I've read this at the library in about one hour and I was surprised by the graphic, brutal stories presented and the way it was sketched on pages. Haven't read the original novel, but I feel the story was well covered in this graphic novel. It was a good read for a little break, with a kinda unexpected plot twist in the grandious finale. Tw for the book: torture, blood, gore.

Thumbprint, another one of Joe Hill's graphic novels.This is a taut short story about a soldier returning from Abu Ghraib and how the horrors of war affect everyone. PTSD abounds. While the concept wasn't a terrible one, the execution of it just didn't quite work for me. I think it would have been better suited as a short story than a graphic novel, in spite of some interesting panels detailing just how to properly chop a thumb off with a pair of garden shears or similar. The social commentary

Mallory Grennan returns from Iraq and tries to pick up the pieces of her broken life. Someone from her past starts sending her thumbprints and she needs to find out who. The truth she finds is gruesome and revealing of who she really might be.This is based on a short story by Joe Hill, and, while it's not as horrific as some of his other work, it has an inward darkness to it. From Mallory's confession of her past in Iraq, which she seems to have no qualms about, to the constant pressure from her...

I'm really enjoying graphic novels, I thought I had grown out of comics... Guess I was wrong.

I'll be honest, I've actually now read this story, I think, three times. The first time by itself. Then I read it again in FULL THROTTLE. Then I found out there was a graphic novel and was told there was an ending (that the shortstories didn't have), and it's true. That said. It's still so bleak, and so depressing, I'm not sure why I gave it this much of my time. Well written. For sure. But like so many of Hill's stories, upsetting to a degree I sometimes find hard to deal with. Not because of g...

That was...wow, just wow! The original short story was very, very good, but this just took it up a notch.A woman comes back from the military (without honor) where she was an interpreter who helps with interrogation. She was not only good at it, but enjoyed it a bit much.In just over a hundred pages, the writer and illustrator managed to invest you in this woman you simply cannot like and also make you feel fear on her behalf. Fear for her. That's quite a feat when you don't care for someone.The...

Disappointing, which is a surprise coming from Hill. The depiction of soldiers is lazy and stereotyped, and the ending is toothless , since it is barely a mild surprise and uninteresting to boot.

"You’d be surprised what you can do to people".I haven’t read or watched a lot of fiction that has to do with war. I've only really seen a handful of movies and the majority of them paint soldiers in a glowing light. I’m not about to sit here and criticize those who put themselves directly in harm’s way on a daily basis – a job I could never find the balls to do myself – I’ll leave that to others; others like Joe Hill.The bulk of this story follows Mal Greenfell, a soldier that returned from Ira...

Well that was interesting and disturbing. I swear it was adapted somehow cuz I saw this story somewhere before. For the life of me I can't find it but I know I've seen it somewhere. Would have liked this to be longer, I want to know more about the main character.

I love comics. If you have ever read my blog you would know that at times there are more graphic novel reviews posted than actual books. One series that I have been a big fan of is Joe Hill's Locke and Key. I really enjoyed the writing in the series. I am not a fan of his novels much, because I keep comparing him to his dad Stephan King. Every time I do, Hill comes up short, and I just can't get into the book. His graphic novel series was different for me and I really liked it. When i saw this K...

The novella, “Thumbprint”, was first published in “Postscripts #10” in 2007 and has been reprinted in a couple different anthologies, including "The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Volume Nineteen", edited by Stephen Jones in 2008. You can also find it within Joe Hill’s latest collection, “Full Throttle”. IDW Publishing released this graphic novel hardcover edition in 2013. Like all IDW hardcovers, the book has solid construction. The pages are nice and thick with a smooth texture and graphic i...

I have just read "Full Throttle" a collection of short stories by Joe Hill, and this tale was amongst my favorites! It holds up well in this graphic novel format, and the artwork is wonderful, but the short story version was a bit better. Good news! That version is in here too! You can read for yourself, but I found that the biggest difference was in the ending. For my value, I liked that short story version of that better too!In addition, there is a short, short story in this volume titled "Kod...

The four stars more for the "novella" of Thumbprint, Kodiak, and the artwork. Is it a great story? Maybe not. I did find it compelling though, more so in the long form. Could have more to do with the vague ending of the novella version. Are these characters likeable? Absolutely not, but there is something to be said for enduring horrors that rip the humanity right out of characters. Is the story full of cliches about soldiers with PTSD? Probably. For all of this story's flaws, I wanted to see if...

The story of a soldier recently returned from Abu Ghraib. Someone starts stalking her while she tries to recover from the atrocities she committed while at the prison. It's a pretty bare bones story. It's hard to care about any of the characters when they are all dirt bags.

A soldier who did terrible things in Abu Ghraib (but wasn’t caught) returns to America and tries to re-assimilate back into civilian life. But the past still haunts her and then one day someone starts leaving thumbprints on notes in her house, her car… what does it mean and could someone from those dark days in the Middle East be returning to exact vengeance? Thumbprint is an adaptation of a Joe Hill short story (it says “novella” on the cover and though it’s never been agreed upon exactly how m...

Jason Ciaramella's adaptation of Joe Hill's story. Woman returns from working, with great regret, about things she did at Abu Gharaib, and you never really leave that behind… and so the horror continues, very violently and disturbingly, it's real life horror. Like the other one they did, The Cape, it is over the top violent and crazy. Not my usual fare, but Hill is a good storyteller in this genre…. but most people are not gonna love it, I am guessing, for all the psycho-ness and because we lea

Sometimes when reading these longer books, rather than individual issues, I like to get something down on paper before I finish reading, or as in this case, within the first few pages of the story. I was due to review this a few days ago, but when I opened the book and saw the dreary drudging art with the only true colour being blood red, I swiftly closed the review file and opened up my nice shiny copy of Amazing X-Men and reviewed that instead. This is not a book to go to for a nice casual rea...

This was a somewhat disappointing graphic novel from Joe Hill that relied too much on empty shock tactics and gory images. It's a quick read and compelling enough that readers will likely find themselves finishing it in one sitting, but the story lacks any real substance. The element of the story that had the most potential, in my opinion, was the exploration of the protagonist's state of mind after she was responsible for horrific acts in Abu Ghraib. It could have been a far more fascinating re...

So, Stephen King's son wrote a relentlessly awful novella about an Iraq war veteran, and a couple of other guys decided to adapt it into a graphic novel. Along the way Hill & his adaptors manage to perpetuate every negative stereotype of veterans afflicted with PTSD. Simply put, Joe Hill's novella is shameful and lazy Jason Ciaramella & Vic Malhotra's adaptation of Hill's novella is shameful and lazy.The main character of Thumbprint is a Lynndie England stand-in named Mallory. Like England, Mall...

Enjoyable, though I definitely missed out not having read the original first.