classic novel a fresh take for a new generation.

2 stars. I was not a fan of the art in this one, but I am interested in reading the novel. Review to come.

Due to being a high school teacher, I often do not have time to review and fall behind on reviewing. Here are my initial thoughts.

While the original The Phantom of the Opera by French author Gaston Leroux wasn't my favorite book -- I much prefer the musical version, sorry to say -- I still enjoyed this graphic novel. Varga Tomi did a good job fitting in the story into a mere 128 pages while still staying true to the original story. The color scheme also did a good job of keeping with the sinister theme, and I really liked the illustrations.

Let me preface by saying that I have never seen any of the other renditions, and the graphic novel was my first experience of reading the classic. Hence, I did not have anything to benchmark my expectations. Having that said, I enjoyed the story and the graphic novel representation.

Firstly, the creators did an excellent job in the graphic novel. I was in awe at the level of details added in each background panel. Some of the imagery took my breath away and gave the book a perfect gothic feel. The Phantom is genuinely eerie and repulsive, yet there are scenes where you feel sorry for him. The scenes where the Chandelier falls or when Christine disappears after her performance was breath-taking!

Similarly, I loved the plot as well. I am a sucker for gothic romance, and this is probably one of the earliest stories in the genre. Erik is one of the most complex characters, where hate him, yet part of you roots for him for what he has gone through.

However, there were a few minor things that felt disconnected. For one thing, I thought the romance seemed off. I don’t blame the illustrators per se (as it could have been a translation from the original storylines). But, I didn’t feel the romance between Raoul and Christine. Moreover, I was rooting for the Phantom as I thought he was the most mesmerizing character. Also, I thought that the font text could have been better, as soon bubbles felt small to read.

Apart from that, this was a delightful graphic novel to read. I would love to see the musical the next time I visit New York. Overall, I recommend “The Phantom of the Opera: The Graphic Novel” even if you haven’t seen the musical.

“If I am the phantom, it is because man's hatred has made me so. If I am to be saved it is because your love redeems me.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Phantom of the Opera : The Graphic Novel by Varga Tomi was a beautifully rendered reimagining of the classic tale. I’ll admit I’ve never read the original in full, so I couldn’t tell you if this was completely accurate, but based on my love of the musical I can at least say that the spirit is there. The color work in particular brought it together for me.

Thank you to @netgalley and @diamondbookdist for the galley!
#netgalley

My first graphic novel ever!

I keep hearing about how wonderful they are and I was so grateful to have been given this copy for review. I can understand the attraction of the graphic novel now and appreciate this storytelling format.

I thought the artwork was very interesting however on some pages they seemed to be bunched together and even overlapped a bit. I think that is just the digital copy issue and certainly not probably an issue in the paperback version.

I've only seen this story once at the theatre and it's been a few years. It seems like there were significant differences in the story, but that could just be my memory. I should probably try and read the book version of the story to see how that stands up to this story.

Overall it was an interesting experience for me. I didn't love it but I think I'd like to continue reading graphic novels and open up my reading experiences.

Thank you to #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

~

The Phantom of the Opera, by Varga Tomi
★★☆☆☆
128 Pages


Sadly, this adaptation just didn't work for me. I ended up DNF'ing it, due to the grainy artwork, the small, often blurry, text that made it hard to read, and the long-winded storytelling. Overall, I was left underwhelmed and confused.

This is a striking adaption of The Phantom of the Opera, with intricately detailed illustrations, bold lines, and moody coloring. I hadn't read the book or seen any of the film or stage adaptions before reading this, and the text was easy to follow for the most part; there were a few spots were more explanation would've been appreciated for someone unfamiliar with the story, but fans of the book and/or adaptions will have no problem. The Phantom is truly creepy and menacing, and the Opera House is well featured, becoming a character in its own right. Perfect for fans of Gothic literature.

#ThePhantomoftheOperaTheGraphicNovel #NetGalley

Not a great adaptation, though it is much more faithful to the book than the musical. I’ve loved the musical since I was a kid and read the book a long time ago. I remember being entirely engrossed by the text and having those “aha” moments when weird artifacts from the musical were explained (“keep your hand at the level of your eyes!”). This adaptation really doesn’t provide any of that clarity. In fact, being familiar with the source material is a prerequisite for following the story in the graphic novel, unlike the musical, which is... kind of the opposite of the purpose of an adaptation? That being said, this was the first graphic novel I read since reading the excellent book Understanding Comics and I truly could appreciate the art and storytelling through the graphic format. The good old OG is pretty gruesome and there are some beautiful pages overall.

A graphic novel retelling of The Phantom of the Opera. The phantom lives in the labyrinth under the opera house and even though everyone knows who he is, none have seen him. Until love lures him out to transform Christine into a star.

The art is really crowded on some pages. It makes reading harder on a digital copy. I am hoping that seeing the physical copy will make the story a little easier to read. Letters were done with black dialogue boxes and white letters which did help somewhat. The art style makes the book feel like a classic. Everything has soft edges that create the feeling of looking at a painting.

I have only watched Phantom of the Opera as a movie, I have not read the original book. The story is moved quickly along which is nice, but the scans of the digital copy were so distorted in parts that it was hard to read. I am hoping to read the physical copy to see if I can read it easier. For example, the part where Christine was in the underground were almost impossible to read on my phone.

The colors where excellent. Contrasting colors were used, blacks for the phantom and blues and purples for Christine and Raoul.

Creative Team:
Script, art, and letters by Varga Tomi
Original story by Gaston Leroux

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who has not read the original story but has seen the musical live, I enjoyed every second of this graphic novel. Starting with how adequately the art and the colors selected fit the story, Tomi did an excellent job at recreating the gothic environment of the tale. Also, the author kept the book concise and did not extend on scenes that were not significant, this made the reading experience more entertaining than many adaptations I have read before. Lastly, I recommend this to anyone who is a fan of, either the book or the musical.