Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: Animal death, murder, blood, grief and loss depiction, physical assault and injury, sword violence
Score: Four out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.

What a disappointing reading experience.

Yvain, an illustrated retelling of an Arthurian myth by M.T. Anderson, with by Andrea Offermann, could've been much better. I wanted to read it after seeing another person I knew read it, so I picked it up from a library shelf. I glanced at the intriguing blurb, but the low ratings warned me to avoid it, and when I closed the final page, I was underwhelmed.

It starts with Yvain, a knight, wanting glory for himself, so he sets out to fight and eventually defeat a lord, leaving behind his partner, Laudine, and her servant, Lunette. Gawain, however, wants Yvain to go on an adventure across the land, and so he goes off to fight dragons, mythical beasts and who knows what else. Other than that though, there isn't any other plot to Yvain, but there are a lot of problems I want to discuss about Yvain, I'm unsure where to start, but I'll try.

First, the characters. Yvain the knight and other side characters like Laudine and Lunette lack depth or character development, making it difficult to connect or relate with them, but adding more depth and expanding the arcs would've been an improvement. The pacing is enough to keep Yvain going, with a length of slightly over 100 pages, but I would've liked to see more of the worldbuilding, which felt underexplored, but adding more pages dedicated to answering questions I had would make Yvain better. Now that I think of it, I don't think there were enough pages to tell the story. At least the art is engaging, especially during the few battle scenes I got to see, with Yvain easily slaying any beast in his path, and the pictures can sometimes speak for themselves, except for some parts with fog covering the pictures. How am I supposed to read the text through that? The conclusion is heartwarming as Yvain returns to his land after so long, but M.T. Anderson's debut in the illustrated novel genre (as he wrote prose until this came out) didn't resonate, so perhaps his traditional creations could be more enjoyable. ( )

An Arthurian legend I haven't read yet in graphic novel form? YES! ( )

An inspired comics retelling of a surrealistic and wonderful medieval writer. Chretien de Troyes, you are the trippiest. ( )

Yvain is an idiot. He's an idiot in the original, he's an idiot in this very close retelling. I appreciate, however, the careful twists of irony that Anderson and Offermann draw out in this rendition. The illustrations are splendid beyond measure, the thoughtfulness of the text is wonderful, the ambiguity of the characters tells whole volumes of story offstage, and Yvain is an idiot.

I'd say that I feel bad for Lunette, as well, but honestly, she's got a mean streak, and seems to be doing quite well thankyouverymuch. ( )

While it initially reads like a standard Arthurian tale (knights in shining armor, deeds of bravery), it reveals itself as a subversive and tragic tale. Yvain marries the widowed Lady Laudine, in dire need of a champion after he kills her husband, and asks her permission to travel with his friend proving themselves in tournaments. She gives her permission, with the caveat that he must return after a year. Of course, he forgets, and is subsequently denounced in front of King Arthur by a messenger from Lady Laudine.

Driven mad, Yvain wanders in the wilderness until he comes upon a lion locked in battle with some kind of wyvern. He slays it and earns the lion's loyalty. He travels around, slaying monsters and dueling, believing he will win his lady's heart back. As he appears before her, Lady Laudine is tricked into marrying him again, and lashes out that she must keep her word and enter into a loveless marriage.

Truly, one of the best graphic novels I've read in a long time.

The art is gorgeous and wonderfully intuitive in the reading, and while M.T. Anderson's translation of the story of Yvain is pretty standard, it's clear that he loves the story and the characters. ( )