I really enjoyed this graphic novel. and I will definitely read it again. The illustrations were beautiful, and I thought captured the world wonderfully. Interested to see if they continue to adapt the story.

I was really happy to read this graphic novel. The illustrations are incredible and could have told the story alone without the dialogue.

Art: 8/10

Paneling: 8/10

Plot and Characters: 7/10

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this one, the magic system and world building really sucked me in and there were sections of it that absolutely blew me away. It wasn't a new favourite because there were times I felt myself losing attention with it but I enjoyed it alot and would definitely read anything else set in this world

I really liked the concept of Darryl Openworld. There are Journalysts that record everything that happens in this big city. Some of it is news, some of it is crime, and some is speculation. It’s really a big mix of things. I was hoping to get the start of a big epic fantasy story where a whole bunch of characters and plot lines are introduced, but it disappointed me.

First up, there are really only a couple characters. Darryl, a Journalyst, his fairy apprentice, a ghost named Dean, a girl named Julianne, and one other guy I don’t remember the name of. Dean and Darryl look so similar that it’s hard to tell them apart sometimes. They have the same face, the same hair, and wear the same color clothing. Sure, Dean is a ghost so he can’t do much about his appearance. But Darryl could at least wear something other than brown, I mean come on dude, just put on blue or pink or orange. Problem solved.

The plot opens with this giant clock breaking, which apparently messes with the real time of the story. I loved this, but then it’s not really addressed later. I assume this is a plot point for the next volume. Also, it didn’t seem like time had completely stopped, so what exactly did stopping the clock do? No one ever explained it, so it felt like there were no stakes.

Next up, a giant attacks the city. Again, time has not stopped, so these citizens are suddenly in danger and Darryl has to save the day. Darryl is a Journalyst. Since when can he fight? Actually, he doesn’t even fight. He and Dean tag team distracting the giant and they make it trip and that’s the end of it. Who actually subdued the giant? Did I miss that?

And then there’s this weird plot line where Julianne is telling this whole story to a lady because she’s writing a book about it. I guess she was pitching her story to an agent, like it was fiction. The lady keeps saying stuff like, “wow, this sounds so real, you sure this didn’t happen?” Except they’re from earth, where weird stuff doesn’t ever happen, so why would this lady assume it’s real? That plot line was the absolute most chaotic part of this chaotic mess, because it made no sense why the agent would react that way. At first, she just seemed interested in Julianne’s story, which felt natural. But then it derailed from there.

There were two great bits of world building I loved. There’s this one city in between all the worlds, like somewhere in the blank space between the worlds layered on top of each other. You can’t go there without permission, which Darryl had permission. I’d love to see more of that city. It was a little dreamlike, with a bit of M.C. Escher, which I found fascinating and beautiful.

And there was this train that could take you between different worlds I think, which reminded me of the train in Spirited Away. Darryl went to the final stop, which was so dangerous that the train workers said they would only pick him up if he made it back alive. I really liked seeing this cool cave thingy, because the art was gorgeous.

Now, as for the ending, I just can’t. There’s a big reveal at the end which is supposed to explain everything that’s happened so far. I felt like none of it was foreshadowed. Sure, surprise is nice, but the concept of being possessed was never really introduced before. So how could anyone have figured out that there was a possessed character? Sure, Dean learned how to control people as a ghost, but it’s not the same concept, at least I don’t think it is. Nothing is explained, so I have no clue who possessed the one character and how it was accomplished.

I feel like this graphic novel has a lot of great concepts that are executed so-so. The world building is stunning, and this definitely has the potential to be a great epic fantasy. But the plot just isn’t handled good enough for me to want to continue reading.

If I do read volume 2, it will be for the world building only. And I’m probably just going to say forget it and read things I’m actually interested in.

If you want a better epic fantasy in graphic novel form, I’d recommend Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. That is much better and has even prettier art.

This book was okay. I really liked the worldbuilding and the character designs, but not much else captured my attention. I'd definitely recommend it to steampunk fans though.

**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest Review**

Darryl Openworld by Remi Guerin; Oliver Peru was a steam punk/fantasy graphic novel about a boy who could travel between worlds and the friends he made there. The artwork was nice in this one and the worlds were vast and intriguing, but honestly, I'm not sure what to make it. It read like the middle of a series somehow like you were supposed to know and be familiar with the characters already, at least that's how it felt to me. I would enjoy this story with a more thorough and well thought out setup, but it made for an interesting start.

I am afraid that I couldn't fully enjoy this comic. The art was absolutely gorgeous and it was very intriguing, but without any background knowledge I was left confused with the plot and the characters. I'm not sure in how far it's just because it's a graphic novel or an adaptation, but I felt like I was speedrunning world building or character development and it just wasn't it.

I liked this book very much! It was able to make me cross the line between worlds, colours and drawings are absolutely stunning!
I wouldn't be oppose to reading more in this verse, I think there could be more adventures and stories told.

Being a steampunk lover I thought it was going to be one of my favorite reads for this year but I simply couldn't really get into it. I have to say, it does have a solid worldbuilding and the art was really pretty, but the story fell a little flat. Maybe because it is an adaptation and they had to cut a chunk of the story or some of the more subtle transitions that really helped the narrative along.

Thank you Netgalley and Magnetic Press for sending me a digital ARC of this book in return for my honest thoughts.

This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.
The plot of the book threw me off a bit but towards the ending it made sense and it's a pretty well written story.

The steampunk world building is incredibly beautiful and the character designs as well. I loved the plot concept of merging two different worlds with different rules.

This was a great read. Thank you.

First and foremost, the cover and art panels are both lovely. I had a good time in this world. However, it felt a little superficial to me because of the way it was executed and flowed, as well as the characters who seemed to lack development and exposure; as a result, the story felt a little dragged and shallow to me.

I just hope that the characters and plot-character dynamics were given more attention.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and publisher for a copy of this beautiful graphic novel.

Wow... where does one begin? The art for this graphic novel series is stunning-it truly is; but the story is slightly confusing, or rather lacking in some depth in this current volume. I am in concurrence with some of the other reviewers about not understanding where this is going exactly or lacking empathy for some of the main characters. Perhaps this is a flaw of this first installment that we shall see come to fruition in the later chapters but as of now, the complexity of the story makes one want to stop reading it somehwere around half-way through.

Let's see what the future of this series brings, I'm still willing to give it a chance.

Fantasy comic with complicated world-building, grey characters and fast-paced action. This is an adaptation of a novel, and sadly we can feel it. It very much suffers from the syndrome of, if you haven't read it, you will not get a lot of things. Because it is very fast, it is hard to get a good notion of the world, and what is at stake. The danger doesn't feel like anything bad could really happen... and the characters are just glossed over very quickly, without any reason for us to care in any way about any of them. This is sometimes a problem with comics, just because there isn't a lot of time to grow the people. I think I would have preferred to read the novel, or to have it made in longer series, like a manga, taking the time to get to know the people involved just so the resolution can have an impact.
The drawings are very pleasant, and it's a shame the text could not do it justice.

There are hiccups to this story, but it's not too horrendous, and with a good visual craft deserves at least a look. Just don't expect too much clarity and sanity from the plot summary, mind, which reads as follows – a journalist with a kind of fairy medium can cross from one world to another; in his something big seems brewing, perhaps connected to a missing giant he's written about recently, while in ours a girl who seems to be in a relationship with said journalist is also trying to spend her days with the ghost of a dead kid she loves or loved. Oh, and the second half of this – this collecting two smaller French BDs – is just impossible to convey in a few words.

Like I say the artistry is fine, but it's the story that is bonkers. This seems a spin-off from a French-language YA fantasy novel, and I don't know if this had a prose variation in the day or not. Either way this feels like you're missing out on a lot, coming to it cold. Even the weird framing device, of a literature editor asking her author to recount the story in a pitch/planning meeting, barely helps us work out what's what. And when the protagonist proves to be someone from a long time back in the characters' lore, the compulsion to copy a character's cry of "can someone translate this gibberish?" is far too strong. Three stars, then, and mostly for the look, but if you like a lot of work with your trashy fantasy, this will suit your tastes.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Magnetic Press for sending me this eARC.

I love the world and set up of the openworld compared to the grey world. We are started off at the beginning of the character Julianne telling a agent her story, and this story is set about Darryl and his friends. The mysteries are fun, and the twist some of them I did not expect. I highly enjoyed it, and although I wouldn't consider it fully steampunk, it does have steampunk elements in it which I love. The art style is fabulous, and I love how the cities are depicted.

I hope they continue the story, as it definitely barely touches the surface of the story and the world. It would be great to see them keep adapting the rest.

Ghosts. Demons. Adventure. Danger. Betrayal.

Darryl Openworld has it all. The story follows Darryl, who is a prominent journalist because he can travel to other realities. This volume introduces Darryl and his friends very well, and leaves room for many interesting volumes to come.

The art style is is like a muted steampunk, and is really pleasing to look at. Honestly, the artwork is reason enough to pick this book up, so it’s just a plus that the story is intriguing too.

Darryl Openworld is a 4 star from me, but later volumes could be 5 stars as the character and world are more fleshed out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

The art in insanely beautiful but that is really all I can say about this confusing mess. There is nowhere near enough worldbuilding in the Openworld for anyone to know what the heck is going on, and it doesn't help that the two main male characters have VERY similar character design so sometimes I could not tell who even was talking. Also the main character, Darryl is soooo one-dimensional that there is no real reason to care what is happening to him.

Thank you to NetGalley, Diamond Book Distributors, Magnetic Press for provided my copy.

This graphic novel Darryl Openworld is created based on European YA novel from Oliver Peru. I think I need read the novel to understand complete about the worldbuild and magic system first before I can make fair review about the plotline.
From the glimpse I saw, the steampunk setting very rich with details. And a journalist as a MC who consisting making journey between realm to doing investigations surely peak my attention. I really love the artwork style and wish more dive to this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley, Diamond Book Distributors, Magnetic Press, Remi Guerin, and Oliver Peru for the opportunity to read this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.

Darryl Openworld is a phenomenal stand-alone story with exquisite art that really bring the tale to life.

Darryl is special, as he has the power to move to different universes. The equivalent to what we may know as our Earth is the gray world, where his girlfriend Julianne lives. He is also a journalyst, someone who investigates strange happenings in Openworld and reports on them. With the help of his livebyrd to take excellent photos and scope out witnesses, as well as his fairy apprentice, Darryl is the top known writer/investigator.

When even stranger occurrences happen in Openworld, Darryl requests help from his ghost friend, Dean. No one else can see him, which makes his help inconspicuous, along with not having to worry about death or injury in certain situations.

After further investigations, Darryl finds something sinister may be at work in Openworld.

Told in an embedded narrative, Julianne is pitching her novel, "Darryl Openworld" to her editor and the reader gets to see the very story she has written. It is up to the reader to determine whether or not Julianne's story is true.

This graphic novel tells a wondrous story in a well-crafted world. The art really brings the characters to life and the color palate is well-thought-out for the different universes, as well as being very pleasing to the eye. I would recommend this graphic novel to those who love fantasy, isekai, and those who may seek inspiration in writing their own tales through the unique craft of Darryl's universe.

Thank you #NetGalley and #MagneticPress for sending me a copy of this graphic novel #DarrylOpenworld.

This is such a nice twist on the alternate universe story. The artwork is absolutely gorgeous. The dialogue and story is fantastic. I can not wait to read the next volume of this.