edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly
HarperCollins, 48 pages, $29.99, all ages
The third in the Little Lit series edited by Art Spiegelman (Maus) and his partner, this larger-than-life-size compendium of comics indicates that the "funnies" are alive and well. Here a dozen author and illustrator pairs have been given the line "it was a dark and silly night" and asked to make something of it. What they make of it is off the wall, often manic, always intriguing, idiosyncratic and colourful variations on a theme. It's a book to pore over, an age-old pastime of comic-book aficionados. Lemony Snicket and Richard Sala do a number that begins with, "In this case silly stands for ..... Somewhat Intelligent, Largely Laconic Yeti," and take the piece a long way past any logical conclusion. The Neil Gaiman and Gahan Wilson piece involves a birthday party in a graveyard, in which Edgar and Goneril, brother and sister, have a cooler party than either ever dreamed of: It certainly woke the dead. And on it goes.
The Wolves in the Walls
by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean
HarperCollins, 54 pages, $23.99, all ages
Before the multi-talented Neil Gaiman made a name for himself in children's literature circles with books like Coraline and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, also illustrated by Dave McKean, he was much better known — he's pretty close to a cult figure, in fact — for his graphic novels (a.k.a. late 20th-century comic books), the Sandman series. His newest book combines the two genres, children's book and graphic novel, in new and deliciously creepy ways. His collaborator McKean uses mixed media of photographs, paint and the computer to create a surreal setting for a surreal story about a girl named Lucy who "heard noises. The noises were coming from inside the walls. They were hustling noises and bustling noises. They were crinkling noises and crackling noises. They were sneaking, creeping, crumpling noises. ..... She could hear wolves in the walls, plotting their wolfish plots, hatching their wolfish schemes." Much that follows has to do with a dire admonition, "If the wolves come out of the walls, then it's all over."
Four Pictures by Emily Carr
by Nicolas Debon
Groundwood, 32 pages, $15.95, all ages
A graphic biography of an early 20th-century icon of Canadian art. Who would have thought it? Using, in this case, an intriguingly juxtapositional medium, and four of Emily Carr's paintings, Nicolas Debon charts Carr's life in a series of Tintinesque comic strips. This "comic" book, dressed in a sturdy, brownish-hued palette, distills Carr's life down to its essence. It proves to be a remarkable medium and a moving, tender testament to a woman's struggle to chart a course for herself as an artist. As Debon's foreword notes, "Year after year Emily's paintings became increasingly innovative and daring. Sadly, the more unique her style became, the less understanding she received from her family, friends and the conservative citizens of her hometown of Victoria." After study in San Francisco, London and Paris, and mentorship by and exposure to the art of the Group of Seven, after setbacks, disillusionments, hospitalizations and periods when she gave up painting altogether, Emily found her place in Canada and — as the fourth painting so gloriously demonstrates — as an artist.
Archers, Alchemists and 98 Other Medieval Jobs You Might Have Loved or Loathed
by Priscilla Galloway, illustrated by Martha Newbigging
Annick, 96 pages, $16.95, ages 8 and up
Among the jobs you might have loved or loathed in the late Middle Ages — defined in this book as roughly between the Norman conquest (1066) and Columbus's discovery of America (1492) — include cordwainer (shoemaker), chandler, almoner, pardoner, princess, fuller and gong farmer. A fuller finished cloth after it came off the loom by wetting the cloth by applying a mixture of fuller's earth (clay) and urine and walking on the material. A gong farmer harvested the gloves, jewellery, buttons or pennies he found while cleaning out cesspits and latrines. This book is actually a social history of the late Middle Ages cleverly disguised as a book about job possibilities. Galloway delivers an extraordinary amount of juicy information in an enormously engaging way, and Newbigging's amusing illustrations provide another way to help get the "medicine" down without a hiccup.
Storm-Blast
by Curtis Parkinson
Tundra, 156 pages, $11.99, ages 10 to 14
It is possible, retrospectively, to register the foreshadowing that pervades the opening pages of this book. Two boys survey Toronto's murky Don River from a bicycle path above it. Regan, "the skinny one," tosses a stick into the river and muses to Matt, " the stocky one," that perhaps his stick will travel all the way to the ocean. Matt, no dreamer he, wonders where his cousin gets his crazy ideas. The next "scene" is set at a swimming pool where Regan, obviously competent and comfortable in the water, is swimming lengths. Enter Matt with a group of friends. Matt dares Regan to dive off the high board, a dare that Regan fails miserably because he is, as his cousin well knows, scared of heights. It is little wonder that Regan, branded a wimp or worse, is unhappy when the cousins and their families embark upon a summer sailing holiday in the Caribbean. The holiday aboard a sailboat begins as badly as Regan imagined it might. It becomes much worse when Regan, his sister Carol and Matt go exploring in the sailboat's dinghy. The boat's engine gives out and the cousins find themselves carried out to sea and out of sight of land. Several days later, sunburned, dehydrated and at the end of their rope, the mariners are rescued, thanks in no small measure to Regan's heroic efforts. Parkinson is an adroit storyteller; his obvious knowledge of the sea and sailing just adds another layer of credibility to a suspenseful, well-peopled and well-told tale.
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