Written by Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Edginton
Art by I. N. J. Culbard
2009
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Sherlock Holmes: A Study in ScarletWritten by Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Edginton
Art by I. N. J. Culbard
2009
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Written by Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Edginton
Art by I. N. J. Culbard
2011
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Sherlock Holmes: The Valley of FearWritten by Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Edginton
Art by I. N. J. Culbard
2011
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
What other characters have permeated our culture as throughly as Sherlock Holmes? I mean - come on - it's basically between him and Jesus right? Not only is he the most portrayed fictional character of all time (with 238 screen apparences and counting) he basically single-handedly paved the way for police procedurals of all stripes - from CSI to From Murder She Wrote, from House to The Killing - not to mention the fact that he stars in the World's Second Most Funniest Joke [1]. I mean - at this point he's less a character - and more an archetype - something to be endlessly recycled and reinterpreted from now until the end of time. People say that Batman's the World's Greatest Detective - but stole all his moves from Sherlock and then just draped a scary looking cape over the top (and what's Robin but Dr Watson in a pair of tights? The audience surrogate: "But wait Batman - how the hell did you manage to figure out this one?" Cut to Batman holding a magnifying glass: "Elementary my boy wonder...") [2]
There were actors who I remember from before this (I have an image of Rupert Everett [3] acting up a storm in some Christmas special from a whole lot of years ago - what was that called? The Silk Stocking or something?) but I guess now - like most of you - when I think of Sherlock Holmes I see the esteemable face of Mr Benedict Cumberbatch [4]. That's the suave handsome man with - yes - the ridiculously Englishly sounding name [5] who - as the star of the BBC’s 'Sherlock' - helped make that stodgy old bumbler in the deerstalker (yes - we all know that according to the books he never actually wore a deerstalker - but whatever) into a hip and modern and edgy concoction - who's much more rude and surly then your grandfather's version - with a slight touch of autism and an added dollop of sociopathic tendancies (a bit like Poochie from The Simpsons then). The only reason I bothered to tune in was because it had Steven Moffat's name attached to it - and in case you didn't know - I am a very big Steven Moffat fan because 1. Shut up. and 2. He's basically one of the best writers currently around - and I'm not just talking about tv and films (say what you want about the Tintin film - and oh ignore those last 5 clumsy hey-let's-set-the-sequel ending - the screenplay was total brilliance [6]): I'm talking that - if he ever wrote a book (or a comic) - I would be first in line - to - well - get the library a copy. So yeah.
But yeah: even tho I watched all the episodes (and will probably keep watching when it comes back) I will confess that I wasn't as blown away as I hoped I was. I mean - I have nothing against modernising characters or anything like that - it's just that - I dunno - every episode felt like it could have been better served by being 30 minutes shorter (but maybe that's just because I have Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!) and Sherlock-O-Vision or Sherlock-time or whatever you wanna call that thing when he does Tom Cruise Minority Report stuff with his hands was a little - well - lame. Or maybe the answers when the came were a little over-the-top and not really all that guessable (did you see the The Hound of the Baskervilles episode? Then you know what I'm talking about): but ok.
What it did do tho was leave me curious about what the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories. Not enough to actually go out and read the damn things - but enough to go on the internet and find out what were the similarities and what were the differences between the books and the stuff I saw on screen (was there really a storyline about someone's iPhone password? [7]). And now - hurrah - comes the perfect mid-way point between reading proper books and reading a synopsis: comic books!
I don't know if I'm the only who remembers this - but I remember back in the day there used to books of stuff like Shakespeare in comics form - which frankly - I didn't remember has being that good (think they had too much of a stink of learning about them - not that I have anything against learning per se (learning is cool and all that) but it's not really the thing that you want to hit you in the face when you pick up a comic book). The thing that's cool about these books - is that even tho they seem to be fairly true to the text (and I dunno - maybe they're not - maybe they diverge wildly) it doesn't really feel like they are: rather it all feels fresh and sprightly and easy to read [8].
All in all: pretty good.
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[1] Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were going camping. They pitched their tent under the stars and went to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night Holmes woke Watson up and said: "Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you see." Watson replied: "I see millions and millions of stars." Holmes said: "And what do you deduce from that?" Watson replied: "Well, if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it’s quite likely there are some planets like Earth out there. And if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life." And Holmes said: "Watson, you idiot, it means that somebody stole our tent." (See: here).
[2] I googled them both and round this.
[3] Star of one of my favourite little obscure zombie films ever: Cemetery Man (Italian title: Dellamorte Dellamore). Hailed by Martin Scorsese as "one of the best Italian films of the 1990s."
[4] And when I think of Watson I see Tim from The Office (aka "Bilbo Baggins").
[5] And here's where I'm gonna quote the majestic Sean O'Neil of the AV Club who describes Cumberbatch as "a shy hedgehog who stumbled into a grand adventure outside his garden one day."
[6] My favourite line was Mrs. Finch's "Not again!" But let's face it - the whole script was amazing.
[7] Answer: no.
[8] And the comic-book-based-on-famous-old-novels is obviously a freshly budding business seeing how Ian Edginton is also responsible for adaptations of War of the Worlds, Pride and Prejudice and I. N. J. Culbard having produced At The Mountains of Madness. I'm guessing it has something to do with them being famous classics available in the public domain? Which you know - easy money and all that seeing how parents want kids to read old books and kid's like reading things with pictures (and the rest of us kinda sit in-between with both urges mingled together).
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Links: Forbidden Planet Blog Review The Hound of the Baskervilles / A Study in Scarlet / The Sign of the Four / The Valley of Fear.
Further reading: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, Pride and Prejudice, Stickleback : England's Glory, Aetheric Mechanics, From Hell, Death Note, Don Quixote, Gotham Central.
All comments welcome.
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