Graphic Novel Review: MR. PUNCH, DELUXE ANNIVERSARY EDITION

THE COMICAL TRAGEDY OR TRAGICAL COMEDY OF MR. PUNCH by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (DC/Vertigo, September 2014) 20th Anniversary Edition, Deluxe Hardcover, 112 pages. ISBN #1401251420 / 9781401251420  

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

In his grandfather's failing seaside arcade, a young boy encounters a mysterious Punch and Judy man with a dark past, and a woman who makes her living playing a mermaid.

As their lives intertwine and their stories unfold, the boy is forced to confront family secrets, strange puppets, and a nightmarish world of violence and betrayal in a dark fable of childhood innocence and adult pain.

Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's elegiac masterpiece is presented here in a newly remastered hardcover edition featuring a special 16-page section of never-before-reprinted preliminary and promotional artwork. 

My Four Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

 

     While I believe that everyone needs to read something from Neil Gaiman I would not recommend that new readers begin here with MR. PUNCH. Both story and art are similar to stream-of-consciousness novels and may prove to be too challenging to be fully appreciated. 

     I don't believe I would have liked this at all had it not been for my previous readings of Gaiman. I'll just say that I've gotten used to his quirky story-telling techniques (often very personal) and have learned to both expect and appreciate them. 

     The Punch and Judy puppet performances are more of a subplot or side story. This is really about an adult remembering his lonely childhood and dealing with troubled relatives (grandparents and uncles/aunts) that he spent many a summer vacation at the shore with. (Makes you wonder why his parents would separate from him for such long periods of time.) It's also a child's recollection which often contains memory lapses or attributing mystical powers to family members when the reality is not that far-fetched. Gaiman may have inserted memories from his own childhood into the story line, as this reads like a fictional memoir. 

     Dave McKean's art is also an acquired taste, a melange of drawings, paintings, photographs and backdrops with cursive text.  The biggest addition to this 20 year anniversary (first published 1994) pricey hardcover is the addition of 16 pages of preliminary and promotional artwork. 

     Definitely a love it or dislike it work for many readers. I'm somewhat on the fence. It's intriguing enough that it may be worthwhile to read again, slower this time, to dissect the images and the text further. However, I don't really want to spend the time doing that.