A retelling of William the Conqueror based on a tapestry. Even though I knew the basic, I found this really hard to follow. The characters tended to look the same and there were quite a few of them. Their motivations weren't really provided which didn't help. Even a map of the area involved would have been good so I could visually picture it.

Riveting look at how William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) pursued his rightful place as Britain's monarch--a position he held from 1066 (hence the title) until his death in 1087.

I was looking forward to reading this comic book. I love history and I have always thought that the Bayeux Tapestry is a fascinating piece of art. I wanted to know how it was made into a simple comic book. The idea in itself is brilliant, but I was a bit let down by the execution.

The art was nicely done, but I think the faces of characters should be less alike, because they were sometimes hard to distinguish. At times I had no idea who the character was and if I have seen him before :) The narration wasn't easy to follow. Motivations of the characters remained a mystery to me and their actions were sometimes puzzling. Characters appeared and then disappeared without explanation. To be honest there were moments when I looked up from the comic book and wondered: Who are these people? What do they want? Why they do what they do? And I am still not sure what are the answers :) Also, I was hoping that the battle scenes would be more detailed and would explain more about what happened on the battlefield and why Harold was defeated. Unfortunately, the battle scenes where just pictures of soldiers fighting and a huge scull appearing in the sky. Still, the comic book was nicely done and maybe it will encourage readers to learn more about the battle of Hastings and the Bayeux Tapestry.

I received "1066: William the Conqueror" from the publisher via NetGalley. I would like to thank the authors and the publisher for providing me with the advance reader copy of the book.

A graphic novel about the 1066 Norman Invasion as told through the Bayeux Tapestry. Although the story jumps into the middle of the saga with little introduction (although most readers do not need it), this work illustrates the history pretty well and the artwork is intricate as well as captivating. Some sections of the Bayeux Tapestry are included within the story and there are a few pages at the end that describe some history about the "tapestry" itself (perhaps having these pages in front of the story would have worked better). For history lovers who enjoy a good story in a different medium.

Net Galley Feedback

1066: William the Conqueror by Patrick Weber is a beautifully drawn narrative adapted from the famed Bayeux Tapestry. The novel, like embroidery that inspired it, tells the story of the Norman Conquest and culminates in the epic Battle of Hastings.

'1066: William the Conqueror' by Patrick Weber takes a big historical milestone and puts it in to a 75 page graphic novel.

The inspiration for this graphic novel is the Norman Conquest as well as the Bayeux Tapestry. The story would probably be a bit easier to get through if the reader is familiar with the events. I have some passing familiarity with the events, and found it to be a pretty good retelling. I like the bits of tapestry that are recreated to match parts of the story. I also like the occasional shots of Halley's comet which was also overhead at this time.

The art is fine, but felt a bit on the crude side. As such, I sometimes had a hard time telling characters with similar facial features and haircuts apart. I did also like the brief afterword about the tapestry and how those events are sometimes interpreted.

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.

1066:Guillaume Le Conquérant presents a visual story of the invasion & conquest of England by William the Conqueror, where he defeated Harold Godwinson in the Battle of Hastings. Based on Bayeux Tapestry (which is not strictly speaking a tapestry), the graphical novel tries to convey the story with a more personal approach to those moments in history.

While the story is well known and well developed, the book falls short on two major occasions.

1. Graphically most male characters look identical and it snaps you from the flow of the story when you try to catch up who is who in every scene.

2. The dialogues between the characters are indistinguishable from one another. Every character is basically the same person, simply on different sides of the barricades. The wording is cliched, no singular voice or POV to remember.

Otherwise, it is a solid effort from Patrick Weber on the reconstruction of those events and would be perfect to get people into the history of middle ages.

If you know your British history, you know that 1066 was when the Norwegians almost conquered England again while the Normans did succeed in overrunning the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings where Harold maybe got an arrow in his eye. He got killed anyway. So William, Duke of Normandy became William the Conquer and King of England. This comic is an interpretation of that story based on the Bayeux Tapestry. The artwork is at times muddy and the figures rough-hewn, but the plot is very well done. A nice piece of history come to animated life.

This is a great, well drawn, book. The pictures are full of life. It tells the story of the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings as seen in the Bayeux tapestry. There’s blood and nudity so I wouldn’t recommend this for younger students but for older ones it would be a good way to access the history in a different format.
Highly recommend
I was given a ARC by NetGalley all opinions are my own.

As a piece of historical fiction, this is a clever interpretation of the Bayeux Tapestry (a cloth that was embroidered not long after the Conquest of England (1077) and has survived all these centuries to tell us the story of William's great feat). Author and artist fill in a lot of the holes of the tapestry and bring a new dimension to that very important historical artifact. But at the same time, you really need to know a lot about the Conquest and the history of the time or this is incomprehensible. In addition, a lot of the characters were drawn similarly, especially the leads. So it made for a confusing read - I kept Wikipedia open the whole time.

That said, the art is clean and easy-to-follow. Characters that aren't really represented in the tapestry are given storylines that help flesh out the story. Nor does anyone seem overidealized or sensationalized - I did feel that I was reading something that the author took pains to maintain historical accuracy.

As a historical piece, I do like a lot that various panels of the tapestry were included in the story to give us perspective. I wish they were larger, though - perhaps a full page. As small little panels, they were very hard to visualize and understand the intricate embroidery.

In all, I had mixed feelings. Confusing art, confusing story with no preamble or explanation made it unreadable until historical research had been done. But it is a clever way to retell the story embroidered into the Bayeux tapestry. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Wow!
This was a great story! Not a life of... but focusing on the Battle of Hastings and the events leading up to it, as the title says: 1066.

I'm very impressed with the amount of research that must have gone into making this comic book, the attention and care taken with all the historical details. Even with regards to "small" things like William's hair, which is razor-cut extremely high, as was the custom apparently among the Normans of that period. The English characters in contrast have longer hair and are not so clean shaven.

There are some things that history cannot tell us any more, such as who the mysterious Aelfgyva is and why she is shown on the Bayeux tapestry. Here the author uses that mystery to his own advantage so he can add some more political intrigue to an already complex narrative, turning her into a Norse Spy infiltrating William's court.

There are a lof of characters to get to know and keep apart, personally I would have loved some family trees or "who's who" section in the beginning of the comic. The plot concerning, Tostig, Harold's traiterous brother, and his reasons for turning on his brother and family, remained a bit unclear to me.

I do think Mathilda could have done with a bit more attention as she was very important to William/Normandy/England. The mysterious Aelfgyva and Edith, Harold's sister, are depicted a lot more in comparison.

The illustrations are wonderfully done, and I really loved that here and there key scenes of the actual Bayeux Tapestry were depicted as well. It reminds the reader of the historical events that inspired the comic and adds a certain gravitas.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the addition of historical facts at the end of the book, explaining the history and importance of the Bayeux Tapestry.

1066 narrates the story of the invasion & conquest of England by William the Conqueror, where he defeated Harold Godwinson in the Battle of Hastings. This book is based on the the Bayeux Tapestry; an ancient artifact (an embroidered cloth nearly 70 meters long) which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England, concerning William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings.

The tapestry consists of some fifty scenes and the book does a good job in recreating and composing a story from these images in a modern format. I thought the book was pretty accurate historically and the artwork was superb. Though the story is quite good, it starts a bit abruptly. A basic introduction to the major characters of the story and some of the backstory could have helped. One needs to have a basic knowledge of the events and the tapestry to better understand the story without which you may struggle to make sense of the plot, particularly early on in the story.

I loved the idea behind this book and once you get past the first few chapters, it’s an absorbing read. The book deserves credit for choosing to narrate an unique historical event. Overall a good read.

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley

In terms of history, this is spot on. It would help if you are familiar with the general events surrounding the 1066 invasion as well as the politics leading up to it.
I mean, Weber remembers the women. So, you have Harold, Edward, and William. But you have Edith and Mathilda among others.
The one problem is that too many of the men are drawn too much alike, so I had to flip back and forth a couple times. Still, this is a good, solid comic history of the events. In particular, while it does have nudity and blood (quite a bit of blood), it would be a fitting read for a younger student of history.

This is a comic that tells the story of the famous and important year of 1066 in English history and the events leading up to the battle of Hasting. This work was originally published in France in 2011 and then translated into English in 2015. Since the work was originally in French you really get a slightly favorable perspective of William of Normandy. I suppose there would be no surprise there. If you are into medieval theme comics or you are a guy who like to read comics with historical references this work might be enjoyable for you. I thought in general it tells the history pretty well although there is creative literary license with the details.

The story begin with an elderly king Edward of England shown to the readers in a bad physical shape. He’s dying and he knows he’s dying so he sends one of his son, Harold, across the English channel over to France to deliver the news that William of Normandy will become the next king. The book does a good job capturing the awkwardness and tension that was for the King’s family and especially with his son Harold who by English standard should be the next in line for the throne. Instead Harold is told by Edward that William will reign and is the one who is the messenger for this news. The journey to deliver this news is also fill with a lot of danger and mistrusts. When Edward dies Harold breaks his vows to support William to be the next king but instead takes the throne for himself. This prompted William to build a massive Navy and Army to cross the English Channel and earn his name “William the Conqueror.” William wins against Harold of course in a decisive battle in which Harold was killed in a battle known as the Battle of Hasting.

I thought the book was pretty good historically speaking. It made me recall a lof my memory studying up on the Battle of Hasting back when I was fourteen (over twenty years ago) as a young military buff. I thought the author did a good job of mentioning Halley’s Comet that actually flew by and was visible in 1066 which of course many people took as an omen. There is allusions to the Bayeux Tapestry throughout the comic book panels which the author in the beginning called the Tapestry as the first comic book. This impressive art work shows much of the references to the battle and the year. Towards the end of the book it actually have a short question and answer discussion with a scholar who studied the Bayeux Tapestry. I actually wished the story focused more on 1066 more than the backstory of the year before; not that the information wasn’t important but I felt the comics raced through too quickly Harold’s sudden military operation against the Vikings. Overall a fun read though at times I couldn’t tell who was who since the characters were illustrated in such a way that they kind of look the same; attention to details to the hair and clothes matter. There is one inappropriate sexual scene in the middle of the book; this isn’t a kid’s book. For these reasons I give it a 3 out of 5.

NOTE: This book was provided to me free by Europe Comics and Net Galley without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

As an American, we were not taught British history in high school, and our version of world history tends to start with Christopher Columbus. However, as an Anglophile, I do know enough of British history to know of the Norman conquest of Britain, the battle of Hastings, in 1066. I have also hear of the Bayeux tapestry, which tells the story of the conquest.

However, beyond that, ziltch. So, although I appreciated this retelling of the battle of Hastings, I had no idea what was going on, what the back story was, who anyone was, other than Harold and William the Conqueror. I did not understand the rivalries, or any of the things that someone who grew up with this history might have picked up on.

I did, however, like how each segment of the tapestry was brought into the action.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-853" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-13-at-10.19.16-PM.png" alt="" />
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-852" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-13-at-10.19.31-PM.png" alt="" />

It isn't so much something lost in the translation, but something lost in bringing this to the American shores. I have a feeling that British and French readers would get more out of this.

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

Comparing The Bayeux Tapestry to a comic book made me giggle, but they’re kind of right. Like that tapestry, in this book we don’t really know what is happening.
Oy vey, this art is rough and monotone. I have no idea who is who and what role they play in this story and I’m 15% in. Every scene looks the same, so monotonous.
I feel like I’ve fallen off a cliff and I don’t know when I’ll hit water but I hope it’s soon to end this reading misery. When will it end?
The Bayeux Tapestry may be confusing, but at least it’s pretty. This is just confusing.

Patrick Weber delivered a brilliant retelling of the infamous account of the invasion of England by Duke William of Normandy beginning in the year 1065, culminating a year later - 1066. From page to page, the artwork was magnificent, the detail stunning. In superb pictorial fashion, the narrative portrayed the events that took place a millennium ago from the shores of Normandy to the beaches of England.

King Harold was slain in battle. To the victor went the spoils of war. Known by many as William the Conqueror, he would be the first Norman to secure the throne as king of England. For the distant invader, however, it came at a heavy price steeped in royal blood.

More than just a comic, I came to learn in vivid color about the legend that would become a vital part of England’s tumultuous history. Perhaps, it could easily be compared to the American Revolution. I recommend this thrilling piece of literature for more than just its details of the overthrow of the King of England. The novel brought forth a mastery of intricate artwork that went into making the pages come alive.

I send my gratitude to NetGalley and Europe Comics for this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

1066: William the Conqueror by Patrick Weber is a beautifully drawn narrative adapted from the famed Bayeux Tapestry. The novel, like embroidery that inspired it, tells the story of the Norman Conquest and culminates in the epic Battle of Hastings.

I loved the idea behind this book, but I think this particular adaptation best suited to those already familiar with the material. I don’t mean to turn off potential readers, but Weber does not dwell on the development of either his characters or their conflict which makes the narrative choppy and may be confusing to those experiencing the story for the first time.

The artwork is not striking, but pleasant enough and I liked the decision to recreate sections of the Tapestry at various points in the story.

It is always interesting to see history rendered in visual form because it helps realising how little we seem to have progressed as humanity in terms of physical aspect, passions and motives driving actions. I am not sure how this particular work is a good testament to this endeavour because I found it a bit confusing in terms of plot and script, but the attempt at making a good jib is genuine and if you like comics for adults, you might want to add this one to your collection.

I was drawn in by the premise of a graphic novel adaptation of the Bayeux Tapestry. However, the execution did not end up working as well as I had anticipated. Just as one needs prior historic information to better understand and appreciate the tapestry, a sizable amount of background is necessary for this retelling of the Norman Conquest of England. Unfortunately there really isn't any context provided, and I ended up finding myself struggling at times to make sense of the plot. The reading experience felt akin to being taught to swim by getting dropped right into the deep end of a pool. I'm frankly having trouble seeing who this book could be for. As a means to learn about the events leading up to the momentous Battle of Hastings, it doesn't work very well. It is probably better enjoyed by those who possess enough background knowledge, but that's hardly a good-sized potential audience, to say the least.

"1066" is founded upon what I think is a genuinely interesting idea. Unfortunately, a solid translation of the Bayeux Tapestry from its original embroidered form into comic format is something much easier promised than actually done, and I feel like the latter simply wasn't pulled off very strongly here.