Murder Mysteries - Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell

This is my first Graphic Novels Challenge 2010 Read.

Murder Mysteries is the graphic novel adaptation of one of Neil Gaiman's short stories that appears in his collection Smoke and Mirrors. I've not read the source material so I can’t comment on how well it transferred to this format but taken by itself I thought it worked nicely.

Murder Mysteries has been on my wishlist for a while and yesterday I was looking at the Graphic Novel section of my library for Classic Graphic Novels mini-challenge (more on that in a few days) and I was very pleased to see it lurking on the shelf! "What's it about?" I hear you ask. Well...

The angels are hard at work constructing the world when one of their own is discovered dead, which prompts Lucifer to dispatch Ragual, Angel of Vengeance, to find the culprit. Hearing about the story of the first ever murder, from a stranger who borrows a cigarette from him, is a young man in contemporary Los Angeles for reasons that are initially unclear but become (slightly!) more so as the story progresses. Interestingly, Ragual’s investigation, and what he uncovers during it, provides the possible rationale for Lucifer’s eventual revolt against God.

In spite of the size of the book, this is a deceptively deep story - which I suppose I should expect from Mr Gaiman. In it's handful of pages it covers some meaty questions* and packages it up in a page turning whodunnit with a great ending. For a great review of this book pop over and visit The Book Smugglers - should have known it was their fault it ended up on my wishlist in the first place!

The adaptation to comic book was carried out by P. Craig Russell (who by coincidence also provided the artwork for the book I will be reading for the classic graphic novel challenge) and I really like his style. Very elegant, simple and with a lovely colour palette – I especially liked the very stylised images of the City where the angels live and work.

If I am honest, I’m not sure I’d have been as pleased with this book if I’d bought it unseen in hardback (which is quite hard to do as it seems to be out of print) as it is a very slim volume indeed. Given I borrowed it, I can’t but be delighted with the value for money and I very much enjoyed the unexpected story of an Angel of Vengeance. I really should get around to reading the Sandman books this year...

* Like the concept of free will v. pre-determination - now that brings back some ancient memories about my history of medieval political thought classes!

Coraline

I was thrilled to bits when I managed to bags a pair of free tickets to an early screening of Coraline in 3-D last night and so skived off work early and dragged Mr B along with me to see it.

Firstly, I should mention that this is the first film I've seen in 3-D and... WOW! It takes a little getting used to but luckily we had several 3-D trailers first so I could get my eyes trained up a little before the credits started. Not all of the film seemed to be 3-D, and there were only a couple of out of screen moments, but the difference it made to the depth of field was gorgeous.

The film itself was excellent. It's both adapted from the book by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick, who also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, so if you've seen that then you should have a good idea of the tone. Like Nightmare, this is also a stop-motion animation film and it is really stunning. I would definitely recommend seeing it in 3-D at the cinema if you get a chance as it's well worth it.

What I really like about this film is that Coraline is such a strong female lead who is backed up with an engaging (if occasionally slightly creepy) cast of characters. The Other Mother was absolutely terrifying and I would definitely urge caution if taking teeny-tinies but she was so brilliantly hideous that I can't imagine her any other way.

I've already mentioned that it's a stunning film and much of this is down to the beautiful set design. The Laika Studio, based in Portland, did an absolutely incredible job with both the sets and animation. I'd seen some of the mini-trailers so I knew that there was a huge amount of work behind the scenes but to get the film looking this good... Incredible. Hats off to these guys for the skill and craftsmanship that make this film such a work of beauty. Over on YouTube there is a nice set of official videos that include several from "behind the scenes". It certainly gives you an idea of the talent involved in bringing this film to the screen - as well as getting me to add the DVD to my wish list so I can see all the extras!



I know that it's a bit on the early side to talk about the 2010 Oscars, but I can not imagine that this film doesn't clean up, at least in the technical categories, and it should absolutely win best animated film. Five stars.

Lovely Things.

Hurrah for Mr B and his Christmas Cleverness. He really is a rather super chap and just check out the box that one of my presents came in! He can't take credit for it, as it was dispatched like this, but this rainbow of colours was an amazing introduction to one of the best gifts that I have ever received....

I had no idea just how emotionally engaging having a poppet or two around could be and I suspect that this is the start of a dangerous obsession. Speaking of which, here are the newest members of the family checking out my signed first edition of The Graveyard Book. I did say he was a clever chap, didn't I?

I'm absolutely thrilled with these little chaps we're having great fun moving my poppets around the house. This is partly so that they can learn more about us but also provides a lovely surprise when encountering them "in the wild". They're very much looking forward to visiting Newcastle next week and to the potential arrival of some more friends.

R.I.P. Book Five - The Graveyard Book

This is a R.I.P. challenge read.

Sooo. Amazon sent me The Graveyard Book a couple of weeks early and that made me a very happy Bookling indeed. I've been looking forward to reading this for months and, as soon as I got it, I have devoured it - and put the Quiet Room at work to good use. I ended up plumping for the version that Chris Riddell illustrated as I just could not resist the blue cover and I am glad I did as the interior black and white pictures were incredible and really captured the tone of the book. For some reason it's also a bit cheaper than the Dave McKean edition too although I have no idea why that would be. Honourable mention definately goes to the Subterranean Press version that Dave McKean has also worked as it looks amazing - that full cover wrap... *drools* I can't afford the $250 price tag though so I will have to put it out of my mind!

About time I talked about the content of the book rather than its design? OK.

The synopsis: "When a baby escapes a murderer intent on killing the entire family, who would have thought it would find safety and security in the local graveyard? Brought up by the resident ghosts, ghouls and spectres, Bod has an eccentric childhood learning about life from the dead. But for Bod there is also the danger of the murderer still looking for him - after all, he is the last remaining member of the family. A stunningly original novel deftly constructed over eight chapters, featuring every second year of Bod's life, from babyhood to adolescence. Will Bod survive to be a man?"

Well. Not to keep anyone in any suspense, I loved it. It is such a charming story that is inspired by Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. I've not read that in many years but I will definitely dig out my copy to see the links for myself. It feels a bit odd to describe a book as charming that starts with the murder of a baby's whole family and in which no character is ever entirely safe from danger (well, with the exception of the already dead ones!) but that is really the right word for it. Bod's situation is so very unique and the Graveyard is populated with some really interesting characters and that makes this book an absolute joy to read. Looks like the papers like it too.

Neil Gaiman has such a great reading voice (is it weird that I can instantly recognise the voice of someone I have never met?) and I would love to hear him read this book out loud. Now that I've read the story, so am not at risk of seeing any spoilers, I'm going to pop over to Mouse Circus and watch the videos of him reading the book chapter-by-chapter on his USA book tour. In the meantime here's a Wired interview with Neil talking about the book and why he's made those videos: