Guest Author - Monica Flink
Neil Gaiman has several bodies of work that he is famous for. The Sandman Series, Stardust, and Mirrormask are his popular works, but sometimes it is one that has not made it to the forefront of bookstore shelves or magnificent feature films that are just as good if not better, and Neil Gaiman’s Creatures of the Night is a perfect example of that. A graphic novel with two unrelated stories in it about extraordinary, nocturnal animals, Creatures of the Night is beautifully drawn and touches upon something that is rarely seen these days. Two simple, excellent, unrelated stories that need no series to be complete, or to be drawn out to sell more books. It is a rare thing to see, and an even rarer find to come across in a public library.
The first story in Creatures of the Night, “The Price,“ is about a stray cat. It is told from the point of view of a man, a father, a homeowner, a writer. He takes in all kinds of stray cats and one day takes in a black tomcat which refuses to be tamed. It simply eats, then sleeps in a bed on the porch, even on cold nights. When this tomcat begins coming back each night bloody and injured, as if it had fought a great battle, the narrator sits up one evening to discover what is happening. He then discovers that the cat is protecting the whole home from something more fearsome than another cat or even a wild animal.
“The Daughter of Owls” is the other story told in Creatures of the Night is about an abandoned child in a fantasy world that was supposedly left on the doorstep of a convent by the owls. Thus, the townspeople decide to send her away but take care of her, the baby growing into a beautiful but mute young woman with a special affinity for owls. One night the men of the town go to relieve her of her virtue, and disappear because of it, the owls having something to do with the disappearance of the men and the protection of the girl who had come from the owls.
Neil Gaiman worked with Michael Zulli on this particular graphic novel, the stories rewritten for the graphic form. He originally used the stories in his prose work Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions. Published in 2004, it has beautiful artwork that easily depicts cats, owls, the devil, a normal family, and even an old fictional village. The colors are pale in some places and vibrant in others, as if watercolors and other pastels were mixed, with heavy inks and clean outlining. The art is unique enough to be interesting, and not so perfect that it gets boring and easily predicted. The stories themselves are pure Gaiman, with wit, empathy and enough fantasy to make even a mundane existence of a normal family seem exciting.
While there is very little to discuss about Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli’s Creatures of the Night, it is a book not to miss. This graphic novel is a treat in the fact that it is a short read that will leave you feeling satisfied with the very little amount of story you get. Think of it as having your slice of birthday cake, and leaving the rest so you do not overindulge.
