Cover Image: The Last Jungle Book

The Last Jungle Book

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

An adaptation of The Jungle Book broken into 4 segments. This first volume is the story we know of from Disney, Mowgli as a child growing up among the wolves while Shere Khan tries to get to him. There's a framing sequence of Mowgli as an older adult reflecting back on this time which I presume will play out more in the later volumes. It's solid stuff if you've liked what you have seen or read in the past.

Was this review helpful?

Unfortunately I am not able to provide feedback on "The Last Jungle Book" because I am only able to read in Kindle format. Thank you for the opportunity though!

Was this review helpful?

In Rudyard Kipling's original Jungle Book stories, Mowgli is first introduced as a wild man living in the forest who is recruited into the forest ranger service because of his extraordinary jungle craft. He marries, has a child, and returns to the forest. In later stories, his childhood is related, but it really isn't quite like the sanitized Disney version (is anything?!).
I was very disappointed in this version, which let's face it is more of an introduction than a story. The blurb was completely misleading in that it suggests that Mowgli (rhymes with cow-glee) has returned to the scene of his childhood to write the last chapter in it - which I presumed would the the dispatch of his hated enemy Shere Khan (which means 'Tiger Chief', not 'lame'! 'Lungri' means lame - it was a nickname for Khan, who was lame). The problem is that none of this happens, nor will it since Mowgli is a silver-haired old man now in this story.

All we get is a pictorial re-telling of the popular version of Jungle Book with nothing new added. It makes Mowgli's vow at the end - to drape Shere Khan's pelt over the council rock of the wolves, all the more hollow, since no such thing ever happened in this story. It did happen in the original jungle books stories - not the draping but the capture of the pelt, so maybe there are more volumes to come, but even if there are, I was so disillusioned with this one that I have no interest in reading any more. This contributed nothing new, and while the artwork was acceptable and the writing not awful, neither of these offered anything truly new, original, or outstanding.

I can see why this was on Net Galley's 'Read Now' shelf. I cannot recommend it. I'd recommend going to Kipling's original material and reading that - and I believe it's all out of copyright now if you're looking for story ideas!

Was this review helpful?

Always happy to see a classic coming back in a graphic novel form. Great art and color work throughout.

Was this review helpful?

This is lovely reimagining of a classic tale. Many of us are familiar with the story of The Jungle Book but this interpretation brings something new to the tale. The art style is slightly gritting and vey fitting to the setting of the story and the tale itself. Definitely would recommend this to all fan of graphic novels and retellings.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you Netgalley for a complimentary copy of this adaptation in return for my honest review.

I enjoyed this adaptation in the lead up to seeing a local community performance of the Jungle Book.

Was this review helpful?

This is a retelling of the Jungle Book, from Mowgli’s point of view when he is an old man. That sound all very well and good, but this first volume is just him coming to the jungle where he used to live, and basically saying, “oh, the jungle is smaller than I remember it”. That is about it for the view point of the grown Mowgli

The rest of the story is just retelling the story made famous by Disney, rather than by Kipling. It is nicely done, but it doesn’t add anything new to the story. Perhaps in the next volume there will be new material, but if you are looking for a different look at the Jungle Book, this isn’t it.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-624" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Screen-Shot-2018-06-16-at-11.21.23-PM.png" alt="The Last Jungle book" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-623" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Screen-Shot-2018-06-16-at-11.22.04-PM.png" alt="The Last Jungle Book" />

#TheLastJungleBook #NetGalley

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

This adaptation of the first short story in the famous classic book The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling was originally first published in French in 2006. There are four volumes in this series of graphic novel and is narrated through the accounts of Mowgli who came back to India whose already in the dawn of his life.

The story is narrated back and forth from past and to present. I found no huge difference with the original tale of Mowgli's Brothers to this version so it's a good reading material to check out if you still haven't read the story. I have seen a different graphic novel adaptation of The Jungle Book before and compared to it, I prefer this from the Europe Comics because it is detailed and that it is vividly illustrated.

Was this review helpful?

This is a decent little work, mostly just covering the course of the Jungle book with nothing particularly new yet. The illustrations were nice but it has yet to really stand out from the pack as far as its narrative and some of the dialogue seemed a bit stilted, although I would be interested in at least checking out the next volume.

Was this review helpful?

'The Last Jungle Book: 1.Man' by Stephen Desberg with art by Henri Reculé states that it is freely adapted from Kipling's The Jungle Book, and it's not a bad adaptation.

The framing story involves an older Mowgli traveling back to where it all began. He has a series of flashbacks showing how he was orphaned by a fierce tiger, then taken in and raised by a pack of wolves. The wolves protect him from the tiger, but there may not be complete harmony amongst the pack. The story is intercut with the old Mowgli on his journey as he relects on his childhood.

I liked the story and it's a mostly faithful adaptation of the source material. The art works well for the story. It has a classic adventure style to it that suits the story. I would have liked more of the older Mowgli story, but I suspect that will happen in the later volumes.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Was this review helpful?

A beautiful addendum to "The Jungle Book" that looks at Mowgli's story from a more refreshing vantage point of old age looking back on all that occurred.

Was this review helpful?

I thought I'd reached peak Jungle Book – Hollywood is filming it almost as routinely as it is Star Wars, and I never really was a huge fan. So I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. You get the routine story – some animals accepting the wolves' decision to rear a human child they call Mowgli, and Shere Khan certainly not – but you also get a nuance from an elderly man, Mowgli as a pensioner, revisiting what's left of the jungles where the whole story we know played out. That side of things is sure to come to the fore in the other three books in this series – and this is good enough to make me eagerly await them. There's very little wrong here, bar the probability I'll never see another review copy from the series. Four and a half stars.

Was this review helpful?