Product Description

One of comic art’s most respected and pioneering artists, well known for his opera adaptations and beautiful fantasy work, P. Craig Russell is in the process of adapting Oscar Wilde’s famous fairy tales in a series of landmark volumes. PARENTS’ CHOICE AWARD 1994, 1995 Eisner award winner “Best Artist”; Harvey award winner “Best Graphic Album”. “Russell matches Wilde’s literary skills with artistic talent.” Publishers Weekly “An attractive introduction to Wilde’s tales.” Booklist “Russell’s dramatic style makes them more accessible.”-School Library Journal

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #778413 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 52 pages

From Amazon.com
While Oscar Wilde is best known as the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest, he was also a teller of fairy tales. After polishing his tales through private readings over the years, Wilde eventually published them in two collections between 1888 and 1891. Although these stories have remained engaging throughout the years, this volume allows acclaimed artist P. Craig Russell to breath a vivid freshness into them. Like any good illustration, the art never gets in the way of the story; Russell's depiction of the characters always remain real enough to believe in, but never so real that they take you out of the fantasy world. Russell makes illustrating look easy, and the result is pure enjoyment.

From Publishers Weekly
This is the first of a five-volume series of Russell's adaptations of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales into a comics format. The two retellings here, The Selfish Giant and The Star Child , adeptly capture Wilde's ability to bring a gentle, unexpected note of pathos to the conventional fairy-tale mix of anthropomorphic fantasy and whimsical moral guidance. In The Selfish Giant , the eponymous creature kicks a bunch of frolicking youngsters out of his garden, only to find that frosty winter moves in to take their place, refusing to leave because of his selfishness. In The Star Child, a beautiful but mean , narcissistic boy becomes physically repulsive when he rebuffs a ragged beggar who turns out to be his long lost mother. Russell matches Wilde's literary skills with his estimable artistic talent. His colors are brilliant and pure; his linework sure and fluid, at once cartoonlike and elegantly representational, reflecting both his art-nouveau and pre-Raphaelite influences and the inherent charm of Wilde's material. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-- Two of Wilde's sentimental tales, "The Selfish Giant" and "The Star Child," adapted into a graphic novel format. The formally written, somewhat depressing stories combine traditional, fairy-tale elements with heavy Christian symbolism and can seem stilted or old-fashioned to today's readers, although Russell's dramatic comic-book style does make them more accessible. The strips are visually readable, providing a straightforward, literal interpretation of the action, unencumbered by symbols. Libraries may find this volume attractive for reluctant readers. Others will prefer Lisbeth Zwerger's more traditional illustrations for The Selfish Giant (Picture Book Studio, 1984). --Linda Boyles, Alachua County Library District, Gainesville, FL Grades
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.