It was just ok. Slightly boring and uninteresting. I really wanted to enjoy this book but it the story line was just not my taste. Now the art itself, was beautiful in itself.

Amazing arty graphic novel!

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

Well, this was a pleasant surprise! I was expecting this to be a straight forward story about an artist and the woman he loved but I really loved the mystical element thrown in, it made the story unique and interesting.

A great mystery story with beautiful illustrations. Read it in one sitting - it was that good - and would highly recommend. I thought it depicted the impoverished artist brilliantly and I thought the sexual overtones worked really well.

This book was a quick read, but had a very memorable ending. As someone who is not a big fan of painting and art, I was mainly intrigued by the psychological journey of the main character and the surreal aspects of the story. I would recommend this for YA and adult readers.

What an intriguing graphic novel. The art is amazing. I love how Zidrou blends fantasy into reality, it immediately made me look into the real story of the artist whose life this is based on. It was a bit slow to start but the plot twists and turns and Twilight Zone-esque cues were enough to suck me in.

This was a short but unusual graphic novel, about a lesser known Catalan painter, Vidal Balaguer, who mysteriously disappeared at the very end of the 19th century, having previously destroyed most of his work. At the time of his disappearance, he was a suspect for another disappearance – that of his muse and lover, Mar Noguera Monzo. This graphic novel tries to explain his disappearance, and that of Mar, in a fantastical way, and to revive the memory of Balaguer through his paintings, which are introduced throughout and on the cover. Balaguer‘s art is truly beautiful, and Oriol’s complements it, so you can barely tell it’s by two different artists. I loved Zidrou and Oriol’s explanation of the mystery, even though we’ll never know the true reason of Balaguer‘s disappearance.

Barcelona, the last century. An elderly artist is too full of loss for a good friend to paint his latest nude model, so he opens up to her – and us – about the man and how, at the close of the 19th century, he seemed to have a unique talent. But did it come from a hellish place, or somewhere more godly – such as a muse? The intrigue in this does, it has to be said, come slowly – I didn't know we were going to get something quite as supernatural, quite as Twilight Zone-y, until a long way into this graphic novel. Before then I thought we had just a routine story of the impoverished artist, and how painters both young and old need young women to convert to canvas, and therefore money. But no, this is something else again. And it's something really quite compelling, given the level of unexpected that's on these pages. The painted artwork might not be to everyone's taste, but it's perfectly in keeping with the milieu it portrays, and in both evoking a particular spell of art history and giving us a tale open to much interpretation and thinking about, the book is an intelligent drama of very high order. Four and a half stars.

I will admit that the deciding factor in me requesting this eARC is that captivating cover. The woman, the eponymous Muse, is just there in all her naked glory, lounging in a chair, enjoying a book. I am also glad to report that the rest of this graphic novel is done in the same spectacular art style. 😍
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This is a fictional take on the historical disappearance of a Catalan artist named Vidal Balaguer at the turn of the 20th Century. It's a sort of fantastical mystery story done through an even pace and amazing art work. This is a really quick read so I won't spoil any of the story's details anymore, but I will say that I did enjoy this, especially the ending (bec the worrier in me was expecting something super dark, but it turned out quite hopeful, I think?)

I have a bit of issues with the male gaze-y nudity of just the women, as well as the artist X model relationships, esp at points when the man is the older one and has more of the imbalanced power dynamic, so CW on that. 😬 But if i think about it, it wasn't too exploitative here, and I guess it gets a loose pass from me bec this genre isn't normally what I look out for.

Anyway, get this if you know about Mr. Balaguer and would like to be entertained even for a short while with a visually stunning and artsy graphic novel.
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*The eARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for free in exchange for an honest review. It doesn't affect my opinion of the book. Thank you.

A fictional tale about a real life painter from Barcelona who disappeared early on in his career. Balaguer was a reclusive artist on the scene reluctant to sell his paintings even though he was penniless and owed creditors thousands. I like how this took a <i>Twilight Zone</i> type twist.

The Muse by Zidrou / Art by Oriol was a very colourful and very graphic novel. It explored the disappearance of the artist Vidal Balaguer, he was known as "the forgotten genius" of Catalan Modernism. Vidal Balaguer vanished around Christmas 1899, Vidual was last seen by Joaquim Mir. According to police reports. Vidal fled to escape the prison and his creditors. So he was always running away from his creditors etc. Vidal Balaguer's body was never found,

This Script was very interesting throughout and I enjoyed Looking at the graphic and reading it.

Big Thank you to Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for and unbiased review.

Review on Goodreads


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It is a thrilling story built around a less famous but highly talented artist Vidal Balaguer.
It is a astonishing story.
Artwork is of very high quality. Backgrounds and shades and lighting are excellent and as it is story of premodern times all backgrounds match the timeline.
You can flip and gaze on artwork any number of times and repeatedly admire it.
On cover is the main portrait by artist around which controversy and a crime investigation starts.
After few pages to build up the story, it became hard to put down.
There is lot of nudity in between a good story, so viewers discretion is recommended.
Story is based on a true character but is a work of fiction.
Artwork alone is good enough to pick this one.
Thanks netgalley and publisher for review copy.

Every artist has secret techniques

Vidal Balaguer hasn't sold a painting in a while. His life is pretty bland until the meets ''the muse''. The girl of his dreams who inspires him to paint. The only problem is that she disappears when he needs her the most. Worse, is it possible that Vidal had something to do with it?

Love the twist of the plot. The illustrations are very artistic, looking like tiny paintings themselves.

DNF
Was not a fan of the art style and from what I can remember it a bit misogynistic. I remember struggling to keep focus and almost falling asleep several times.

The Muse was a so beautifully illustrated, I couldn't look away from the colors. There are so many pages that I screenshoted on my iPad so I can go back and look at them whenever I want. The story was good, but the illustrations is what kept my attention!

I adored the artwork of this graphic novel but the nude cover could not enliven the dull dialogue for me. I would recommend beefing up the storyline a bit.

" How can someone be gone for so long and still be so present "
A beautiful graphic novel with amazing illustrations. The story is about this painter who is telling to his muse about his lost friend and artist Vidal Balaguer. Vidal dissapears on the eve of 1900 in Barcelona España. The police is convinced that Vidal is responsible for the disappearance of his muse Mar and the corpse of and old woman. The story is very intriguing, it was short but super entertaining.

Thanks to Zidrou and Oriol for create this beautiful story and netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

This short graphic novel is beautifully illustrated, and a compelling story about the disappearance of artist Vidal Balaguer, who begins to believe his paintings are making his subjects magically disappear. Each frame is a painting unto itself, and the historical note about Balaguer at the end makes me want to read more about him.

This was a quick one but I really enjoyed it. The art was great and suited the plot well, and the main character was fleshed out.

Somewhat based on a true story - a struggling artist comes under investigation when the muse of his best portrait goes missing. I don't want to say any more than that, as it is best left that way.

Would recommend.

This is a very well produced graphic novel. Its based on s historical story of an artists must who goes missing. Its lovely to read and is. Informative. There's nothing else quite like it. I really enjoyed it.
Many thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a free ARC of this ebook.