Product Description

Illustrated and presented by one of the leading artists in modern fantasy, The Book of Ballads gives us some of the great songs and folktales of the English, Irish, and Scottish traditions, re-imagined in sequential-art form, in collaboration with some of today+s strongest fantasy writers.Here is New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman retelling -The False Knight on the Road+; popular mystery author Sharyn McCrumb reimagining -Thomas the Rhymer+; acclaimed children+s writer Jane Yolen with -King Henry+ and -The Great Selchie of Sule Skerrie+; popular novelist Charles de Lint+s contemporary reworking of -Twa Corbies+; comics superstar Jeff Smith with -The Galtee Farmer+; Emma Bull+s version of -The Black Fox,+ and much, much more. A finalist for 2005+s Eisner Award, Ballads is an event in the worlds of fantasy and graphic storytelling alike.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #260892 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-07
• Released on: 2006-03-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780765312150
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Ballads were little known to the literate world until the 18th century, when scholars began writing them down. Since then, they've received attention from folklorists, folksingers and, now, cartoonist Vess (Stardust; Rose). Vess and his collaborators put a little meat on the ballads' often bare-bones stories, adding fantastic elements not in the originals ("Barbara Allen"), giving them modern settings ("Twa Corbies"), sexing them up ("Savoy") and otherwise putting their own mark on them. Vess approaches them with an appropriately elegant style. His exquisitely detailed art delightfully recalls the Pre-Raphaelites here, Aubrey Beardsley there and elsewhere Winsor McCay or Gustave Doré. The best stories involve passion, whether celebrated ("King Henry" and "Savoy") or cautioned against ("The Demon Lover" and "The Three Lovers"), though even the least effective stories are still beautiful. "The Three Lovers" is especially noteworthy; in it, Vess makes clever, subversive use of comics language, presenting a story that pretends to be a play (complete with proscenium arch). "Tam Lin" may be the collection's consummate piece. In it, Vess goes for straight illustration, with each illustrated page facing a page of verse. Here Vess reaches the peak of his art, standing proudly with the 19th- and early 20th-century illustrators who influence him.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In this comprehensive collection of Vess' ballad adaptations, four more join the nine that won the artist a 1997 Eisner Award. The scripters are primarily fantasy fiction rather than comics writers, though Bone author-artist Jeff Smith teams with Vess once and, not unexpectedly, affects his style: "The Galtee Farmer" features more caricatural figuration and less detail than usual for Vess. "The Three Lovers," cast as a play upon a stage, is also unusual, indebted to Little Nemo in Slumberland's Winsor McCay. Most of Vess' work reflects late-nineteenth-century influences, including Randolph Caldecott, the Kelmscott Press, and art nouveau in its swirling lines, atmospheric shading, and heavy foliage and drapery. Several writers expand the stories of particular ballads, with Midori Snyder concocting a prelude exculpatory of "hard-hearted Barbara Allen" and Charles de Lint furnishing a large, contemporary context for the skeletal (only four stanzas) "Twa Corbies." Ten of the chosen ballads come straight out of Child, the remainder from contemporary folksingers' repertoires; the text of each follows its visualization. Verbally, the adaptations are often clumsy, but Vess' artwork lushly compensates. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A cloth of rare delight, rich with the perfume of the forest and its graces." -- James Gurney, author of Dinotopia

Customer Reviews

Great holiday gift book!
Along with Kaluta and Wrightson, Charles Vess is one the great fantasy artists of today. If you've seen his work in Gaiman's Stardust or Sandman or the Charles de Lint book covers, then I've sure you'll agree.

If you're not convinced yet, then I challenge you to go to your local book store, sit down and read the first story (also by Gaiman). You'll leave with book in hand!

BEAUTIFUL
This book is absolutely gorgeous and I hope Mr. Vess makes more like it. His stunning illustrations and ability to tell a story through pictures weaves a music all alone. Mr. Vess's art coupled with stories inspired by ancient and new ballads and written by some of the greatest storytellers of our time, such as Neil Gaiman and Charles De Lint, makes for a one of a kind book that can be enjoyed on many levels. A great read for anyone who likes Art, music, good writing or needs some more magick on their bookshelf.

Great graphic novel
Fantasy and comic book illustrator Charles Vess (see his work on the early Sandman comic books) provides thirteen illustrative stories written by eleven different highly regarded authors that are based on famous ballads. The tales are cleverly conceived as Mr. Vess and a renowned fantasist take a well known verse and turns it into a delightful illustrated story. The original ballad follows the animated tale for those who seek the complete package. The pictures are in black and white, but that brings a historical feel to the retelling of the ballads; thus this enhances the conversion as color would make it prettier, but subtract from the wonderful total affect. A rather different type of anthology, fans of graphic tales will appreciate this marvelous unique collection that contains wonderful interpretations of famous ballads like the Black Fox and Thomas the Rhymer by a who's who of fantasy.

Harriet Klausner