American Gods Fans Will Love This Complete Graphic Novel Release

If you're a fan of "American Gods," the media franchise based on the 2001 novel by Neil Gaiman and put into comic book form by P. Craig Russell, you may want to put this brand-new item on your holiday gift list. Penguin Random House has published a gorgeous white and gold hardcover version of the graphic novel series that's 712 pages long.

The seven-pound book released yesterday and includes the three Dark Horse graphic novels "American Gods: Shadows" #1-9, "American Gods: My Ainsel" #1-9 and "American Gods: The Moment of the Storm" #1-9. It's a deluxe edition that comes with gilt-edge pages, a slipcase and a ribbon for easy bookmarking. Gaiman himself re-tweeted a post comparing the size of the book to an edition of Salvador Dali's Jerusalem Bible, a version of the New Testament with illustrations by the artist. 

The book costs $124.99 at retail, although you can currently get it at Amazon for a slight discount at $111.43, complete with free Amazon Prime delivery. 

Dark Horse originally released the three comic book miniseries of nine issues each between 2017 and 2019 (via Comicsbeat). They were later collected into three graphic novel volumes encompassing all nine issues each, which you can still purchase digitally through Dark Horse. You can also buy hardcover versions of the graphic novels. The graphic novels are known for their faithful adherence to the original Gaiman story, which won several honors including the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2002. 

The television series "American Gods," unfortunately, started out in development hell at HBO (via Gizmodo) and never quite emerged from it, even after three seasons on the air at Starz. Although it has received its own share of award nominations (and a few major wins, via IMDb), the show started out fairly faithfully adapting the book, but veered away from the plot as a result of both creative decisions and the high-profile departures (via Deadline) of actors like Orlando Jones, who played Mr. Nancy, along with several directors (via Entertainment Weekly). Starz cancelled the series before it could get a fourth — and possibly final — season, although Deadline says that production company Fremantle has stated its commitment to finishing the story somehow. 

No such problems happened with the graphic novels, which stayed so close textually and artistically to the books that some reviewers, like the one at Thoroughly Modern Reviewer, wished that some aspects had at least been updated to reflect current times. That original tale, depicted with so much illustrative detail, makes this a book you might want to add to your collection immediately.