Publisher's Weekly Review
Adapting Twain is a dangerous thing: too often the old master's pretend-ramshackle style and tall-tale sensibility gets taken straight, no chaser. Fortunately, Chwast (who previously adapted The Divine Comedy and The Odyssey ) brings just the right puckish tone to Twain's comedy. Hank Morgan, a 19th-century jack-of-all-trades, is mysteriously transported to 6th century England. Instead of being impressed by the Arthurian pomp and ceremony, the efficiency-minded Protestant Yankee is offended by the superstition, filth, cruelty, and antidemocratic oppression. As the "stranger in a strange England" sets about modernizing the place, forces of reaction (Merlin the magician, the church, knights who don't like his turning them into advertising billboards) rise up. It's a tale told more briskly than in the original, with great blocks of plot and background sliced out. But Chwast's squiggly art, flattened perspectives, and purposeful misspellings bring a curiously innocent and childlike perspective to this complex satire, which, if anything, further highlights Twain's dark view of human progress. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Design veteran Chwast delivers another streamlined, graphic adaptation of classic literature, this time Mark Twain's caustic, inventive satire of feudal England. Chwast (Tall City, Wide Country, 2013, etc.) has made hay anachronistically adapting classic texts, whether adding motorcycles to The Canterbury Tales (2011) or rocket ships to The Odyssey (2012), so Twain's tale of a modern-day (well, 19th-century) engineer dominating medieval times via technology--besting Merlin with blasting powder--is a fastball down the center. (The source material already had knights riding bicycles!) In Chwast's rendering, bespectacled hero Hank Morgan looks irresistible, plated in armor everywhere except from his bow tie to the top of his bowler hat, sword cocked behind head and pipe clenched in square jaw. Inexplicably sent to sixth-century England by a crowbar to the head, Morgan quickly ascends nothing less than the court of Camelot, initially by drawing on an uncanny knowledge of historical eclipses to present himself as a powerful magician. Knowing the exact date of a celestial event from more than a millennium ago is a stretch, but the charm of Chwast's minimalistic adaption is that there are soon much better things to dwell on, such as the going views on the church, politics and society, expressed as a chart of literal back-stabbing and including a note that while the upper class may murder without consequence, it's kill and be killed for commoners and slaves. Morgan uses his new station as "The Boss" to better the primitive populous via telegraph lines, newspapers and steamboats, but it's the deplorably savage civility of the status quo that he can't overcome, even with land mines, Gatling guns and an electric fence. The subject of class manipulation--and the power of passion over reason--is achingly relevant, and Chwast's simple, expressive illustrations resonate with a childlike earnestness, while his brief, pointed annotations add a sly acerbity. His playful mixing of perspectives within single panels gives the work an aesthetic somewhere between medieval tapestry and Colorforms. Chwast and Twain are a match made in heaven.]]]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Graphic designer and novelist Chwast (Dante's The Divine Comedy) has adapted Mark Twain's 1889 novel and the result is on the one hand very competent, with the combination of charming illustration and Twain's prose. But the two don't consistently fit. During the book's more comical episodes, the artwork is an almost perfect match to the text, but in places where the story's tone has more weight, the art doesn't align. This creates awkward moments when a punch line is expected owing to the fun and creative art style but for this reviewer did not fulfill the expectations created by the narrative. While classic literature readers may find the artwork unappealing, this book may be a good choice for YA readers beginning their exploration of authors like Twain. Verdict Recommended for fans of Chwast, as lovers of Twain will be put off, especially during the more touching or particularly dramatic scenes. Overall, this enthusiastic take might draw new readers to classic works of fiction.-Matthew Gallagher, Victoria, BC (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.