Fiction Review: The Millennium Series Graphic Novels (Part 3/3)

Time for a side-by-side comparison!

Now, it's pretty obvious that I prefer the Titan version to the Vertigo version. But not in every case. While Titan's version was, in my opinion, superior overall, Vertigo did some things better.

Character illustrations

I'm gonna say that Titan was better with the character illustrations, because the crew of artists they had on this, did things more consistently. Vertigo's artists sometimes made the characters look completely different from panel to panel. It was like at some point, they just couldn't be arsed anymore.

Vertigo's version	Titan's version
Annika Giannini
Dragan Armansky
Nils Bjurman
Jan Bublanski
Richard Ekström
Erika Berger
Holger Palmgren
Lisbeth Salander
Mikael Blomkvist
Miriam Wu
Ronald Neidermann
Plague
Sonia Modig
Peter Teleborian
Zala

 

Iconic scenes

Bjurman rapes Lisbeth. For sheer brutality on-canvas, Vertigo picks up a disturbing win. Titan's frenetic depiction of Lisbeth's rape at the hands of Nils Bjurman is stomach-churning, but Vertigo hits the ball out of the park with their dully-hued, unflinching rendition. I winced. And for eliciting that reaction, I declare Vertigo the victor.

Vertigo's version (the panels
leading up to it are even worse)

Titan's version looks bad, but trust
me when I say it's tame
compared to Vertigo's.

Bjurman gets tattooed. Both versions are evenly matched in their depictions of Lisbeth's grisly revenge on Bjurman, but one thing makes Titan's version stand out - the tattoo is in Swedish. Detail is everything, and Titan nails this one hard.

Vertigo's version: acceptable.

Titan's version: better.

Lisbeth taking on the Svavelsjö Motorcycle Club. Vertigo doesn't embellish details and delivers a faithful retelling on how Lisbeth took on two bikers. Titan tries to bring it up a notch here by showing her against six. I think it's important to remember here that while Lisbeth Salander is a badass, she's primarily a superhacker. And she's so compelling precisely because she doesn't have the power to outfight and outrun everybody; every victory of hers is down to preparation and element of surprise. For believability and staying true to the spirit of the character, Vertigo wins this round.

Vertigo is suitably restrained here.

Titan overdoes it.

Roberto Paolo fights Ronald Neidermann. Vertigo doesn't deviate from the source material, but the art feels sloppy. Titan does the art better, though they tweak the story considerably by having Roberto be rescued when the car runs Neidermann down. Let's call this one a draw.

Honestly, Vertigo's version
does nothing for me.

Titan's implementation is nicer, though
I take issue with the storyline changes.

Lisbeth axes Zala. OK, I'm undecided here. Vertigo's version is suitably creepy what with the choice of colors and all, but again, the art feels sloppy. Titan's art is way better, but the setting feels just a bit too bright. For sheer effort and artistry, though, Titan's version emerges victorious.

I didn't include any scenes from The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, because by then, Titan had deviated so much from the storyline that comparisons didn't feel meaningful anymore.

Conclusion

As mentioned, I liked Titan's version better. Just wasn't a big fan of the way they mangled the storyline. Their art certainly was better in terms of the drawing and details and yes, consistency.

Vertigo was more evocative with the use of color, and they showed more respect for Stieg Larsson's work. In spirit, it does feel more like a Lisbeth Salander story. But dammit, in some places, the art sucks so much. It's a bummer. There were times when the graphic novels were really good, but unfortunately, those times came fewer and further in between as the story progressed.

Titan wins this one by a hair.

An effort of Titanic proportions! Well done!
T___T

Fiction Review: The Millennium Series Graphic Novels (Part 2/3)

This version was published by Titan Comics in 2017. The adaptation was by Sylvain Runberg, with artwork by José Homs and Manuel Carot.

Covers by Claudia Ianiciello.

The Premise

Once again, the entire arc of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, is covered. However, there were extensive changes to the story, and while the outcome in the end remains pretty much the same, the changes are large enough to impact any future adaptations based on the David Lagercrantz novels.

The Characters

José Homs and Manolo Carot keep their art very consistent with each other's. The characters are rendered beautifully and with style.

The Mood

There are plenty of color schemes that signal a change in mood. When Lisbeth is doing her computer hacking schtick, it's predominantly blue. When there's a flashback, it's shades of grey and brown. And in between, everything's done in brilliant color.

What I liked

The art. Damn, I could rave about the art forever. The panels are smaller and there's a painstaking amount of detail put in each panel. The artists sure don't believe in the adage "less is more". No, they threaten to overwhelm you with detail. Like the clutter in Plague's apartment, for instance. Or the little shout-outs in the panels. Look at these...

See that sly nod to Noomi Rapace?

And that shout-out to Robert Englund!

And what about the numerous angles? The artists play with them all the time, sometimes giving us a top-down perspective, or a mouse-eye's view. It's spectacular.

One thing I really appreciate about the art, particular to the characters. The faces are very expressive. Mikael yells, looks smug, sympathetic, and more. Lisbeth, well, either smirks or scowls. Miriam rolls her eyes. Erika teases, scolds, and shows fear and trepiditation. Armansky ponders, pleads and commands. When Sonia Modig meets Zala, there's a delightful expression of revulsion on her face.

In many panels, Lisbeth is drawn to look like Ruby Rose. I kind of like Ruby Rose.

The numerous flashbacks throughout the series were great. They're not strictly part of the novels, but they serve to tell the story a great deal more coherently when you see snippets of the serial killer at work interspersed with what's going on during the story.

The iconic scenes are lovingly rendered. Take this shot of Lisbeth entering the courtroom below.

Awesome!

What I didn't

There was a whole shitload of plot changes. I can understand the author wanting to put his own spin on things, but some of those changes felt like change for the sake of change. Some of these tweaks are minor and can be amusing - like Lisbeth learning that Holger is still alive at a hockey game instead of Armansky's office. Or Neidermann getting nailed in the hands rather than the feet. Monica Figuerola has been almost completely written out and only makes a short appearance (under a different first name, no less). I can live with those.

But there are significant deviations in the plot that feel off. Peter Teleborian is shown to have physically molested Lisbeth as a kid, whereas in the novel he somehow seemed scarier because he restricted himself to psychological abuse. Lisbeth takes on a group of guys from the Svavelsjö Motorcycle Club instead of just two. The entire plot point of Lisbeth getting buried alive by Zala and Neidermann, has been reworked till it's almost unrecognizable. There's more, but I don't want to go into those at the moment.

In Runberg's version of events, Camilla Salander has become Lisbeth's forgiving and very non-criminal twin sister, unlike the role she plays in The Girl In The Spider's Web, the supposed follow up to the events of The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by David Lagercrantz. It's probably safe to say that Runberg will not be adapting Lagercrantz's novels the way he did Larsson's.

Some of the characters emoted way too much. Lisbeth, in particular, is known for her simmering rage and tranquil fury, but in Runberg's narrative, she hams it up a whole lot. Her temper gets a lot more explosive. Mikael is less clever and assured, and more anxious. Angsty, even. Plague, too, gets some characterization inserted in the form of a sci-fi convention hobby.

Conclusion

If this were a piece of work unto itself, I'd give it top marks. The story was decent, with amazing visuals. But as an adaptation, it falls far short in terms of the plot. There are way too many deviations around the middle and end, and this leads to a noticeably different look and feel by the end of the story.

My Rating

7 / 10

Next

Comparing the Vertigo and Titan versions!

Fiction Review: The Millennium Series Graphic Novels (Part 1/3)

If you liked my writings on The Millennium Series and the movies, here's some good news - they actually have graphic novels, published a few years back, based on the original works of Stieg Larsson.

If you didn't like them, well, tough titty I guess. I will be reviewing them today. I won't go through the storyline or the characters much - they've been covered in excruciating detail in my previous reviews of the books and the movies.

There are two series of graphic novels - one released in 2014 by Vertigo, and another published in 2017 by Titan. Why people thought the world needed two series of graphic novels will forever remain a mystery to me, but I ain't complaining. I will be reviewing Vertigo's version first, adapted by Denise Mina, with art by Antonio Fuso, Leonardo Manco and Andrea Mutti.

Covers by Lee Bermejo.

The Premise

These graphic novels by Vertigo covers the entire story arc of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. While there have been a few changes, it's pretty much all there.

The Characters

These are how the characters are drawn. For the purposes of brevity, I'm only going to include characters that appear in at least two out of all three graphic novels in the series, regardless of how great or small their roles are. You'll notice that they aren't all done by the same artist.

The Mood

The art is a study in contrast. There are parts where the colors are bland and light, but when Lisbeth goes to her really bad place, the colors get dimmer and bleaker. It's... interesting.

What I liked

Holy shit, the violent bits are horrifying. They're suitably grim and bloody.

The dialogue is different from the books, but they gel with the overall spirit of the story, and in some cases, work better. In fact, the dialogue feels distinctively American.

Dirch Frode: Best report I've ever read.
Dragan Armansky: Miss Salander's clients always say that.
Dirch Frode: Strange manner though.
Dragan Armansky: They always say that too.

Miriam Wu: (about Faste) Please tell me that guy isn't a rapist.
Jan Bublanski: Officer Faste is not a rapist, nor in any way inclined towards rape. He was very taken with your picture in the apartment. I think he's a little lovestruck.

Erika Berger: I'm leaving. Right now. Forever. And I'm appointing you acting chief editor.
Anders Holm: ...I still hate you.
Erika Berger: That's still mutual.

For the most part, what goes on in the graphic novel is pretty faithful to the novels, and haven't been cut out the way they have in the movies. Take the entire arc of Lisbeth's little vacation in the Carribbean in The Girl Who Played With Fire, for instance, pictured below.

A hotmail address, no less!

In that scene, they even featured Plague's email address! A nice little nod to the novels.

What I didn't

In many places, the art is pretty meh. The artists don't appear to have their hearts in it, and just seem to really put in effort at the more iconic scenes. Also, the art feels very inconsistent because there's a few illustrators at work here. Some of the art is really good and some is... ugh.

Mikael Blomkvist looks a little too much like Daniel Craig. Oh God, please, no. Even the scenes of him in bed with Lisbeth show off an unbelievably buff bod.

Geez, really?

I can't believe I'm complaining about this, but there are times when this graphic novel series is a little too faithful to the original. Even the time-wasting parts such as Erika Berger's encounter with a stalker, are reproduced.

Conclusion

The writing is good, but the inconsistent quality of the art really brings this series down several notches. Below-par effort. And it's a pity because I like Vertigo's stuff.

My Rating

6 / 10

Next

Another series came about three years after this one was published. Let's take a look at it!

Confidence is overrated, and here's why

Professionally, there are some stock phrases that, when uttered, give me pause. Be confident. It's all about confidence. It's how you carry yourself. How often have I heard all this? I submit that the people saying this, don't truly understand what confidence is. I say this not out of derision, but due to some things I've observed over the past decade.

The last person to say this to me was an ex-colleague. He was looking for a new job because his contract was about to expire, and shared his resume for my perusal. In it, he asked for a whopping five-figure salary and claimed to be experienced in microservices, APIs, DevOps and several technologies that I know for a fact we didn't use in the workplace. Of course, he could have learned all this on his own time. But implying professional experience in technologies one has only experimented with in a personal capacity, is fundamentally dishonest. You know what he told me while discussing his resume? "You need to be confident. Ask for what you deserve."

You see, there is a huge problem with that statement, in this particular context. Yes, having the audacity to tell such big whopping lies on your resume could be construed as confidence. But from where I sit, it reeks of desperation. This guy had spent the last seven years at his desk doing very little. And when the time came for him to leave the company, he found himself alarmingly out of touch with the needs of our industry. And lacking any other viable alternatives, he opted to lie on his resume. Do confident people need to lie? Do people who are secure in their abilities, need to paint this huge glorious picture of themselves that don't match the genuine article?

Building up the image.

And the sad part is, I've felt actual confidence... and this ain't it. My ex-colleague, if he gets hired at that salary, is going to spend his days looking over his shoulder. Brazening out a lie is not confidence - it's bravado, at best. And it certainly isn't clever.

I know because I've been in that position before. I spent six years in a desktop support job doing very little in the way of useful work, and I did not dare leave the company for fear of my inadequacy being exposed. But I didn't lie. I enrolled in a course and spent a year obtaining a Diploma. When I left the company, there were genuine credentials backing up my resume. Sure, they weren't grand, but they were authentic. I was an inexperienced developer with qualifications, selling myself as... an inexperienced developer with qualifications. I didn't have to be afraid of being found out. There was no falsehood to catch up to me.

Confidence is not about talking big...

...sometimes it's about talking small. And it's even less about showing others how awesome you think you are. When you don't have to constantly put up a front, things get easier. People don't have big expectations of you, and you don't feel any pressure to maintain that facade.

At work, I defer to people all the time, because even though they're younger, they're more qualified and I'm not shy about admitting it. Hell, I would admit it even if it wasn't true. They actually have a term for this: Tai-chi.

Redirecting the flow of attention.

One thing about deferring to others is, it takes the heat off you. Keeps you under the radar. There's no need to appear to be the smartest person in the room; it's not a goddamn competition.

"They can't stop you, if they don't see you coming." -  Izey Victoria Odiase 

Sometimes confidence includes being willing to let others think you're not confident. The most dangerous people are the kind who are willing to be underestimated. At some point, you're gonna have to decide - are you a silent threat, or a harmless balloon filled with hot air? I know what I'd rather be.

Not needing to prove shit

The need to prove yourself is damaging to the psyche in the long run, and sure as hell does nothing for actual confidence.

There's a meme going around the Internet. The picture below is just one of its many incarnations.

When someone says you can't do it, do it twice and take pictures!

Not gonna lie - ten years ago, that was me. I was young and eager to show that I could conquer anything that was thrown at me. That made me easy to manipulate... because I was hungry. I was eager to prove, to myself and others, that I could make it as a tech in this industry.

A decade later, it all seems so juvenile. Sure, be good enough to do it. Be good enough to do it twice, even. But why the need to "take pictures"? So you can rub it in the faces of those who can't do it? So you can prove you're better? That's not confidence. That's adolescent-level bullshit. If you really are as good as you say you are, there is no need for validation. Especially not of that sort.

In fact, I've come to realize that the people who repeatedly try to show me that they're confident, are almost certainly the least.

Elevating others

You've heard of the people who constantly put others down in order to look good at their expense, right? Same goes for those who make a big production of pointing out someone else's mistakes just so they can look good in comparison. Well, here's some news for you - it doesn't work. In fact, it stinks of insecurity.

If you want to appear confident, do the exact opposite. Praise people. Highlight their good points.

That's the "what". Now, for the "who".

Who you praise is just as important, if not more so. Don't praise people who are obviously in a position to do you favors - like a superior or a Director. That's merely bootlicking. Praise people who are at your level, or better still, lower. That projects confidence. It shows that you're secure enough in your place that you're not afraid to give others the credit.

Bullying others is not confidence.

Conversely, if you try to one-up someone obviously not above you, you're just a loser who needs to punch down to feel like a big man. That never looks good. People who need to win just for the sake of winning, are practically the dictionary definition of the word "pathetic".

Don't be that guy.

In conclusion

Understand this: most people's facades of ironclad confidence are pretty much bullshit anyway. Once you get past their fronting, you'll recognize their insecurities for what they are, and learn to deal with your own. Because you'll know that you're not alone in feeling like a drop of piss in an ocean.

Nobody's a hundred percent sure of themselves all the time, and that's perfectly OK. It's not a cut-and-dry, binary one-or-zero equation. No program starts out being completely functional, and no software developer is the finished article. Confidence and personal growth, much like debugging, is an iterative thing. It has to be earned. There is no instant formula.

With utmost confidence,
T___T

App Review: Sara Is Missing

Some apps are straightforward - start it up, get your stuff done, play a game maybe, and turn it off. Sara Is Missing breaks the mold with a twist - start up the app and it instantly transforms your phone into someone else's phone. From there, gameplay starts right away and you're tossed into a whirlwind of intrigue.

Sara Is Missing is a game by Kaigan Games that came out a couple years ago... and what a game it is. It's won international awards for sheer creativity. From the get-go, you're immersed in a mystery that progressively gets more sinister as the player gets deeper into the storyline. 

The Premise

You, the player, have picked up a damaged mobile phone and need to figure out who the owner is. A SIRI-like disembodied voice (named IRIS, heh heh) appears to help you figure this out as you trawl through the contents of the phone.

It soon becomes apparent that the owner of the phone (the titular Sara) is in mortal danger and only you can help her.

The Aesthetics

Not a big fan, to be honest. But the interface choices (colors, backgrounds) were apt considering the phone is supposed to belong to a certain young lady named Sara Young.

I mean, I wouldn't have chosen those colors for my own phone, and perhaps that's the point.

The Experience

If the makers of this app wanted the experience to be immersive, well, they definitely succeeded. Everything in this app pretty much accurately depicts the user interface of an actual phone. It's like you're holding the actual damaged phone in your hand as you navigate its contents. In fact, sometimes it's hard to figure out where the game ends and your mobile phone begins.

Also, this game tries hard to scare you by suddenly playing video clips and random phone events... and sometimes it works. If you're jumpy, play it when you're sitting down.

The Interface

This is pretty easy to figure out because the interface of the game is exactly like the contents of an actual mobile phone. You tap, drag and slide your way through an interface that poses no problems at all.

What I liked

Immersion. Once you get into it, it's easy to forget that the mobile phone in your hand is actually your own. It really feels like you're part of the game's universe. Achieving that level of immersion is a trick that doesn't always get pulled off successfully with most games.

Speaking of immersion, at the end of the game, there's a set of co-ordinates that will lead you to Janda Baik in Malaysia. Now that's a nice potential hook for a sequel!

Content. The video clips are kept short and the images are kept small. This means that the file size of the app is a lot smaller than an actual phone would take up. This is cleverly explained in-game as the contents of the phone being damaged and the files inaccessible.

Some of the puzzles are nice. There's a segment where you have to figure out Sara's password. Not too difficult, but still well done.

Sara Is Missing... S.I.M. That's pretty clever!

What I didn't

The story was very short. Most people will be able to complete this within an hour. The choices were sometimes not very interesting either. Story branching could use a little work here. Where this is concerned, the effort feels rather casual.

IRIS, the voice that helps you, is creepy even when it's trying to be helpful. Perhaps that's by design.

 

 

Sometimes it's not very obvious how to get out of the app and back into the real world. That's one of the instances where immersion is taken just a teeny bit too far.

Conclusion

As apps go, Sara Is Missing isn't bad. It's a great idea with a decent amount of quality in the execution. Sure, it could have been done a lot better, but all things considered, I think it's worth a download. There's not much in the replayability stakes, but that's the way these story-based things are.

Kaigan Games has released a well-received sequel to this app, named Simulacra. I intend to check that out soon-ish.

My Rating

7 / 10

App-ceptional!
T___T