Two slices of Jim Henson genius

[icon_uk]

My love for the genius that was Jim Henson is fairly well known here I think.

So for Archaia Entertainment to have out, almost simultaneously, two different hardcover publications based on his work (and another to come in the shape of a Labyrinth novella) is a source of unparalleled joy (Well, pretty much unparalleled, within limits y'know) so I want to share these with you all!

First up




Brian Froud (who designed the look of Labyrinth and has quite the output of fantasy work himself) has done character designs for a couple of the major new characters, including that odd little chap on the cover. And the "Volume 1" fills me with warm fuzzy thoughts of a series like this!



Click on the Crystal to be taken to Archaia's page for the title, where you can see much better scans of the title than I could manage.
And then



Now, there is a preview here, but in case that's not enough to tempt you, a couple of pages showing some of the different styles that the different stories are told in.

The French fairy tale of "Puss In Boots" by Marjory Liu and Jennifer L Mayer (And this scans does not begin to do justice to the fabulous art)







The Chinese tale of "The Frog Who became an Emperor", (By Pauol Tobin and Evan Shaner)





I love his reaction to seeing his father arrive is an excited "Dad!" and he's cuter than any frog boy has a right to be...

And one page from the Japanese story of "Momotaro the Peach Boy" (by Ron Marx and Craig Rosseau)



There are nine stories in total, including "The Witch Baby" based on a script for the actual Storyteller series that was never made. That one you'll have to see for yourself, but it's an odd story, and the Witch Baby herself is real nightmare fuel.... Oh, and I'm not posting any from the Colleen Coover because... well, because I want to people to have all the incentive I can think of to go out and buy this, because I want to see this series prosper! :)

Comments

[suzene]

"The Storyteller" was well worth the purchase price and has a great line-up of talent, but I felt some of the creators didn't quite get the vibe of the whole thing. The ones that I thought worked were the ones where I could envision the Henson Creature Shop going to town on it as an adaptation, while the rest were just nicely illustrated but ultimately generic fables.

[icon_uk]

There are definitely stories which "feel" better than others, ones where the flow of the Storytellers narration has just the right cadence and you can hear John Hurt's voice in your head.

[suzene]

Absolutely. And, really, there were waaaaay more hits than misses in this collection. I think there were only two that I felt didn't really work, a good number that did their job very nicely, and a couple of others that made me really, REALLY miss the show. I wonder if there's a revival being considered.