They're No Bobbsey Twins, But... (A Review of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys GNs)
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Reviews by Scott Tingley, December 15, 2008

Before I get started, I need to say that I have never before read a Nancy Drew book; I haven't even read a Hardy Boys book. I did read a quite a few from the Bobbsey Twins series .which I probably could have kept a secret.forget I said that.

I wanted to come clean, because I am about to talk about the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series of graphic novels from the publisher, Papercutz . When I reviewed the Babysitter's Club graphic novels a while back , I was able to enjoy and review them without any experience with the original books. The comic versions are adaptations of the earliest books and I got the feeling that they were fairly faithful to the originals (a feeling confirmed after having a BSC chat with my sister-in-law).

I have no idea if the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew comic versions are faithful at all to the originals. I did catch a few minutes of the recent N.Drew movie , and it was similar in tone to the comic series, so if you liked the movie, you will probably enjoy the graphic novels.

I just finished vol 13 of ND and 14 from H.Boys, and I found myself entertained by both. The full-color art is manga influenced, but in a nice way. I did prefer the N.Drew art because it had more of its own style, as opposed to the H.Boys, which had a stronger manga feel. The writing is good as well, and I assume it follows the norms of the original series. The stories were simple, with plots like a more mature Scooby-Doo story (what with that whole "I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you pesky kids" vibe).

I plan on adding my copies to my grade three class graphic novel library, which I can do since the content is age appropriate and the language is tame, with only a couple of "heck"s and a *&^%$!#; thrown in.

There are plenty of these books out there - both series are in their mid-teens and they are nicely priced at under $8 for the soft and under $13 for the hard cover, so ask your library, or order them from your local comic or book store. You can also order them directly from Papercutz HERE .

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