Nimona: A Netflix Film, A Graphic Novel

This is really my first proper graphic novel, I have read some on my kindle but nothing beats the feeling of holding a brand new book in your hands. Especially when it is full of the awesome comic wonder that is Nimona. This was pure joy to read, it was funny, crazy, snarly, science-y (is that a word?), I freaking loved it. Nimona is a young girl who becomes sidekick to Lord Ballister Blackheart, supervillain extraordinaire. Nimona is not just any young girl she is a shape shifter and that is what persuades Ballister to let her becomes his sidekick - because every villain needs a kick ass, crazy sidekick especially one who can turn in to a shark and a dragon amongst other things! The story is nice and easy, yet emotional and epic! Nimona and Ballister want to crush the Institute (the good guys) and their figurehead Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin, he believes that really they are up to no good and he is gong to be the one to prove it. Our dynamic duo go about their plan with crazy vigour, well that is probably more on Nimona's part as she is eager to kick ass and destroy the bad guys, things are going great but something is not quite right. Ballister learns that Nimona has not been entirely truthful about her past and she gets more and more unpredictable. This becomes a problem when they become closer to overthrowing the Institute, will Ballister go with his head or his heart. This is quite a diverse novel with a lot of fantastic relationships within it and such great characters. All of which has been drawn beautifully. Nimona is definitely my favourite character she is like a cross between Tigger and Tank Girl, she is sweet, cute, funny, motherly towards Ballister and gleefully vengeful. This is a wonderful piece of work, you just need to look at this for yourself. I hope you fall in love with Nimona like I did!

I saw this doing the rounds on booktube and was so taken in by everyone’s enthusiasm and praise for this graphic novel that I thought I gotta get me that book to see what all the hype is about. I loved loved loved everything about this book, the artwork was amazing, the plot was amazing, the characters were amazing, what else can I say……..IT WAS AMAZING!!!! If you haven’t read this yet then what are you doing? go buy it! borrow it! Lord Ballister Blackheart is not you typical Villain – he’s a bit like batman in the sense he doesn’t kill and wants to do good, he has a past which has made him the way he is. He is caring, funny, sensitive and everything you wouldn’t expect in a super villain. Nimona is a shape shifter, with a mysterious past, she can turn in to pretty much anything which has its advantages, she is witty, enthusiastic and sometimes damn right evil but between her and Blackheart they make an awesome team. Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin is they typical hero, but sort of in a Disney way! He was my least favorite character in the book. This novel is quirky! It has heroes, villains, science and a lot of wittyness…if thats even a word. Nimona was perfection. I have read the Lumberjanes issue 1 and 2 by Noelle Stevenson and enjoyed them, and OMG just realised she has written some adventure time graphic novels…..watch this space….much love for Adventure Time. I have an excuse I have an 8-year-old daughter, I don’t just sit around watching cartoons all day. I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars

I am finally going to earn my wings as a literary pseud and reviewing a comic fer gawd sake! Mostly I like to read simple stories that go begining-middle-end, tell a tale and don't have hidden meanings or explore great themes. I am not keen on any of that stuff. This is a very simple story but it has so many layers (there I have done it I have used the magic passphrase I am now a lierary pseud and I can go off and have Molly Bloom and Blazes Boylan tattooed on one buttock and seven clones of Marcel Proust on the other). The main character is adorably cute, the villain has a splendid backstory to go with his splendid false arm and the hero has shiny armour. The story goes so, stuck in a rut villain aquires a new young energetic and ruthless henchwench/side-kick. His evil plans start to work. They steal stuff from shady Govt. dept.. Hero repeatedly beaten by duo before Hero always won. Henchwench revealed to be shape changing dragon. Shady Govt. dept. captures and does vivisection experiments on her. Much destruction and death ensues in retribution, much more destruction and death averted by love. The End. Lovely little story but much more about themes. Common ones, the mutability of love and hate, retribution, absolution and new beginings. Less common ones, the impact of god like power on the human, the obligations of the godlike like to the human and how big are the dots in the yin and the yang. Buy comic and read it. Hope the author/artist does not do a sequel because although the main character is very personable and I would love to see more of her the story is complete and perfect.

Review originally posted on my book blog: https://afrolicthroughfiction.wordpress.com/2016/01/09/nimona-by-noelle-stevenson/ So, as with all graphic novels, the main thing that caught my eye was the art style. I remember thinking it reminded me a lot of Rainbow Rowell’s books, but not quite being able to figure out why…and then I found out that Noelle Stevenson created the art on the cover of Rainbow Rowell’s book Fangirl. So that explains a lot. And much like that cover, I love the art style. Something about it is quirky and unique, the sort where you can definitely recognise who drew it. What really makes this story is Nimona, the main character. I mean, she’s such a dork. You can’t help but love her. She causes so much havoc just by being so impulsive and spontaneous. I couldn’t help but laugh whenever she just did her own thing, and the randomness of it all. Plus the fact that she can shapeshift makes her infinitely more interesting. I mean, how cool would it be to be able to change into any animal as quick as a flash??? Ugh. I was surprised by how much was going on in this story. It wasn’t just one plot line, there was a tangled web of people’s backstories along with the main story. It was one of those stories where you never quite know who the bad guys really are. But the story isn’t predictable at all – far from it. How can it be when Nimona’s involved? I got through this graphic novel really quickly even though it’s longer than most. There was never a dull moment. I liked the ending. It left me with some unanswered questions though. I enjoyed seeing the little bonus snippets at the end too. And let me just add one more thing… Ambrosius Goldenloin’s hair is better than mine. OK, I enjoyed this one a lot. It was fun, quirky and original, so I rate it… 4.5/5 stars!

I read the preview of this on the author's website - three chapters in and I was hooked and had to buy the book straightaway. This is my second purchase, as a gift for a dear friend. It's clever and well plotted and turns normal fantasy hero stereotypes on their heads: the bad guy has a strong moral code, the good guy is (spoiler alert!) not as great as he appears and Nimona herself is a fabulous character, the sort of feisty and funny person you hope that you and your daughter will dress up as on Halloween. It's also funny with actual snort-out-loud moments from Nimona. I loved it. (Slightly irrelevant note - it's also longer and chunkier than I expected a graphic novel to be - it's the dimensions and thickness of a 'proper book'.)

It took me far too long to get round to reading Nimona, having bought it so long ago. It's good to be in the right mood to read a book, and sometimes that takes a while. It's a tale about not judging a book by its cover, or jumping to conclusions about societal "norms". The story introduces us to Blackheart as the dastardly one-armed villain, Nimona his childishly cruel weird sidekick, and Goldenloin as the dashingly perfect hero. Standard roles in fantasy. Stevenson breathes subtlety and complexity into these characters, transforming them in the process. The art is lovely throughout. Expressive characters are expressive and repressed charxcters are not. It's well paced and always clear what's going on. It's a pleasure to look at as well as read. If I had one criticism it's that to begin with the characters all speak with pretty much the same voice. But the dialogue improves as the story builds. The characters become themselves. So if you read a sample here and come to that conclusion, please don't be put off. This is a very strong piece of work. I enjoyed it more and more the more I read. It doesn't beat you over the head with messages of diversity and inclusion, they are skillfully woven into the fabric of both the characters and the story. Nimona is a powerful reminder to always be curious.

Nimona follows the story of a young shapeshifter as she worms her way into the life of supervillian Ballister Blackheart, declaring herself as his new sidekick. There was a surprising amount of complexity in the characters and storylines, and overall I found it to have a refreshing mix of serious/not serious elements. The author has a fantastic sense of humour. The art is what caught my eye first - its cartoony and unique and the colours are fantastic throughout. My only complaint is that occasionally I found the protagonist Nimona a bit too annoying, but this eases off as you go through thankfully (as the story begins to get a little darker). Would recommend!

I bought this after seeing the film and in my experience, books are often better with no time limits to squash into. Its wonderful and the art is great. The comic itself has vibrant coloured pages throughout the whole thing.

Leuk boekje waar de film losjes op gebaseerd is. Verpakking was heel, boekje was flink beschadigd. Jammer maar geen zin en tijd om weer helemaal terug te sturen en lang wachten op een nieuwe. (Dat was overigens wel netjes aangeboden door Amazon hoor.)

Nimona was first publsihed by Stevenson herself as a webcomic, which eventually grew into this fantastic 256 page graphic novel that earned recognition for being a finalist of the National Book Award! And although the graphic novel takes its name from the it's shapeshifting female protagonist, the story is not *really* about Nimona herself. It isn't really about protagonist Ballister Blackheart, once a hero in training and now the appointed villain, or his "nemesis" and the kingdom's champion Ambrosisus Goldenloin either. Rather, the story of Nimona - at it's heart - is about more than just good versus evil but the difference between good and just, nice and right, and the importance of intention. As Blackheart, now aided by the impulsive and massively destructive Nimona, endeavors to bring the injustices of the Insitution - the kingdom's version of the State Department and Department of Defense - to light and their "antics" soon reveal more than slightly sinister plots at the heart of the kingdom, the novel also reveals to each character the truth about themselves and the secrets held deep in their hearts. This graphic novel, at once whimsical and harrowing, pushes us to do the same and look inward, asking ourselves the question of whether or not we really are the people we *like* to believe we are, and are we ready to take the steps into becoming the people we're truly supposed to be? Slate reviewers said of Nimona, "[It's] [f]unny and vibrant. A kind of deadpan epic," and it's hard to describe the experience of the work in any other way (I also strongly recommend reading the reviews from the New York Times and the UK's the Independent). The never named fantasy realm the characters inhabit, with it's medieval setting and many anachronistic elements, also deepens the sense of...well, magic. The detailed choices of what looks modern by reader's perspective versus what remains in a more medieval style is really interesting, but doesn't distract and makes you want to know more about this world and dive deeper. In the same way, Stevenson tooled around with a number of stylistic options before deciding on the work that we see now, and in reading the bonus pages offered in the graphic novel you can see clearly how that choice impacts the action and movement present in each panel and our investment in the characters generating these actions. Color is another element which was obviously thought out carefully in the creation of Nimona. With Blackheart's and Goldenloin's names not only having color present in their names, but their designs being dark versus light to symbolically reinforce their positions as villain and hero - and then totally reject that cliché and turn it on it's head! Nimona is truly a work of art in both the visual and literary sense. Something that is gripping and tender and appropriate for all ages. Such an impressive and beautiful work.

Thankyou. Item as described. Easy postage.

Ho adorato il personaggio di Nimona, anche se questo fumetto c'entra poco con la serie su Netflix come trama, mi è piaciuto molto di più della serie, la quale però mi ha fatto conoscere ed innamorare di Nimona quindi non mi sento in una posizione di poter criticare la serie più di tanto. Ma questa non è una recensione della serie e forse sono già andato fuori tema. In ogni caso personaggi molto ben caratterizzati, simpatici quando serve e profondi al punto giusto, anche lo stile non è per niente male, ha quel non so che di simil grezzo e poco curato in alcuni punti che a me personalmente piace molto usato così.

El libro llegó en perfecto estado, al día siguiente de ordenarlo. Es una muy bonita edición, perfecta para regalar o si coleccionas novelas gráficas.