As most of you all probably know, the Dragonball Manga has recently been brought to the US in "Graphic Novel" form. Each novel has around eleven to twelve of the comics in them and is in the Japanese format of comic reading which is from top to bottom, and left to right. They only did this because otherwise the words on t-shirts or signs in the drawings would appear backwards if it was in the US comic format and would be a lot more work for the comic people who make them. I think it adds to the affect myself. There will be forty-two of the "Graphic Novels". And I will review each of them for everyone who is interested in learning a little about it before they buy it, or for the person who has never heard of "DragonBall".

Well, to begin, DragonBall was a manga (Japanese word for comic book) in Japan, created by Akira Toriyama, before it was ever a show. I know most of you inexperienced DBZ fans think it is like the DragonBallZ you know and love, but it is not. The story takes place many years before the DBZ series. It is at a time when Goku is only 14 years old and Bulma is only 16. Goku is very unaware of many things, which ads a lot of humor to the comic. There are many jokes about things that boys would love. Well anyway, I will now get to the first review.

The first graphic novel of the series has a picture of young Goku riding Shenlong, the earths Dragon from the earths dragonballs. Well the story before DragonBall is that Goku was brought to Earth in a space ship which attracts the attention of Gohan, no, not Goku's son Gohan, Gohan, Goku's Grampa. Well, Gohan goes to the place where he saw the ship and found Goku. Goku was sent to earth to destroy the planet but bumps his head and forgets everything. Goku is naturally strong because he is a Saiyajin and Gohan trains him under the martial arts to teach him to control his strength. Goku becomes much stronger over the years until one night Goku gets a glimpse of a full moon, which causes him, like all saiyajins, to transform into a giant ape. Goku steps on his Grampa without even knowing it because he can't control himself while he is an ape. Goku transforms back as the moon goes away and when he wakes up the next morning, he finds his Grampa squashed. He doesn't know that he squashed him though. So Goku buries his Grampa and keeps the one thing he believes contains his Grampa's spirit, the four star dragonball. Then he goes on with his life which leads up to the first Graphic novel.

The first novel begins with Goku doing his daily chores, when he runs into Bulma, who is looking for the dragonballs. Goku shows her to his house because he destroys her car by accident mistaking it for a monster. Bulma sees the four star dragonball and tries to get Goku to give it to her. Goku won't so she talks Goku into coming with her. They then start on their Journey to get the dragonballs with the help of the dragon radar, which is a device which tracks the frequency of the dragonballs. The next day they run into a turtle that is lost. He says he is from an island and asks them if they could help him back to it. They agree and bring him back to the beach, where the turtle tells them to wait because he has a reward for them. Goku and Bulma wait until the turtle brings back an old man who is the turtle hermit (Master Roshi). The turtle hermit gives Goku the Flying Nimbus as a reward for helping the turtle. Bulma asks for something too while Goku tries out his cloud. She spots a dragonball around the hermit's neck and asks him for it. He agrees to give it to her just as long as she does something for him (I won't tell you what it is though). Bulma finally agrees and gets the dragonball.

The next part of their journey ends them up in a small town with the use of Bulma's dragon radar. They find out that the town is bullied by someone called Oolong. Bulma is certain that Goku can get rid of Oolong. She sees an old woman wearing a dragonball and asks the lady that if they get rid of Oolong, will she give her the dragonball? The old lady agrees, and they wait for Oolong. Goku pretends to be a little girl to make a diversion. Goku messes up and it ends up with Goku fighting Oolong, which is really easy for Goku. Oolong knows he can't win so he runs away. Goku follows Oolong and discovers that Oolong is a shape shifter and can only hold a form for 5 minutes then he changes back. Oolongs true form is a pig. Goku captures him and makes him apologize and to set his other prisoners free. After all this is done, Goku and Bulma get the dragonball. They leave with Oolong, taking him by force.

They then are going along their way until they run into the thief Yamcha, and his sidekick Puar. Yamcha tries to rob Goku and Oolong while Bulma is asleep because he is petrified of girls. He gets a little more than he can handle when he fights Goku. It starts to look grim for Oolong until Bulma wakes up and makes Yamcha runaway like a baby. After that Oolong pops out an RV out of a Hoi Poi capsule and they get ready for bed. While Bulma is in the shower Yamcha tries to make a sneak attack on them but accidentally sees Bulma and has a girl attack. Before they go to bed, Oolong slips sleeping potion in Goku and Bulma's drinks so he can watch Bulma without her knowing it. Yamcha breaks in while Goku is asleep and goes up to Bulma's room looking for the dragonballs. He thinks he sees the the dragonballs under the covers in the bed and lifts up the sheets and its Bulma sleeping. He has a girl attack and runs away.

The next morning everyone wakes up and Bulma needs some clothes so Oolong gives her some from his stash, which turns out to be a costume which she doesn't like. After she yells at Oolong the RV gets hit by a bazooka shot from Yamcha. Goku gets out and fights Yamcha until Goku knocks one of Yamcha's teeth out. Yamcha runs away after this and decides to follow Goku, Bulma, and Oolong until they have all 7 dragonballs together to take them from them. He gives them a car Hoi Poi Capsule to speed up their progress. Bulma follows the dragon Radar to a mountain that is on fire, which is home to the Ox-King or Gyu-Mao. They know that the dragonball is in the castle on top of the mountain but they need to put out the fire to get it. The Ox-King agrees to give it to them if they can get the Turtle Hermit to put out the fire. So they go off in search of the turtle hermit as the adventure ends. But as Yamcha and Puar follow them they run into a young girl who attacks them. They easily deal with her, and continue, what they don't know is that the girl they knocked out is the Ox-King's daughter, Chi-Chi.

Well, that was a pretty good in depth coverage of the first "Graphic Novel" wouldn't you say? I only did this for the first one, don't expect all the others to be this in depth. Well, overall I think that these "Graphic Novels" are a great thing. The first was a great story and I highly recommend it!