Adaption:
"I believe that adaptions must happen to further the life of a great work, but only if they hold true to the original design of the creator." -Jeffery Overstreet

it was in the sense of Mr. Overstreet's quote above that I took to reading, The Dresden files: Storm Front in graphic novel form.  when my father first introduced me to the Dresden files Novels I was blown away at such a well thought out and developed magical world, that wasn't gumdrop fairies and pretty unicorns.  as an adult and a Sunday school teacher I can respect a story about magic and wizards in a light that is both fantastic and childlike.  but on a personal level, I crave a story for my own my own maturity.  a tale that is dark and gritty, where magic is power, as simple as a gun, or a knife, but on par with both.  it is in this sense that I took to the Dresden Files. 
so when I found out that this novel series was being adapted into comics, I had great hope that the gritty development and style of the Novels would translate well.  for a while, my hopes were justified. instead of going straight into the novel adaptions, there was a short series of 4 comics written by Jim Butcher himself called welcome to the jungle.  this new story to the Dresden Files universe was wonderful.  no corners were cut, the characters were flushed out, Dresden took a hell of a beating.  when storm front first came out I snatched the books up as quickly as possible devouring them with fan boy fervor.  I couldn't explain it at the time, but was slightly disappointed with the comic series. 
a few weeks later i picked the Storm Front Novel back up and finished it in a week.  the Novel, the style it's written in is strictly first person, to the point where you see everything from the point of view of Harry Dresden, our wizardly hero.  the Comic however loses some of the intimate connection with the character as the images are left open to the viewer.  some of the descriptions in the book are made simply by the logic of Dresden himself.  for example, Dresden names his enemies based on their physical description until he finds out their real names or has a better one.  its one of the many staples that are cut down for the comic book format.
after realizing this change I went back to the comics and reread them attempting to put myself in the position of a new reader.
this time around the series was interesting, and somewhat long winded at times while also seeming rushed in others.  beyond that, the characters were well defined just as before, the story was interesting, and I enjoyed the internal dialog of Dresden himself. though not as detailed as the novels you still got a pretty good idea of how his mind works.  just as well the art was dark, but not gritty as I had imagined it could be.  in short the comics had the story, and the characters but not the image I would have associated with a series I love.   

the second book has been released in comic book form, but instead of picking up these new volumes I've started rereading the second novel. 

stay tuned kids.. more to come.
-Duncan