Graphic Novel: Post #1 - Differences

          In addition to Persopelis, I am reading the original version of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, which is a graphic novel of course. Although it may be seen as "taboo" to report on a book that is also a movie, but this book is different. The movie version starring Will Smith is much different. Although the book has the same general idea, it also shares the same "general" idea with many science fiction movies or novels about survival. The graphic novel follows the life of Robert Neville, a middle aged, a philosophical, sarcastic, chain-smoking drunk, who also happens to be the "last of his kind". Neville, surrounded by vampires at night who are trying to break into his house, and obviously, suck his blood, is confined to a days drive from his house. In the Hollywood film, the main character, still Robert Neville, is more of a heroic character whose purpose is to discover a cure for the zombies’ contagious virus. One character is heroic fighting off zombies, the other is self pitying and lazy who fights off vampires - very different. Also, in the movie, the setting is in a large city, with many skyscrapers and other buildings. In the graphic novel, the setting is placed in a suburban town, with all of the surrounding houses burned down (which Neville did to stop the vampires from jumping from one house to another). The setting and different characters with different specifications to plot lines, makes the two stories very different. Yes, they do have similarities, which I will discuss in my next post, but overall, the differences outweigh the similarities