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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
BOOKS OF BALLADS AND SAGAS GRAPHIC NOVEL
STARDUST creators Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess collaborate on an enchanting story! Also featuring work written by JEFF SMITH (creator of BONE) and CHARLES DELINT!
THIS VERSION IS LONG OUT OF PRINT.
HARD TO FIND COLLECTOR'S ITEM BY NEIL GAIMAN AND CHARLES VESS, WHO WON HAVE PREVIOUSLY A WORLD FANTASY AWARD FOR THEIR WORK ON THE ACCLAIMED GRAPHIC NOVEL SERIES SANDMAN.
* Paperback: 192 pages
* Publisher: Tor Books (March 7, 2006)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 0765312158
* ISBN-13: 978-0765312150
This is the hard to find first printing of the original fantasy graphic novel anthology featuring lavish illustrations by artist CHARLES VESS, collaborating with some incredibly talented writers.
Charles DeLint and Jeff Smith (of BONE fame) contributes to the book.
Includes a story Written by NEIL GAIMAN (Sandman, Coraline, Neverwhere, American Gods, Books of Magic, Black Orchid, Miracleman).
Product Description
Illustrated and presented by one of the leading artists in modern fantasy, here are the great songs and folktales of the English, Irish, and Scottish traditions, re-imagined in sequential-art form, in collaboration with some of today's strongest fantasy writers.
Here are New York Times bestseller Neil Gaiman with "The False Knight on the Road"; popular mystery author Sharyn McCrumb’s version of "Thomas the Rhymer"; acclaimed children's writer Jane Yolen with "King Henry" and "The Great Selchie of Sule Skerrie"; popular novelist Charles de Lint's contemporary reworking of "Twa Corbies"; Bone creator Jeff Smith with "The Galtee Farmer"; Emma Bull's version of "The Black Fox," and much, much more.
Introduced by award-winning editor and writer Terri Windling, and finished with full lyrics and discographies of the classic versions of these songs and tales, The Book of Ballads is an event in the worlds of fantasy and graphic storytelling alike.
Review
“A cloth of rare delight.”
--James Gurney, author of Dinotopia, on The Book of Ballads
“[Vess’s] exquisitely detailed art delightfully recalls the Pre-Raphaelites here, Aubrey Beardsley there and elsewhere Winsor McCay or Gustave Doré…Here Vess reaches the peak of his art, standing proudly with the 19th- and early 20th-century illustrators who influence him.”
--Publishers Weekly on The Book of Ballads
"If you're a fan of both traditional folk music and comic books, there's no way you should miss Charles Vess' Book of Ballads."
--Dirty Linen
"Vess's work is as slyly subversive as the young Rossetti, Morris, and Burne-Jones . . . and it has captivated large audiences for many of the same reasons. By wedding mythic and folkloric material to a distinctly modern form of visual storytelling, this artist is keeping myth alive, and creating a magic all his own."
--Terri Windling on The Book of Ballads
“A cloth of rare delight.” (James Gurney, author of Dinotopia )
"…exquisitely detailed… Vess reaches the peak of his art, standing proudly with the 19th- and early 20th-century illustrators who influence him.” (Publishers Weekly )
"If you're a fan of both traditional folk music and comic books, there's no way you should miss [this]." (Dirty Linen )
"This artist is keeping myth alive, and creating a magic all his own." (Terri Windling )
About the Author
As an illustrator and collaborator, Charles Vess has worked with Neil Gaiman on the World Fantasy Award-winning "Midsummer Night's Dream" issue of Sandman; with Charles de Lint on children's books and illustrated novels; and with Jeff Smith of Bone on the Bone prequel Rose. Vess has won the World Fantasy Award twice. He is currently illustrating a special limited edition of George R. R. Martin's bestselling A Storm of Swords. He lives in rural Virginia.
About the Author
Neil Gaiman wrote the award-winning graphic novel series The Sandman, and with Terry Pratchett, the award-winning novel Good Omens. His first book for children, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, illustrated by Dave McKean, hasn't yet won any awards, but was one of Newsweek's Best Children's Books of 1997. Angels & Visitations, a small press story collection, was nominated for a World Fantasy Award and won the International Horror Critics Guild Award for Best Collection, despite not having any horror in it. Well, hardly any.Born in England, he now makes his home in America, in a big dark house of uncertain location where he grows exotic pumpkins and accumulates computers and cats. He is currently at work turning his first novel Neverwhere into a film for Jim Henson films.
Ballads were little known to the literate world until the 18th century, when scholars began writing them down. Since then, they've received attention from folklorists, folksingers and, now, cartoonist Vess (Stardust; Rose). Vess and his collaborators put a little meat on the ballads' often bare-bones stories, adding fantastic elements not in the originals ("Barbara Allen"), giving them modern settings ("Twa Corbies"), sexing them up ("Savoy") and otherwise putting their own mark on them. Vess approaches them with an appropriately elegant style. His exquisitely detailed art delightfully recalls the Pre-Raphaelites here, Aubrey Beardsley there and elsewhere Winsor McCay or Gustave Doré. The best stories involve passion, whether celebrated ("King Henry" and "Savoy") or cautioned against ("The Demon Lover" and "The Three Lovers"), though even the least effective stories are still beautiful. "The Three Lovers" is especially noteworthy; in it, Vess makes clever, subversive use of comics language, presenting a story that pretends to be a play (complete with proscenium arch). "Tam Lin" may be the collection's consummate piece. In it, Vess goes for straight illustration, with each illustrated page facing a page of verse. Here Vess reaches the peak of his art, standing proudly with the 19th- and early 20th-century illustrators who influence him.
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