Black Panel Press has been extremely generous with allowing us to check out their graphic novels. Heavy Metal Duck was a blast that I would recommend to anyone that loves music. However, the latest book from them, unfortunately did not connect with me like other graphic novels. Lizard World, adapted from the book of the same name from writer Terry Richard Bazes with art from Louis Netter, was an insane grotesque time hopping adventure that should have stayed in one time. To preface, we did not read the novel ahead of this adaptation so in a sense we are going in blind.

The time hopping between 17th-century London and modern times, caused the story to be slightly jarring and took me out of the story at times. It was a bit hard to follow as well as stay engaged with the coinciding storylines. The artwork however, takes the body horror element to the next level and it fits the past timeline. I found myself enjoying the past more of the present timeline and was hoping for more from that time versus where the story went.

Despite this graphic adaptation not being for me, I do see the appeal and would recommend to those who like body horror elements. However, the artwork really struggled to pull me in and at times looked too messy. One thought that popped in my head while reading was, what if the artwork was a bit different and more modern for the present timeline? It would have showed the dichotomy between the two eras.

Black Panel Press has impressed us with the majority of their stories thus far. Despite not being a fan of Lizard World, definitely check out Heavy Metal Duck. It’s a funny slice of life story with heavy musical inspiration.