Horn Book

This graphic-novel interpretation focuses on Beowulf's three fights-to-the-death: with the monster Grendel and Grendel's mother in his youth and with the dragon who defeats him in old age. The text retains some of the original's flavor, but the typefaces are often hard to read, and the action scenes (clearly meant to appeal to today's superhero comics fans) lack dynamism.

ALA Booklist

Candlewick's first foray into the graphic novel format proves an odd blend of ancient history and modern action. It's an epic poem seen as a video game. Beowulf, written circa 800 CE, is the story of a warrior-hero charged with dispatching the marauding monster Grendel and its terrible mother. An action epic in any form, this abridged translation is no exception, and it retains the original's dominant themes, including what warriors, and fathers, leave behind for future generations. The original's poetry has become prose narration, loaded with portent and melancholy even amid images of bloody (very bloody) battles between sword and claw. Hind's watercolor art is thick with atmosphere and grand in its conception of vast halls and shadowed caves, but the line work is somewhat amateurish. The book makes a gorgeous whole, though; the long, wordless battles reproduced on glossy, high-quality paper are particularly noteworthy. It all feels a bit like dressing a Lethal Weapon movie up like a Shakespearean drama, but this offering will have high appeal for many, particularly fans of video games and action movies.

Voice of Youth Advocates

In 1999, Hinds self-published a three-issue mini-series of comics based on the classic epic poem Beowulf. He then self-published a collection of the three issues under the title The Collected Beowulf (thecomic.com, 2000). Even if a library is lucky enough to own the self-published original, purchasing this new edition is worth the cost. Both the self-published and new editions feature Hinds's fabulously detailed, action-filled artwork. The illustrations for each section of the story are created differently. The first section features Photoshopped pen-and-ink drawings, the second paint on wood, and the third black wash over black ink. This gives each section a distinct feel. The difference between the two editions lies in the text. For his self-published edition, Hinds based his text on the 1910 verse translation by Francis Gummere and included a glossary of unfamiliar terms. For the new edition, Hinds creates a new text based on the 1904 prose translation by A. J. Church. Both include all three sections of Beowulf's story as he fights Grendel, Grendel's mother, and finally the dragon that kills him. This blood-drenched, battle-packed story of one of the first superheroes is sure to interest a new generation. It is being released just in time to be useful as a page-turning introduction to the classic epic poem before the Neil Gaiman movie adaptation is released in fall 2008.-Timothy Capehart.

Kirkus Reviews

Pairing art from an earlier, self-published edition to a newly adapted text, Hinds retells the old tale as a series of dark, bloody, chaotic clashes. Here Grendel is a glaring, black monster with huge teeth, corded muscles and a tendency to smash or bite off adversaries' heads; the dragon is all sinuous viciousness; and Beowulf, mighty of thew, towers over his fellow Geats. The narrative, boxed off from the illustrations rather than incorporated into them, runs to lines like, "Bid my brave warriors O Wiglaf, to build a lofty cairn for me upon the sea-cliffs . . . " and tends to disappear when the fighting starts. Because the panels are jumbled together on the page, the action is sometimes hard to follow, but this makes a strongly atmospheric alternative to the semi-abstract Beowulf, the Legend , by Stephen L. Antczak and James C. Bassett, illus by Andy Lee (2006), or the more conventionally formatted version of Michael Morpurgo, with pictures by Michael Foreman (2006). (Graphic fiction. 12-15)

School Library Journal

Gr 10 Up-This epic tale is exceptionally well suited to the episodic telling necessary for a successful graphic novel, as the warrior-hero fights Grendel, Grendel's mother, and, ultimately, the dragon that claims his life, and (in true comic-book fashion) each challenge is significantly more difficult and violent than the one before. Although greatly abridged and edited, the text maintains a consistent rhythm and overall feel appropriate for the poetic nature of the story. Dialogue and narration are presented in identical text boxes, but astute readers will be able to decipher from the images which character is speaking. Each specific event is complemented by illustrations that effectively convey the atmosphere-historical details are paired with sketchy, ethereal drawings, the violent battle scenes are darkly tinted with red, and the end of Beowulf's life is indicated by gray, colorless imagery. Hinds's version will make this epic story available to a whole new group of readers. This book is likely to be especially popular when the Beowulf movie, directed by Robert Zemeckis, is released in November 2007.-Heather M. Campbell, Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.