And Then I Read: FAIRY TALES OF OSCAR WILDE 5: THE HAPPY PRINCE by P. Craig Russell

Image © P. Craig Russell.

These over-sized but thin hardcovers, in the European album format I think, are a delight. Wilde’s stories for children are a perfect subject for Russell’s enchanting, poetic and lyrical art. His adaptations are excellent examples of moving fiction to comics the right way. The words and pictures dance together in a gavotte that can only be found in comics. Russell has some variety in his styles, and here he combines elements that are almost cartoony at times with others that are more traditionally realistic, the latter most obviously used for the statue of the Prince, as seen above. The story itself is a Victorian tearjerker of the first water (pun), one of Russell’s best. The only thing better than these slim volumes will be the (I hope) eventual omnibus collecting all of them under one cover. But these individual books are wonderful, and perfect for children, too.

Highly recommended.