8.4 /10 1 Votes
Current status / schedule Concluded Originally published 12 May 2015 Publisher HarperCollins (Print) | 4.2/5 Goodreads Genre(s) Comedy, drama, action | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nominations National Book Award for Young People's Literature Similar Noelle Stevenson books, Other books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nimona by noelle stevenson review
Nimona is a fantasy comic by the American comics writer and artist Noelle Stevenson. Stevenson started Nimona as a webcomic while a student at Maryland Institute College of Art. The webcomic was first published in June 2012 and doubled as Stevenson's senior thesis. Nimona has been published in the form of a graphic novel by HarperCollins in 2015, and 20th Century Fox Animation acquired rights to create an animated film adaptation of the webcomic that same year.
Contents
Fictionary with author of nimona noelle stevenson
Conception and development
Stevenson initially published Nimona on Tumblr. She was inspired to create Nimona's character based on her experiences with cosplay: Stevenson always preferred cosplaying as male characters rather than female characters and therefore wanted to create a female comics character that was more "butch". Nimona started off as a collection of one- and two-page comics. Because of this, the webcomic was somewhat experimental for Stevenson. Though she knew how the webcomic would end from the very start, she never expected the project to gain any wider recognition.
In an interview with Comics Alliance, Stevenson described her feelings upon completing Nimona as both satisfying and "a little sad."
Release and adaptations
Nimona has been published online as a webcomic since June 2012. HarperCollins published the webcomic as a young adult graphic novel in May 2015. In June 2015, 20th Century Fox Animation acquired the rights for an animated feature film adaptation.
Synopsis
Nimona is set in a mash-up universe that combines fantasy and science fiction tropes. The titular character Nimona is a rambunctious young shapeshifter and the sidekick of the supervillain Lord Ballister Blackheart. Blackheart is a knight turned mad scientist who's pursued by his nemesis, and later potential love interest, Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin of the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics. The first five chapters focus on the differences in outlook between Nimona and her by-the-book boss, as well as their plots against the secretly villainous Institution.
Reception
Nimona has been well received, with Slate awarding it the Cartoonist Studio Prize for being considered the "Best Web Comic of 2012". A blogger writing for Comic Book Resources compared Stevenson's artwork to that of Kate Beaton, Eleanor Davis and Faith Erin Hicks. Io9 commented that Nimona's "light, sketchy style" helped to set up the comic's tone and favorably compared it to the Venture Bros., as well as calling it one of the "Best New and Short Webcomics of 2012". Nimona was rated as the best webcomic of 2014 by Paste Magazine.
The Nimona graphic novel was nominated for a 2015 Eisner Award and was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Awards.
Reviewing the German-language print version of Nimona in 2016, Timur Vermes of Spiegel Online described the webcomic as "entertaining", but he criticized Nimona's parody nature, stating that Stevenson "likes her heroes too much". According to Vermes, as the story grows more complex, the logic of the world begins to fall apart. The reader's attention to these deficiencies are diverted, however, through "wonderfully" staged and colored action scenes.