"That's the way to do it" has an eerie ring in this graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. When Mr. Punch kills the beadle, he yells out "at'sthewaytodoit!" The puppet show is damn eerie manz. Mr. Punch throws his baby out of the window, cudgels his wife to death, and even kills the devil himself.
Mr. Punch is about how we form our childhood memories. The narrator remembers his childhood in bits and pieces that don't make sense. He remembers a heart ice-lolly that costs a shilling, the feeling of a crocodile puppet coming to life, the reassuring bulk of his grandmother on a stormy night, the colour of the sea, but like Humpty Dumpty, he can't fit the pieces together to make it make sense.
This shroud of incomprehensibility is aided by the dark and shadowy background McKean uses. The only characters that are composed from real elements are the puppets, making them seem larger than life in the memory of the narrator. Real life gets interwoven with the puppet show, and both are infected with fantasy. How else do you fit a naked mermaid sitting on a rock in a run-down amusement park?
An excellent review here.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
The Tragical Comedy Or Comical Tragedy Of Mr. Punch: A Romance
Sunday, April 22, 2007
A compendium of books
Because I haven't had time to blog about these individually, here is a list, tinkertailor-style.
Watchmen by Alan Moore is a classic. The anxiety of the '80s pervade this collection, affecting even the superheros. It is a story about superheros, which really isn't so much my kind of thing. Isn't it awful that I have such stereotypical taste?
With Endless Nights, I've finished The Sandman Series, and what a strange, wonderful, fantastic journey it has been. Each of the seven Endless is given a tale to tell in this volume. I love Death's story. Despair's I read quickly, afraid of her hook that snares the heart. The artwork is drool-worthy.
I'm about half-way through The Sandman Companion by Hy Bender. Did you know that there is a DC universe of characters? Did you know that if one character dies in one story, he dies in all? Strange isn't it? This is one of those behind the scenes book. Great for juicy tidbits. Die lah, I think Elle is right, I am a 30 year-old fan!
The Dream Hunters was created by Gaiman as a 10th anniversary volume in celebration of The Sandman series. It isn't a comic but an illustrated story. It is about a monk, a fox, and the Sandman of all-night dreaming. It reads fast.
And that's about it, my narrow scope of books.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Death: The time of your life by Neil Gaiman
Don't be fooled by the title. This is a feel-good comic.
Starring Death, Hazel and Foxglove, what is there not to like?
I was going to buy "Death: The high cost of living" but Kinokuniya had no stock so I bought this instead.
No regrets.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
The Sandman, The Kindly Ones, Vol. 9
Now I know how it ends. Sigh.
The Kindly Ones is the grand finale of an intricate and fantastic masterpiece crafted by Neil Gaiman. It makes a reader want to stop and gape at the scope of his imagination and his craft in putting it altogether.
I am still missing pieces of this jigsaw: Season of Mists and Fables & Reflections. Neither have I read the two that come after The Kindly Ones—what a misfit for a name!—The Wake and Endless Nights. But I will get to it soon enough.
I don't particularly care for the style of artwork that is predominant in this volume. It is the kind of artwork that is more abstract that realistic, using bright colours and two-dimensional shadowing to evoke emotion. It is a bit like Japanese anime with the !!!! above the heads, if you know what I mean. Regardless, the pictures still made me want to cry.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Sandman, The Doll's House, Vol. 2
One of the disadvantages of borrowing The Sandman from the library is that it is impossible to read it in order. Instead, I read it in a haphazard way, pouncing on whatever I can get my hands on first.
Doll's House is Volume 2 of the series and introduces many of the key characters in later volumes. (Except for me, it is more like Star Wars I, II, III that came after parts IV, V, VI.) Rose rises to prominence in this volume, as does The Corinthian. Even Mad Hettie and Barbara, along with Martin Tenbones, get a mention.
It is a pretty intricate story.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
The Sandman, World's End, Vol. 8
The story about the boy named Prez runs parrallel with the story of Jesus Christ—the naming of the child, the temptation, the miracles, the death—but at the end of the story, readers realise that there is no such thing as a "watchmaker", only the Prince of the World, Boss Smilely. Prez is saved by the King of Dreams and goes to visit other worlds. This idea of a multitude of worlds was also seen in "A Game of You", where an entire world passes away. I am thinking that this may be a cornerstone in Gaiman's philosophy in The Sandman series: this sense of multitude, plurality and diversity. I wonder how this Series will end...
The stories about Necropolis are probably my favourite just because they are so strange. Necropolis is an entire city of people specialising in the burial of the dead. The dead are shipped to this city and the inhabitants dispose of them according to the rituals of the client. After an air burial, the grey-faced people sit down and eat a sandwich and tell a story each, a story that is embedded in the story that a traveller tells in the inn, that is embedded in the story Gaiman tells. Amazing. In fact, one of the storytellers in the burial party tells a story which includes a lady that tells her own story within it. Makes a person as dizzy as running blindfolded in a catacomb.
The last scene in the night time sky is moving in a mysterious way. I still don't know who the funeral procession is for, and I am almost afraid to find out. Time will tell.
[In other news, I read another comic Black Orchid by Dean McKean and Neil Gaiman which I didn't care for at all. I think I'm not a fan of the superhero.]
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Death: The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman
You've got to admit that Death, as personified in this series, is pretty hot.
Gaiman toppled the traditional image of death as a hooded man in black carrying a menacing scythe in his creation of Death (see picture on left). For starters, she is always smiling.
Can you beat that?
And she has a genuine empathy for people, going about her work with a cheerful mercy.
Every century, Death gets to be mortal for one day so she can better understand human beings. This issue is the one day.
Download the issue here! How cool is that!
Monday, February 05, 2007
The Sandman, A Game of You, Vol 5
In the afterword, Neil Gaiman says:
I spent more than half a year with Barbie and Wanda and Hazel and Foxglove and Wilkinson and Thessaly and the rest of them wandering around in my head.I kinda miss them too.
Some nights I still miss them.
This is a thought-provoking series that I can't quite wrap my mind around yet. Barbie has stopped dreaming and the land of her dreams is dying, and she needs to go save it. But the boundary between the dream world and the "real" world is non-distinct. In fact, Gaiman suggests that they occupy the same space.
It is about gender and identity, names and perception, with an ending that is both sad and curious. I don't suppose I can say any more than that.
To Wilkinson! All seventeen of them! Read More!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
This is a curious book with more twists and turns in its plot than an Auntie Anne's sour cream and chives pretzel.
It is written with an interesting premise: one, that gods actually do exist; two, that they live off the worship and belief of humans; and three, that gods can die.
The immigrants to America brought with them a plethora of gods. There is Odin, the All-Father, Kali, Hindu female goddess, Loki, contriver of all fraud, Easter, a pre-Christian goddess of fertility, and dwarves, leprechauns, pixies, a red squirrel, a world tree, and everything in between. (I think it would have been fun if the kitchen god, the pontianak and sun wukong was in it as well. I wouldn't mess with Tua Pek Kong or Guan Yin though... but considering Gaiman dared to caricaturise Kali... *shiver*)
American Gods is an audacious book. Gaiman weaves these old legends into a modern myth, which though modern, resonates with the same old strain of war, sacrifice and rebirth. Considering that Gaiman is British, it is uncanny how well he describes America, down to the signs declaring "pop. 720. Home of the Illinois girls' under-16 wrestling semifinalist" (162). That made me giggle.
I wonder how American Gods would work as a graphic novel. In many ways, it is suited to the medium. The characters are fantastic and sometimes I found myself wishing that I had a single comic panel rather than the hard work of translating a page full of words with my imagination. The structure of American Gods is also suited to a graphic novel. There are many independent sub-plots and minor characters that eventually get tied together in a grand conclusion. Gaiman's conclusion is impressive.
I liked Shadow. The protagonist of this novel is a quiet, bookish and physically strong man who has more integrity than all the gods in this book. If anything, this is also the story of Shadow's journey, a journey that stretches the imagination with the places he will bring you.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
The Sandman: Dream Country, Vol. 3
I love the weekend. Today we celebrated a friend's birthday with chilli crab, awfully chocolate cake, ice cream, and wine. I got to hang out with old friends and talk with my sis on Skype. And I had enough time last night and this morning to finish reading this comic by Neil Gaiman.
At this point, I can truthfully say that I am happy.
Volume three explores where great writers get their inspiration from. The Sandman, being the source of dreams, is the source of inspiration for all the great works created by men as well. It is kinda mind-boggling 'cos if the Sandman inspired Shakespeare, did he inspire Gaiman to write the story you hold in your hand as well? It is a little like looking into a pair of parallel mirrors with images retreating into infinity.
This volume includes the original script for "Calliope" and it is interesting to see how a comic gets written. It is rather detailed work and requires a lot of cooperation between the writer and the artist. It is also congruent to include the script in this particular volume since the theme of this volume is the process of writing stories, and the script gives a backstage look at this process.
Art is the translation of memoirs, history, and human experience into stories that never die because their truth echoes through time. And The Sandman series is art.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, by Neil Gaiman
What if my dreams came true?
It is a scary thought. I don't think I would survive it. My dreams have a pattern running through them, recurring themes that I can't shake off: love, guilt, fear... and if what I dreamed were real, I would go mad.
For that reason, Preludes and Nocturnes is a scary book. In his afterward, Gaiman describes the stories in this series:
"The Sleep of the Just" was intended to be a classical English horror story; "Imperfect Hosts" plays with some of the conventions of the old DC and EC horror comics (and the hosts thereof); "Dream a Little Dream of Me" is a slightly more contemporary British horror story; "A Hope in Hell" harks back to the kind of dark fantasy found in Unknown in the 1940s; "Passengers" was my (perhaps misguided) attempt to try to mix super-heroes into the SANDMAN world; "24 hours" is an essay on stories and authors, and also one of the very few genuinely horrific tales I've written; "Sound and Fury" wrapped up the storyline; and "The Sound of Her Wings" was the epilogue and the first story in the sequence I felt was truly mine, and in which I knew I was beginning to find my own voice.Did you notice how many times the word "horror"appears?
I had a weird thought. There is a very thin line separating fantasy from theology. The characters of fantasy are heaven and hell, demons and angels, death and salvation, mortals and gods—well, it is the same with theology. (Theology would quibble about the plural used in "gods" but it does have father, son and holy spirit after all.)
I think I'm out of my depth here, so forget about that last paragraph.
I wonder what I'll dream about tonight. Read More!
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Brief Lives, by Neil Gaiman
I now know why books in this genre are known as "graphic novels".
But I think I am finally getting Neil Gaiman in his element. He is imaginative, sensual and his work is driven by plot. I love the brooding Morpheus and the Lady Delirium who makes little coloured mushrooms and frogs sprout wherever she sits. It is amazing what a picture can do. For example, Delirium is always drawn in a whimsical pose: she is sprawled on the floor, or her arm is over her head, or she is surrounded in a multi-coloured realm with frivolous and fantastic bits and pieces. Even her eyes are different coloured!
I like Barnabas too, the sarcastic talking dog. He's cool. Isn't it interesting that Barnabas means "son of encouragement"?
It is so much faster to go through a comic than a novel.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Frankly, if I had been given only the text of this novel and hadn't known who the authors of Good Omens were before I read it, I would have guessed Terry Pratchett in a heartbeat and completely overlooked Gaiman's contribution.
This novel screams Terry Pratchett. The style and wit is the same. Even good 'ole death WHO SPEAKETH IN CAPITALS is given a part. All through the first half of the novel, I found myself forgetting that I was not reading another novel in Pratchett's discworld series.
Granted that I am more familiar with Pratchett's style than Gaiman's, the sense of this novel being "all Pratchett" may not be so off target. Gaiman said that it was easy for him to use a ‘voice’ close to Pratchett’s own writing style in Good Omens, because he’d recently been working in a style borrowed off Douglas Adams, a style he calls “classic English humour: there’s a large chunk of P.G."
I am beginning to think that Gaiman is quite the master of styles. (The only other book I've read of his is Stardust which is written in the fairy-tale style.)
Good Omens is written from a decidedly humanistic perspective, and so it is very hard not to like. How can you not like a story that affirms humankind's quirkiness, flaws, and moral waffling? And it is funny to boot. Just don't use it as your theology textbook.
So this means that I am still in search of Gaiman's voice.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
This is the most imaginative story -- the most whimsical, heartlifting, funniest, well-rounded story -- that I have read in a long time.
Like the old fairytales, Stardust is about a quest -- a quest for a fallen star. Because of a hasty promise to a young lady, Tristran Thorn sets out from the quiet, secluded village of Wall in search for the star, and along the way, meets many adventures. Thematically, it is similar to the journey Odysseus takes in The Odyssey, yet it is different in one refreshing aspect: Tristran is no greek hero. He even becomes a dormouse (sic) at one point!
According to Wikipedia, Gaiman's style and tone in Stardust is very different from his other books. This is the first book I've read of his, so I can't comment. Though I have to say that even if all of his books were written in this style, there would be little loss, for there are too few old-fashioned fairytales today.
I may take that last sentence back after I read his other books though. ;)
Find it in a library here (Singapore) or here (rest of the world).
