Tag: alisa kwitney

Free Country: A Tale of The Children’s Crusade by Neil Gaiman, Alisa Kwitney, Peter Snejbjerg (Illustrator)

Free Country: A Tale of The Children’s Crusade by Neil Gaiman, Alisa Kwitney, Peter Snejbjerg (Illustrator)
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A fantastic tale about two dead detectives, who are trying to solve a missing person case. It sounds macabre but it’s actually a fairy tale.

Neil Gaiman includes this in his introduction: “I asked Alisa Kwitney, who cowrote much of the second half of The Children’s Crusade, if there was anything she wanted me to point out and she said yes. I should tell people that in the double-page spread with the mermaids and the magic, she had instructed artist Peter Snejbjerg to draw a very young Nail Gaiman reading a book, oblivious to the wonders around him.”

I made sure to check on that page- and there he was. If you read this too, make sure to look for Neil in the full-page spread depicting Free Country.

The premise of this tale is like Peter Pan, but with a twist. There’s a land where children can live in peace and harmony and never grow old… but at what cost.

“Look at them, who call themselves adult- they eat, they work, they sleep. Their pleasures are gross and ugly, their lives are squalid and dark. They no longer feel, or hurt, or dream. And they hurt us. They say every adult has successfully killed at least one child, heh? Free Country is the refuge. In the past, it was the refuge only for the most fortunate of the few. But those days are ending. It will soon be the home of every living child.”

Photo by Alex Smith on Pexels.com

If I had known the catalog of Vertigo comics, I may have enjoyed this more. But, you don’t need to be an aficionado of comics to enjoy Free Country. It can be a stand-alone graphic novel with plenty of chills and thrills along the way.

It was for me.

Recommended for adults to like twisted tales with a fairy-tale flavor or for 16+ because of the potentially disturbing content.

Thanks for reading!

A Flight of Angels, Illustrated by Rebecca Guay

A Flight of Angels, Illustrated by Rebecca Guay

A Flight of Angels includes stories by Holly Black, Louise Hawes, Todd Mitchell, Alisa Kwitney, Bill Willingham.

Lovely art elevates a so-so collection of short stories about angels. Rebecca Guay, in my opinion, is one of the most talented illustrators I’ve ever seen. The artwork is classic but ephemeral with tasteful nudes and multi-layered backgrounds. In a word: gorgeous.

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I picked this one up because of The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen. In that book, as in this, I loved the art but thought that the story was predictable. I feel like the authors that Guay has partnered with, at least so far, don’t measure up to the masterworks she produces.

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Borrow this one from your nearest library so that you can see how beautiful it is.

Read alikes: some of the Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile series has art on this level but they’re kind of hit or miss. Saga, Volume 1 is beautiful but the story has some very vulgar moments popped in there. If you can handle that, and I know that some people are huge fans of Saga, then that series might be a good fit. Or, of course, you may want to pick up The Last Dragon as that is done by the same illustrator.

Thanks for reading!