Tuesday, November 12, 2013

King David

by Kyle Baker

I'm not sure how it is that I never knew that this book existed, as a new Kyle Baker release is usually something that gets a lot of press, but this Vertigo graphic novel that was released in 2002 completely missed showing up on my radar until just recently.

King David is Baker's take on the Biblical figure, who fought Goliath, earned the enmity of King Saul, and eventually became a terrible leader for Israel.  I am woefully ignorant of the details of pretty much all Bible stories, and so much of this was new to me (or vaguely familiar).  For that reason, I can't say to what degree Baker was taking liberties with his story, but I did enjoy the way he used contemporary vernacular in the historical setting.

Baker's art is both wonderful, and wonderfully odd.  He has constructed many of his backgrounds digitally, and has put an odd amount of detail into them.  His character work reads and looks great, but there are some pretty big issues with the pacing of the book.

In all, this is a very odd project, but I enjoyed it for that reason.

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