I finished the pair of books today (Volume 1 and Volume 2). I read the original novel Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card about 22 years ago, and it is the second in a series known as the Tales of Alvin Maker. But this graphic adaptation was issued without any adaptation of the first novel, Seventh Son. As a stand-alone, the plot did suffer from occasional unexplained references to events of the first book. However, the artwork used vivid coloring and brought the characters to life in a way the written word cannot. I can't imagine what it would be like to attempt to read this graphic novel without having previously read the written novel(s).