Graphic Novel Review--Evil Thing by Serena Valentino & Ill. by Arielle Jovellanos

 

“Sure, you know the story of those wretched Dalmatians. But don’t I deserve a chance to tell my own side of the story? It is fabulous, after all.”


You may think you know the tale: a happy young couple, one hundred and one Dalmatians, and the woman determined to turn them into a perfectly spotted fur coat.


But who is that monster, that scene-stealer, that evil thing? Who is the woman behind it all? Before the car crash, before the dognapping, before furs became her only true love, there was another story. This is the story of Cruella De Vil—in her own words.


Even the cruelest villains have best friends, true loves, and daring dreams. After all, nothing is as simple as black and white.


In this first graphic novel adaptation of the New York Times best-selling Villains series, Arielle Jovellanos brings Serena Valentino’s darkly captivating world to life with beautiful and haunting illustrations in a stunning new visual format.

 

It's a heady experience to read a novel and then immediately read a graphic novel version of it! But that's what I just did with Serena Valentino's Evil Thing! This was the first graphic novel Disney did of Serena's books and I have to say, it was marvelously done! Arielle Jovellano's illustrations were marvelous, I loved how the coloring stuck to shades of black, white, and red. It was a stunning visualization!

I thought the graphic novel was adapted very well from the original story! Having read the bulk of the book in one day, I found myself staying up to read more and more of the graphic novel until I reached that point of no return! I had to see what would happen in the end! I mean, I knew the outcome, but I really wanted to SEE it this time around!

I have to say that I did enjoy that the illustrations weren't carbon copies of Disney drawings. Yes, you could still see hints of the original drawings there with some of the characters, but I kind of liked that Cruella was truly her own version!

And I have to say, that by reading the graphic novel version of the story, I saw things that I might have missed the first time around when reading. I now see something that I thought I missed but then recanted in my earlier review. I had wondered at the Odd Sisters absence but then realized something about the story that I could quite clearly see this time around of course! But then I had inklings about another of the characters...but that is something I suppose will have to wait until I continue the rest of the series the next time around.

For those who are looking for my review of the graphic novel version of the story I will keep it simple here since there is already a book form of the story. Sometimes it pays to fall behind so that I can read things back to back like this! Evil Thing is the origin story of the famous Cruella de Vil. We all know who she was in 101 Dalmatians movie from Disney, but who was she before those dreadful days? Well this will give you that story in a unique and visual way.

Cruella was once a happy child, one with her father's love and striving to earn her mother's love. Her best friend, Anita was a constant in her life until she wasn't. Cruella was always trying to do what her mother wanted, to make her happy, and yet her father's last wish was for Cruella to do what made her happy, to be happy for herself.

It seems Cruella's fate was always meant to go down the road she eventually went down. If you pay close attention, and in this version of the story, it's definitely easier to see, you can note how and when it happened and how it continued to happen through Cruella's life. I'll be curious to see how many of these graphic novel versions Disney will do of the Villains series. I know we now have started back at the beginning with the Evil Queen's story told in this format, so I'll be curious to see if we go back to them all and circle back to the current novels as well.

I was particularly tickled with how the afterword was handled in this one! Having just finished those pages moments before reading this one, it hadn't occurred to me if they would include it or not, but they did and it was rather beautiful! I loved Serena's letter to the reader and I loved how it was illustrated in this novel. It truly makes you see Cruella in a different light and I think that was Serena's entire point!

If you're a fan of the Villains series I highly recommend checking out these graphic novels! I'm now eager to get around to reading the next graphic novel version from this series! I enjoy that the graphic novel follows the written story very well, down to the same chapter titles and all! It is truly astonishing to see a 300+ page novel transformed into less than half the page count in illustrated format and still get the entire story across! The Disney team is truly a dream team because this book was perfection!

Overall Rating 5/5 stars