As a fan of both Douglas Adams and Ilias Kyriazis, I was so eager to get my hands on Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: A Spoon Too Short. Having not read the novels, I can’t really judge if the character was consistent with them. However, I could see Douglas Adams’ influence in the dialogue and I rather enjoyed the dry humour. This comic book takes place after the novel Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul and right before the events of the comic book The Interconnectedness of All Kings.

Dirk Gently is a holistic detective that strongly believes that everything is connected. Therefore, a mysterious case of a family that has lost all means of communication becomes strangely connected to illegal rhino poaching in Kenya. For the most part, I enjoyed the story and I was fully engaged for the ride. Yet, the final resolution felt like it was missing something as I couldn’t really understand how the cases ended up connecting to one another.

My favourite part of the comic book was definitely the scenes that every issue begins with. In these scenes, we get a glimpse of young Dirk and how he comes to terms with his powers. Some of the things that he had to go through were actually horrifying.

Finally, I would like to talk about the art style of the comic book. As I’ve already mentioned, I’m familiar with the work of Ilias Kyriazis and I love it. I’m not sure if and how many of his own comic books are translated into English as I’ve read them in their original language, which is Greek. In any case, I found that his particular style was a great fit for the story. I have to comment though that I wasn’t a big fan of Sally dressing up as a sexy nurse as it was an opportunity for some panels that felt a bit too objectifying.

All in all, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: A Spoon Too Short was a great comic book. If you enjoy the dry humour of Douglas Adams, then you will definitely like it!

This book lives up to the original Douglas Adams books. Weird, funny, and oddly satisfying.

Poking about a dead guy's IP is pretty fraught. Most of the time the end result is a half assed, fanficcy version of That Thing You Like And Didn't Think you Could Have Of, see Dune sequels and the complete output of Chris Tolkien. But Dirk Gently is weirdly prescient of modern procedurals; He's eccentric and maybe not neurotypical and he uses those powers to solve crime...well mysteries, he may not have actually dealt with crime ever. The comic book version is really good at working that premise and actually using the art and sequence of panels to emphasize the interconnectedness of all things aspect. The meta reveals and bouncing around panel to panel is great.

Verdict: Try it. If you're a fan, it's a great use of the weirdness comics are capable of to tell a detective story very much in the mood of the novels.

The title said Dirk Gently and as a Douglas Adams fan, I grabbed it immediately. Loved reading this book.