Packing A Punch

I briefly mentioned having just finished Neil Gaiman's graphic novel Mr Punch yesterday and I feel some obligation to do the right thing and say a wee bit more about it today. I'm not exactly sure why I should feel obliged, but I suppose that since I get annoyed when others are airily dismissive of writing or music or art-works or films I enjoy I should really try and expand upon why I like what I like when I get the chance (not that this is likely to affect sales of the stuff in any practical way - hah!)

In truth, I'm using the wrong title (and, in a sense, the wrong writer) out of simple laziness, so I'd better clear all that up from the get-go (as they seem to say these days.) The 'real' title is: The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch - A Romance and it's by Neil Gaiman, in the sense of 'written by' and Dave McKean, in the sense of 'illustrated and designed by'. Now that's all a bit of a mouthful, but having gone to the trouble of scribbling it all down it strikes me that it tells you a lot about the text. There's a LOT going on its relatively brief 90 or so pages (I'm guessing because they are not numbered) and I didn't understand a fair amount of it, but it looks so sumptuous - courtesy of Mr McKean - I can't honestly say that was a problem.

What was easy to follow was that the whole enterprise is underpinned by the very strange traditional sea-side entertainment of the kind of Punch & Judy show which I watched myself as a kid and found wildly funny, mysterious and disturbing. Obviously Gaiman feels the same way and the work is designed to have pretty much the same impact upon its readers. Fans of Gaiman's work will most likely love it, but 'ordinary' readers, if such exist, will probably think it all a bit weird and over-priced.

Fortunately my copy comes from the library at work, whence it will be returned tomorrow, so I didn't pay a penny for having a good, if puzzling, time - and I might just take it out again for another look if I find myself mulling over it again in future or having a dream about it. (Not that I dream about what I read, but if I did I can imagine dreaming about this dream-like text.)