2015 Review Round-Up: Graphic Novel: The Graveyard Book (Volumes 1&2) Neil Gaiman et al

The Graveyard Book: Volume 1
Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell
Kevin Nowlan, P. Craig Russell, Tony Harris, Scott Hampton, Galen Showman, Jill Thompson, Stephen B. Scott
ISBN: 9780062194817

The Graveyard Book: Volume 2
Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell
David LaFuente, Scott Hampton, P. Craig Russell, Kevin Nowlan, Galen Showman
ISBN: 9780062194831
Both Read October 2015

The graphic novel adaptation of the epic fantastical and ghostly re-telling of the Jungle Book.

Just go read it.  It's Neil Gaiman, and it's beautiful.  I would recommend reading the actual book first - it makes things clearer and deeper to have that background to draw from, and it makes for a nice sense of anticipation about what the various artists are going to choose to do to depict various people and scenes.  This was the October read for our library's Graphic Novel Book Club, and it was a big hit.  Everyone enjoyed the story, even though most people didn't realize it was an homage to the Jungle Book (which you should also read, but remember that Kipling was an AWFUL racist.)

Bod wanders away from a gristly scene, and takes refuge in a cemetery, under the protection of the Grey Lady, the cemetery ghosts, and the mysterious nocturnal caretaker Silas.  These grim beings form a protective family for Bod to grow and develop, but all too soon he is going to learn about the wider world, and once he leaves the cemetery grounds, he's dangerously vulnerable to the strange man Jack who hunts him relentlessly.

New Arrivals: Fairy Tales: Hansel & Gretel, Neil Gaiman and Lorenzo Mattotti

I've been waiting FOREVER go get my hands on this little creepy beauty!  For lovers of Gorey and the Addamses, here is the grimdark inky-washed terrifying tale of Hansel and Gretel in all it's original frightful glory.

Hansel & Gretel
Neil Gaiman, illustrations by Lorenzo Mattotti
ISBN: 9781935179627


This is a DARK story.  Mattotti's illustrations are mostly thick opaque swaths of blackness, crowding across the page and looming over the chinks of light and the outline figures of our characters.  Trees reach over and clutch, houses ooze darkness from the walls, rooms become wicker cages with tendrils of blackness twining to bar the light.

This is a DARK story.  Gaiman does away with the attempts to lighten the mood - the kids are abandoned by their parents; mother and father conspire, and while father is not an enthusiastic participant, he is an active party.  The story lingers on macabre descriptions of food, the bloody hanks of meat brought from the butcher, bejewelled with green flies and yellow wasps, the weak broth of old cabbage, the hard crunch of dry bread, the unabashed desire of the old woman for meat.  Even Gretel is more purposeful and hardened - her defiant shove not a mad swing of inspiration and luck, but a carefully plotted and cultivated goal.

This is how fairy tales were - warnings against the evil of mankind, using witches and old women in the woods as allegorical threats to balance against the very real threats of cruel parents or desperate starving times.

Brilliant.  A facet of obsidian lit by the last rays of a dying day, fierce in inky cold sharpness.

The Sandman: The Dream Hunters (graphic novel), Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell

The Sandman: The Dream Hunters (graphic novel)
Neil Gaiman, illustrated by P. Craig Russell, colors by Lovern Kindzierski
Based on the illustrated novella by Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano
ISBN: 9781401224240
Read January 15, 2014

Snap judgement: it was nifty, but I still like the original better.

That said, there were a few individual places where I thought the story benefitted from the style of comic panels, or from specific artistic choices.

Firstly, the fox actually has green eyes!  I wouldn't trade Amano's stylized faces for the world, but it was nice to see expressions and actual eyeballs on the monk and fox.

I loved the use of the red and white robe for the fox's human form.  There were a few panels in particular that were just nicely done; when she jumps over the fire and changes, when she is teasing the onmyoji, and when the dreamland pair shifts from man and fox to a couple.

I loved that the use of Dream's white-on-black text made the Fox King's identity more obvious.

I liked that the onmyoji was fat and somewhat attractive, and the sequence showing his fears was very well done.

I LOVED the trio of weavers.  Super-nasty and disturbing.

The sequence where the monk walked into Dreaming was very powerful in this version, because more of the landscape and events were pictured.  The destruction of the geta, and the interactions with Cain and Abel in particular were haunting.

I also am glad that I read the original first, because I could see in my mind the text behind many of the image sequences (like the fox eating the frog), but it did make me aware of at least one minor alteration; the grandfather originally choked on a mochi and here that phrase was altered to an 'unripe peach.'  Made me wonder why alter that, and not just change it to "rice cake" and for that matter, why that, and leave onmyoji or oni or tengu as they are?

As an aside, I find myself uncomfortably aware of my prudish American upbringing, where reading text about 'private' body parts is a-ok, but actually seeing them is somehow worse.  I'm trying to get past that myself, but if a child wanted to read this story, I have to admit I'd rather they read the illustrated novella than looked at the graphic novel.  Graphic indeed, I suppose.

Final verdict: if you are somehow prevented from owning both versions, then the original is still the best choice.  I just can't express how perfect the artistic partnership is between those two masters of their media.

However, in the real world, where people have bookshelves full of The Sandman, this is a beautiful and haunting addition in it's own right, and does a lovely job of adapting the original to another medium without feeling like a copy, but without losing the soul of the story.

Short Reviews: June 2013. Unnatural Creatures, Movement of Stars, Dragonswood, Written in Red

Written in Red, Anne Bishop.  ISBN: 978-0451464965
June 25, 2013
Author is very lucky for Charles de Lint's blurb on the back, otherwise the cover and inital "Brief History of the World" would NOT have interested me enough to pick it up.  Oddly light in tone for the subject matter, only a few described scenes of torture/gore - everything else is insinuated.  Very little background on the main character and her past.  Interesting world, plot is standard "bunch of strong characters (mostly men) feel obligated to protect a persecuted innocent (usually a woman) to the death, despite cultural/historical/prejudical indications otherwise."  Characters engaging despite the plot.  Loved Winter, loved Grandfather, loved the ponies.

Dragonswood, Janet Lee Carey.  ISBN: 0803735049 (no ISBN13)
June 24, 2013
"Sequel" to Dragon's Keep, with very few characters in common.  (I have NOT read Dragon's Keep)  Tess regularly flees her abusive homelife into the forbidden forests; home to dragons, feykin, and witches.  She's eventually condemned as a witch, tortured, and flees with her friends into a fairly cliched story of huntsmen-cum-princes living in the woods, wise elder dragons, scheming fae, conniving "Prince John" councilors, and of course the requisite misunderstood prophecy.  Enjoyed the fleeing and huntsmen-hiding more than the climax, sadly.

The Movement of Stars, Amy Brill.  ISBN: 978-1594487446
June 16-22, 2013
Interesting fictionalized version of Maria Mitchell.  I was very interested in the Quaker trappings and the adherance to "Discipline" but wasn't able to find more information on that subject easily.  The love story was sweet, but very much out of place for those characters in that time-period, and that was jarring.  Very feminist, almost strident.  Good, but not exceedingly engaging.

Unnatural Creatures, (collected by) Neil Gaiman.  ISBN: 978-0062236296
June 16-22, 2013
Short stories (very old and very new) collected and introduced individually by Gaiman.  Exceedingly nice little collection, and very happy to see some older and lesser-known gems in the mix.  Can't pick a favorite, but Sunbird has stuck in my mind for over a week now.

Fantastic Mistakes, Neil Gaiman & Chip Kidd

Fantastic Mistakes, Neil Gaiman's "Make Good Art" Speech, Neil Gaiman, book art and text design by Chip Kidd.  ISBN: 9780062266767.

Read Sept 26, 2013.

I've read this speech several times, and listened to it online at least twice.  This edition I feel doesn't quite do justice to the simultaneous levity and solemnity of the subject and the speaker.  Gaiman was being quite serious about all that he said - making good art, not taking yourself seriously, being open to the joys and experiences of the present, doing work because it inspires you.  However, at the same time, he was presenting it in a conversation, casual, almost confessional manner - nothing like a sturm-und-drang bombast or fire and brimstone preacher.  Just a nice conversation, with a wise friend.

This version makes the serious parts seem like a business-conference pep-talk motivational-speaker powerpoint, and the casual friendly conversational style seem trite and limited in scope.  The expanses of white space with various linear elements in blue or red only makes the speech seem much less robust than it actually was - many spreads make the language seem puny and unfinished, rather than powerful and spare.

I will say that I liked the composition of several individual pages: the "list of things I wanted to do" page spread, the "universe kicks me hard" page, and the "This is really great.  You should enjoy it." page.  Otherwise, I just felt the graphic elements and design competed with the message, rather than complemented it.  I was also driven nearly furious by the "1irst of all"  "2econdly"  "3hirdly" (yes, he really did, yes, all the way through the numbers, yes, I died a little inside.)  

However, it's art, it was published (way to go!) and it's personal - other people may find it beautiful and breathtaking.  For me, I'll just continue to listen to the recording and read the boring black-and-white text version.  I just don't seem to need funky typesetting or overtyped words or color-changing sentences to get the idea.