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
James Gurney, author of Dinotopia
"A cloth of rare delight, rich with the perfume of the forest and its graces."
Review
"Vess's work is as slyly subversive as the young Rossetti, Morris, and Burne-Jonnes . . . and it has captivated large audiences for many of the same reasons. By wedding mythic and folkloric material to a distinctly modern form of visual storytelling, this artist is keeping myth alive, and creating a magic all his own."
Book Description
Illustrated and presented by one of the leading artists in modern fantasy, here are 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 are New York Times bestseller Neil Gaiman with "The False Knight on the Road"; popular mystery author Sharyn McCrumb's version of "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"; Bone creator Jeff Smith with "The Galtee Farmer"; Emma Bull's version of "The Black Fox," and much, much more.
Introduced by award-winning editor and writer Terri Windling, and finished with full lyrics and discographies of the classic versions of these songs and tales, The Book of Ballads is an event in the worlds of fantasy and graphic storytelling alike.
About the Author
As an illustrator and as a collaborator, Charles Vess has worked with Neil Gaiman, with whom he shared a World Fantasy Award for the "Midsummer Night's Dream" issue of Sandman; with Charles de Lint on children's books and illustrated novels; and with Jeff Smith on the Bone prequel Rose. Vess has won the World Fantasy Award twice. His Ballads series won him the comic-book industry's prestigious Eisner award. He is currently illustrating a special limited edition of George R. R. Martin's bestselling A Storm of Swords.
The Book of Ballads FROM OUR EDITORS
Two-time World Fantasy Award-winning artist Charles Vess and an all-star cast of contemporary fantasists join forces in this unique reworking of ballads, folktales, and magical sagas. The selections offer a new slant on old favorites: Neil Gaiman retells "The False Knight on the Road"; Jane Yolen offers her version of "King Henry" and "The Great Selchie of Sule Skerrie"; Charles de Lint reworks "Twa Corbies"; Jeff Smith updates "The Galtee Farmer"; and mystery author Sharyn McCrumb reimagines "Thomas the Rhymer." As a special feature, The Book of Ballad contains the full lyrics and discographies of the classic versions of these songs and tales.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Illustrated and presented by one of the leading artists in modern fantasy, here are 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 are New York Times bestseller Neil Gaiman with "The False Knight on the Road"; popular mystery author Sharyn McCrumb's version of "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"; Bone creator Jeff Smith with "The Galtee Farmer"; Emma Bull's version of "The Black Fox," and much, much more.
Introduced by award-winning editor and writer Terri Windling, and finished with full lyrics and discographies of the classic versions of these songs and tales, The Book of Ballads is an event in the worlds of fantasy and graphic storytelling alike.
FROM THE CRITICS
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 Dor . 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. (Dec.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Art & Photography
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