Tony Cliff (2)Resenhas

Just as excellent as the first, but The King's Shilling expands the characters this time around.

Fast, funny, and beautiful, Delilah Dirk is a comforting book to brighten any day.

I give this beautiful graphic novel all the stars. The illustrations are STUNNING. The characters amusing and not your typical comic book hero's. Delilah is an amazing, strong, resourceful troublemaker, and I love her. Also, the raciest her amazing outfit gets is when she shows a little knee, it is a garment meant to do battle gracefully, which is something I spend time being very critical of in other comic art.

A fun adventure story. I'll admit that I'm a little bothered by the imperialistic undertone of the story (I hear it's billed as a female Indiana Jones, which doesn't help at all). Delilah Dirk is a Greek-English woman who has traveled all over the world with her ambassador father. She grew up learning helpful survival skills from many non-western cultures, only to turn around and wreak havoc on many more non-western cultures. And now she's in Turkey, killing soldiers, blowing things up, and generally causing a mess as she picks up a charming new companion, the capable Mr. Selim. The characters are fun, but that doesn't cancel out the tired premise of "irresponsible white hero gallivanting around foreign lands with wild abandon."

All right, I've got that off my chest, so let me reiterate that it's a fun read. The dialogue is snappy and full of character, and it's amusing to see Dirk and Selim's (somewhat) carefully laid plans go awry at every turn. And aside from the sexist, bloodthirsty sultan at the start, many of the characters they encounter throughout the book are equally charming.

The art is beautiful - that's the only way I can put it. Every panel is masterful. There's a noticeable difference in style between the opening and the later chapters - not a change in quality, but it's clear Cliff changed his approach to his characters. It makes me wonder how much time lapsed between those chapters. The back flap indicates that the entire book took five years to create, which is quite a lot of work, indeed!

I'm already on book two (Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling), which I'm enjoying more than the first.

As with the first two Delilah Dirk books, this is a fun adventure tale with snappy dialogue and beautiful art. book's overall design is clearly a labor of love. In this volume, Delilah and her traveling companion, Mr. Selim (who doubles as narrator) end up helping a journalist with questionable motives to find a vast underground city near the Mediterranean that may or may not really exist. To say more would spoil the fun.

Beautifully drawn, I can just page through it again to just appreciate the art and flavour of the area in which the story takes place.½

If this was Delilah Dirk's tale and not yet another "generic dude meets awesome female and is swept along"... I would give this more than three stars. But well... while Delilah is pretty kick-ass and cool in a lot of ways and the two characters' relationship is certainly amusing, the art is very beautiful and the writing is largely good... It's not really my cup of tea. I wish there were more women in the story.

Having said all that, this isn't really another "badass female helps train generic male into The Hero". It's more like the Lieutenant becomes her fanboy>sidekick>comrade than anything else, which is a step forward if nothing else. I don't know how historically accurate this is for the background worldbuilding (not my expertise, although it sounded right in many ways from what I remember) but it was certainly very interesting.

There's not much story in this, but that's okay. Sallim, the titular lieutenant, doesn't realize how much his life will change when he runs off with devil-may-care Delilah Dirk, a young woman not opposed to some smuggling and thievery. An entertaining romp, and the art is lovely.

Delilah's outfit is absurd. If Cliff had given her less sexist, more appropriate for adventure apparel, I probably would have rated this 4 stars instead of just 3.

Delilah Dirk is at it again, ably seconded by her Turkish friend Selim. First Delilah is causing chaos in the fort of a warlord to allow ships to pass his blockade. But along the way she picks up a comic little journalist who tells her of some ancient ruins to investigate... which then send all three of them in search of the fabled Third Pillar of Hercules. Unbeknownst to our heroes, the journalist is sending in heavily sensationalized versions of their adventures to his paper-- where they are spotted by Delilah's old nemesis, Merrick. Things get more exciting from there.
Selim is the best, and watching Delilah get herself in and out of trouble is always worth it.

A fun read from work! I'd actually heard about it before and was excited to see it in the lending library. Bit quick-paced for me but I've been horribly spoiled with the epic (and complete) Sandman. Perhaps I'll wait on Delilah's sequel until there's an omnibus--this was an incredibly quick read, even with my read-once-read/admire-twice custom for graphic novels. Delilah did seem a bit like a Mary Sue, a bit too perfect at everything, but at least she also had her moments of weakness in the face of severe obstacles. Wonder if she'll face down her foe in a future book.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Kick ass female protagonist, perfectly paced, hilarious, beautiful coloring.

I had more fun reading the first volume, though I did enjoy the initial escapades in Portugal. While it was entertaining to see a Delilah spin on a plot that threatened to be too Austen-esque, I really am totally disinterested in Regency England, and her spunkiness started to veer a bit too much into brattiness--perhaps because her privileged station is put more in the spotlight on her home turf. I will read on, but I look forward to Delilah and Selim's return to the Mediterranean.

PS-I don't recall it mattering to me in The Turkish Lieutenant, but boy howdy does the "chest plate" of her warmer-climes dress seem a bit gratuitous, uncomfortable, and impractical. She must have a weird diamond-shaped tan (or worse yet, burn) on her bosom.

Delilah Dirk is a fun romp of swashbuckling, quips and seat of your pants shenanigans. It is fun light adventuring with a kick-butt heroine with a fish out of water sidekick who makes a mean cup of tea. This is a fun, lighthearted, sword swinging book that will brighten your day.

Oh and there's a sail boat that can fly.

Great art and I LOVED Delilah. I just think the story would have been more engaging had it been from her perspective, rather than being told from her new buddy's point of view.

The art's just as good, but the story focuses a bit more on plot (and to me, a less interesting villain) than its main characters. But, of course, the story isn't over. And I still think the story so far is very good; just not AS good. I continue to look forward to future installments.

Just as excellent as the first, but The King's Shilling expands the characters this time around.½

Fast, funny, and beautiful, Delilah Dirk is a comforting book to brighten any day.

This is a fun series, but nothing terribly special. Sort of a weird mix of lots of text on a page and then pages of action sequences with hardly more than an “ooof”. The art is pretty great. (I almost wrote “fantastic”, but then I realized that it’s not that at all. I mean, it’s fiction, but there are no real fantastic elements. There’s even an afterward about historical accuracy.)

Fun!

I enjoyed the first two books, but this adventure was a dull Indiana Jones homage with too many tombs, villains, and big nonsensical set pieces. At one point there is a literal and pointless doubling back on the route of the narrative all for a joke that just doesn't pay off. And Dirk now has an ongoing nemesis, apparently, who sucks the fun out of the story every time he is on the page.

Old man rant: Uncle Scrooge could have done it in a tenth of the pages and come out of it with a life lesson, a souvenir and a tidy profit.

Disappointing.

Literary Merit: Very good
Characterization: Very good
Recommendations: GN, quest for treasure, adventure, strong female role
Reading Level: Middle 6-9

Delilah Dirk is on a mission to solve an ancient mystery in order to find a treasure. She is joined by Mr. Selim and Mr. Van Hassel, a writer. The crew sets out, after finding a particular interesting puzzle piece at Kucuk’s estate, on their mission to find the other pieces to the puzzle and locate the Pillars of Hercules. While searching across the Mediterranean Sea, they hope to locate other lands, more clues and the lost city, all while trying not to run into Kucuk and his men.

Along the way, Mr. Van Hassel decides to write about their journey. Delilah is not thrilled about the idea at all, especially once the story hits the local papers. They hit some bumps along the way, and not all characters are what they seem.

I would recommend this book for grades 6-9. I like the fact that the main character is a strong willed woman who won’t let others tear her down or stand in her way. The graphics in this book are very nice and not overwhelming at all. If you enjoy reading books about adventure and treasure hunting, this is a good book for you.