SILVER: OF TREASURES AND THIEVES Is A Graphic Novel That Desperately Needs To Be In Color

I was recently sent a copy of the graphic novel Silver: Of Treasure And Thieves to review. The story by Stephan Franck is about a group of thieves trying to steal the ultimate treasure, the Silver Dragon hidden deep in a castle full of vampires. Set in the noir pulp era of the 1930s, the book has some fun nods to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This is part one of two books and overall, I think it will be a lot better once part two comes out.

I wanted to like this book more than I ultimately did. I think the idea is fun, it teams up the main character James Finnigan with a descendant of Van Helsing along with a diverse group of conmen. My problem is at this point, I don’t feel like I could tell you much about any of the characters. James is greedy, another member is an actor, another a curmudgeonly old forger, a psychic kid, a stoic vampire hunter, and various other characters that are so far forgettable. And that’s about it, not much has been revealed about the characters which is disappointing. There’s been a lot of set up for the heist and the book ends with them having successfully infiltrated the castle, so it seems like a prime spot for the action of book 2 to pick up at. There have been some things at the very end that have pulled me a bit more into the story, but it took a long time for me to care about it. 

I think the main thing for me about the book is it would be so much more dynamic in color. I understand the financial restraints of being able to get a good colorist for the whole thing, but I think even if it were only pops like for the pieces of silver and the blood it would have gone a long way. I just think that it would have made for some more dynamic pages if at least some of them had some color. A few of the action sequences just fell a little flat for me. 

That being said, I do really like the artwork. The character designs are great and I really like the variety that can be seen amongst the vampires. You have the whole scale of stunningly beautiful vampires all the way to the terrifying Nosfertau style which I like. 

Overall, I think the book is ok, you just want to go into it knowing that part two will be released in the future. As a stand alone book though, this one just wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be based on the description. I think the story overall will be great once completed, but I would give this book alone a 6/10.