Review: Guardians of the Louvre

 By Reboot

Recently, I got my hands on a copy of Guardians of the Louvre by acclaimed manga artist and storyteller Jiro Taniguchi. This English language edition of the graphic novel was released through NBM Publishing and is a part of their Louvre collection, a series consisting of over a half dozen graphic novels from other acclaimed artists commissioned by the Louvre itself. It's the kind of new and interesting approach to this graphic medium that deserves attention.

Guardians of the Louvre is my first outing in this collection. An important note to anyone wishing to try these graphic novels from NBM is they are all self contained. Each artist seems to have been given free reign to tell the kind of story they want. There is no order to read any of these books. If any of them stand out to you or seem interesting enough, don't be shy, give it a try. You can see the different titles available so far over at NBM's website.

Now to get into the specifics on this title. Jiro Taniguchi is an award winning manga artist with decades of work and experience behind him. Prior to my reading this graphic novel, I was unfamiliar with his work. Manga is an area in my comics reading that is not as well developed as I'd like it to be. My experience with manga doesn't go too far beyond titles like Akira, Sailor V, and 20th Century Boys. Now I can add Guardians of the Louvre to my still embarrassingly short list.