Books: The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch

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The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch
Written by Neil Gaiman
Art by Dave McKean
2006




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


Yeah Mr Punch always been kinda creepy. There's that bit in Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker where he talks about: ‘Its some kind of thing it aint us but yet its in us. Its looking out thru our eye hoals... What ever it is we dont come naturel to it.’ [1] and - yeah - the few times I came across a Punch and Judy show on the beach when I was young - that shrill, inhuman voice always used to leave me feeling distinctly shaken all the way down to my roots.

An unseen narrator looks back to his time as a young boy sent to stay with his grandparents and learning the ways of the Punch and Judy men. A story that doesn't put everything on a plate rather nestling dark hints within the artwork and the things that people say ("death is relative, not absolute. you can be slightly dead, just as you can be slightly pregnant") and captured in the exquisite haunted artwork by Dave McKean that mixes paint with photography to brilliant effect. That's the way to do it.

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[1] No - those aren't spelling mistakes (from the wikipedia page): "The first person narrator, Riddley, writes in a distinct form of English whose spelling often resembles a phonetic transliteration of a Kentish accent"

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Further reading: Signal to Noise, Violent Cases, Cages, Stray Toasters, Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days.

Profiles: Neil Gaiman.

All comments welcome