The Epic of Gilgamesh

I have never written a review before but this book was so well done that I HAD TO come on here to sing this book’s praises.Wow!! That might be enough said for this, but…If you want more details…let’s start with the artwork - in short, it’s absolutely incredible. Five stars. 10/10. High fives all around. Slam dunk.As an artist myself…i can tell u not everyone can draw like this even amongst professionals. I think the style choice is wonderful and adds so much life to the story that it takes on almost an animated quality (this feels similarly easy to digest as a cartoon)…possibly more importantly though for someone who is not a scholar trying to fumble through this old story though, it even helps the reader understand what’s going on when the grammar of the translation becomes a little more challenging which I found incredibly helpful. Style choice is also really fun and adds so much entertainment and excitement while reading (lots of detail).Anyway, what brought me to this book was that I was looking for a fun way to read all the old ancient classics that I only pretended to read in high school but in reality only wrote papers about Sparknotes summaries for.In my defense, especially with older stories, a lot of the grammar and concepts make them very hard to read (for me) and there can be a bit of a pretentious academia flare to them that I now realize after discovering this book, wasn’t just in my head. This is an awesome rendition of this story and is much closer to the reality then those stuffy old books that were forced on us. People were just people back then who liked to joke around and even be raunchy, and they’ve done a wonderful job conveying that here. And they explain this is actually one of the most accurate translations out there because of it.I appreciate that even the forward of this book acknowledged this point and I really learned something about how “scholarly types tend to sterilize ancient literature by putting it on a pedestal and cluttering it up with elaborate scholarship” (pg. xvi). Essentially, in this book they’ve included all the good parts so you’ll actually enjoy it instead of being bored to deathI also lastly wanted to say that I absolutely loved the forward and learning that this was a father and son’s conjoined effort. The father was a brilliant professor of literature who was in charge of the story and his son is a brilliant artist who was in charge of the illustrations and the resulting quality of this book speaks for itself. (And I think it’s so sweet!)This book should be in every high school/college classroom around the world and it deserves every award out there. Buy it you will not regret it.

Detailed, follows the story closely

Entertaining translation and gorgeously illustrated.

Kent Dixon has again proven he excels in every genre he chooses to write. To the delight of all who will read The Epic Of Gilgamesh he flexes his comedic chops while retelling this ancient version of a/the creation story. Kevin Dixon enhances his father’s work with his visual interpretations, bringing to life visually what the reader’s imagination can’t conjure up and be assured of giving graphic justice. Imagine a genius father and his equally intellectual son working together to create such an astounding work of historic comedy and you may grasp how truly rare and captivating this work is today and will prove to be for years to come.

What an amazing journey. Beautiful translation with an unique sense of humor that comes out in the writing as well as the illusion. There is a very interesting story about the father and son team that made this version of The Epic of Gilgamesh come to life. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a fresh perspective of the oldest story in recorded human history.

Good story telling and involving.

The Dixons have brought this ancient story of life and death into a perfect form--one that can communicate the grand and lowbrow at once (see: the Bull of Heaven spraying manure). A wonderful, ribald translation of the world's first epic.

The artwork in this graphic retelling of the Mesopotamian epic is attractive and often clever, but the "translator"—who is admittedly not acquainted with Sumerian or Akkadian—has not been sufficiently true to the ancient text. Not recommended for readers interested in the actual ancient narrative, but perhaps of interest to graphic novel fans.