It would be life-exploding to illustrate something as back story heavy as the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, but squashed into text bubbles, the illustrated “Hobbit” stays as magical as ever. Published in three volumes in 1989-1990, this version of “The Hobbit” is done in beautiful full-color, and most importantly, has a dragon.

I read the original “Hobbit” sometime in middle school, and it’s a cute introduction to a very adult and confusing Tolkein world. You get a little bit of history with the dwarves, elves, and goblins, but the mission is still pretty simple: go to scary mountain. Kill dragon. Get treasure. I also liked how the Ring in “The Hobbit” is just a charming little bonus, but later becomes the biggest problem EVER. The story in the illustrated edition is edited to be shorter, but the story is the same. I actually thought that this adaptation might have included too much unneeded back story, and covered up all of the “pretty pictures” with dense text.

There is no indication at all that this graphic novel is dated by its’ late 80s publication. The art is exquisite, and the only drawback is a terrible bowl haircut on Bilbo, which makes him look like some kind of minstrel. Bilbo’s home also looks like it was the inspiration for the recent film version of “The Lord of the Rings”, but I can’t remember if the descriptions were THAT specific about the door color and Hobbit hole.

A lovely piece for fans of Tolkein, and a great start for younger kids looking to have a visual companion to the original.

-EZ Read Staffer Jenifer