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Nancy Drew Vol 1: The Demon of River Heights

By Hervé St.Louis
June 18, 2005 - 18:33

Nancy Drew is the second new series by NBM’s Papercutz line of graphic novels and comics for tweens and teens. Papercutz series are based on literary classics proven to appeal to young readers but adapted with a Manga style. Compiling the first three issues from the regular monthly series, Nancy Drew is a girl detective, who along with her best friends, sexy Bess, and nerdy George, attempt to find out if a monster is hiding in the backwoods of River Heights.

Right off the bat, I’ll admit that this series is much better than The Hardy Boys’ adaptation released by the publisher, prior. Nancy and her friend have more angst and remind me of Sailor Moon. This characterisation is what helps the story move along as the detective case is very shallow, although Nancy Drew is not a bad detective. I found myself captivated and eager to return to the book, when I had to pause my reading. I’m not the target reader for this series so any book that achieves that is good old fun.

Papercutz took a risk trying to incorporate 3D design within this comic book. It could have easily backfired on them. It didn’t. They had enough design insight to make the line artwork fit in nicely with the 3D elements. Of note is the colouring, capturing the feel of an animated series. The only drawback to this experimental mix, is that the blurs are too strong and tend to fade the 3D elements too much.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12