ROMEO X JULIEN BY MARY DUMAS & BETTINA KURKOSKI : GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW

BLURB: 

Romeo Montague has always been a little awkward. His cousin, Benny, doesn’t help, often tossing him into situations unprepared; like dragging him to a Renaissance Faire in the middle of Wine Country.

Julien Capulet, a respected festival promoter, has his own quirks. While dealing with his crazy parents and goofy gay uncles, he holds out hope of meeting the one who’ll see past all the frills.

Romeo X Julien is a sexy homage to Will Shakespeare, with more comedy than tragedy. Entertaining and tender, it shows how the course of true love may never be smooth, and that the LGBTQ community has come a long way in a short time.

REVIEW 

I don't usually read a lot of graphic novels, but this one was absolutely stunning.

The story was a contemporary and refreshing spin on Shakespeare's original 'Romeo and Juliet'.

Here, we get to see a more liberal atmosphere with free spirited and likeable characters. We follow a couple of parallel storylines with different couples in the background. This added an additional depth to the storyline and made the characters more real and well fleshed out.

This is exactly how I would have liked the original to be like.

The romance aspect is fun and entertaining and we have a few naughty scenes included as well, so better to not read this in a public place!😜

The art work is clean and vibrant. The colour palette was bright and distinctive and I loved it. The artist has also included chibis of the characters which I especially found to be adorable! The letter work and font was clear and easy to read, which is a definite plus for me.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this graphic novel. There is fun, humor, romance and naughty times and all paired with brilliant artwork.

If you think you liked the original, this is even better because the characters are hilarious and will make you laugh.

Also this is NOT a tragedy and ends on a HEA.

I recommend you read this if you like a light and fun contemporary retelling of the original. This has some good gender representation as well.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Co-creators, Mary Dumas and Bettina Kurkoski, have been fixtures on the Comic Con circuit since 2003. Mary was on staff for a number of convention groups, while Bettina was the artist in residence for those organizations.

 

In 2015 this friendship became a partnership in creating the comic series, RomeoXJulien. Following this comic creation lead them to Artists Alley in many Fan Conventions for the next five years. In 2019, with the finish of the story they decided to give the comics a bright new life in full color as a graphic novel.

Grab yours now!