Cover Image: Zaroff

Zaroff

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I'll just start by saying I don't know that we needed a sequel to "The Most Dangerous Game", (This is a sequel to the movie, not the original short story.) but if we are going to get one at least it's good. This one flips the script with Zaroff on the run from the offspring of someone he killed. Along for the ride are his sister's family as they have to kill off this mob family before they are killed. It doesn't really do anything new though. The art is really good with a traditional European comic look.

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Despite the fact that every single character in this is an absolute piece of rotten trash, the story is entertaining and full of action. It's SUPER violent, but the art is stunningly beautiful.

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Great story and artwork. It is not my cup of tea, it was too classical, but overall, A little bit difficult for reading in some parts. But I really liked it. What was best about this was the artwork. I liked how the artist drew faces.

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I didn't know the original story that inspired this, or the film that came from it, but boy am I glad to know these pages. A simple hunt/chase/revenge story is played out, where one of the nastiest men around is the guy we're rooting for. That guy was a self-exiled Russian, who used to capture sailors and hunt them down as a game on his Brazilian island. Someone finally escaped, and so he's in new territory – yet the sister and other gang-members connected to one of his old victims tracks that new territory down. Dumping his sister and her three children on the island as added impetus, the woman sets up two fractious, quarrelling groups, with both the environment and each other for them both to fight. And it will be a fight to the death. Those quarrels and arguments-for-arguments'-sake are the only negative things here – the plotting is fine, the clever huntsman and tracker are suitably authoritative-sounding, and the artwork is really impressive at times. On the whole, apart from us rooting for a mass killer, this is timeless entertainment of the old school style, and all the better for it. Classy – four and a half stars.

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Gory, very dramatic and really well illustrated.

This is a story about Zaroff who lives on a remote Island with his servants. Zaroff is a hunter but he hunts people who have been shipwrecked near his remote Island. His blood thirsty passion goes awry when one of the people he is hunting manages to escape and lets the world know what he has endured.

Zaroff then finds himself the prey as the daughter of one of his victims seeks vengeance against Zaroff and against his sister and her family.

Geat story telling full of tension, suspense, horror and gore. This is not my usual genre but I did enjoy the artwork. I also liked the open way the story ended.

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

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Comics inspired by (and practically a sequel to) first survival genre movie (inspired by a short story from 1924) brings hunter who becomes prey. And the only way to get out of this alive is to become a hunter again. general Zaroff escaped Great Russian revolution and now lives on a secluded island near South America. His greatest hobby is hunt stranded people who end on his island trough shipwreck caused by rocky coast (with a little bit of help by the general). He equips his prey and if it can escape for three days, it's free. And the hero of the movie did exactly that. He also went public and alarmed authorities, but general cleverly left the island. But thanks to that publicity dauther of late Boston's gang boss begin her's hunt for general, her's revenge. And there is more in stake than general's life.
I love how the villain, the monster was turned here to the main protagonist, even if he does what he does, but the author ensures that mobster boss' daughter Fiona Flanagan take and ratify the role of the antagonist here. So we have the secluded island, skilled hunter Zaroff and a small army of well-equipped mobsters. And shit goes down on this very beautiful but unlikely island (even author in afterword recognises that the island is at least in geomorphological meaning nonsense). The environment is variable but always dangerous, all the basic survival genre principles are well composed and presented. It works brilliantly and it looks great. The art is splendid, lifelike but artistic with that "European" feel I like. There is plenty of details and the only thing which amused me was night camp scene, where mobsters in the first plane were inked and well lit and then there were other mobsters in the second plane, resting further away in dark, rendered only like paint made dark silhouettes. Nothing between that so with a closer look it felt like they are just painted set pieces. This style is used in many other panels (object further away/out of focus/in dark are jus did by colours, not ink) and it works well, but this exact scene it did not. it doesn't look terrible, it still looks great but it's funny. The story is well-composed, adventurous and generally fun.
Big thanks to #netgalley and #EuropeComics for a digital copy.

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

~

Zaroff – Sylvain Runberg
★★★★★
88 Pages
Content Warning: violence, death, humans hunting humans


Zaroff is loosely based on the 1924 story “The Most Dangerous Game”, but you wouldn't know it. I had no sense or feeling that I was missing part of the story when I read it.
It was welly plotted, well delivered, and told us exactly what we needed to know. That story was about a hunter shipwrecked on the island and hunted by a Russian aristocrat, and we get a taste of the end of that story at the beginning of this graphic novel.
I think, by not replaying that story to us, this one was able to start with a real bang, and then move into an explanation of what had happened. It had a far greater impact, for that reason.
With the dark and gritty, but very realistic illustrations, it managed to make the story more real and more frightening. It had an atmosphere that reminded me of A Heart of Darkness, and the art of Fabien Nury's A Son of the Sun.
Sometimes it was hard to read the captions, because of the font, but overall I was very impressed with the quality of the illustrations, the pace of the storytelling, and the way the plot was developed. It's hard to make an unapologetic killer sympathetic, and to make a victim the villain, but this story managed it perfectly.

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I requested this book because i really liked the blurb and wanted another try of reading this type of book.

I have finally come to the conclusion that, this really is not for me, not detracting form the actual product / book it is just me.

I find it difficult to read in this format, thats all :)

I have given it 4 stars as the story and the illustrations are excellent, it seemed unfair for me to downgrade it, just because it is my issie :)

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A great telling of a classic. The illustrations really convey the environment the characters are trekking through and help set the mood for all the action. It wasn't dialog heavy but had just enough to convey every emotion of the characters.

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This is a first rate graphic novel. Zaroff, a russian aristocrat who fled after the Bolshevik revolution, likes to hunt humans. What happens when he's the hunted? Great storytelling and great artwork make this a very good read!

Thanks to NetGallery for making this available for preview.

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