A review by dereksilva
Jim Henson's Tale of Sand by Jerry Juhl, Jim Henson
4.0
If you aren't familiar with this story, here's what you need to know:
Jim Henson (yes, the Muppet guy) was a pretty good filmmaker. He did some experimental/surrealist work in youth, including one short film, The Time Piece, that won him an Oscar (no, not the grouch). This book, Tale of Sand is adapted from a screenplay that Henson never got around to producing. It's a pretty cool story actually. He had worked on the screenplay for years and just didn't find anyone to produce it. Anyway...someone found the screenplay and decided to turn it into a graphic novel.
The Review
The story itself was really unique. I had never read surrealist literature (or seen much surrealist film), so I wasn't totally sure what to expect. I was bit confused at first because there was a lot happening. There were lots of people and lots of colors. The pictures weren't linear. But things made sense as I read more. The back story was still a mystery but I could at least follow what was happening. The story was weird (one might even say...surreal) but it was engaging. The art was also a joy to look at.
The best part of Tale of Sand was the ending. When you have a weird story like this, the ending needs to be well-written. If it's poorly-written, it just cancels out any good things that happened in the preceding story. I loved the ending. It wrapped everything up nicely but was still open-ended enough to keep you thinking after you closed the book. It was one of those perfect endings made me like the preceding story even more. It inspired me to go through the book a second time and as I went through again, I focused on different aspects of the art and story. Then I flipped though the book a couple more times.
The story itself was well-written. Henson get's an A+. It's a shame he never produced it while he was alive, but the graphic novel was a good choice. The artist did a fantastic job of bringing the story to life.
Jim Henson (yes, the Muppet guy) was a pretty good filmmaker. He did some experimental/surrealist work in youth, including one short film, The Time Piece, that won him an Oscar (no, not the grouch). This book, Tale of Sand is adapted from a screenplay that Henson never got around to producing. It's a pretty cool story actually. He had worked on the screenplay for years and just didn't find anyone to produce it. Anyway...someone found the screenplay and decided to turn it into a graphic novel.
The Review
The story itself was really unique. I had never read surrealist literature (or seen much surrealist film), so I wasn't totally sure what to expect. I was bit confused at first because there was a lot happening. There were lots of people and lots of colors. The pictures weren't linear. But things made sense as I read more. The back story was still a mystery but I could at least follow what was happening. The story was weird (one might even say...surreal) but it was engaging. The art was also a joy to look at.
The best part of Tale of Sand was the ending. When you have a weird story like this, the ending needs to be well-written. If it's poorly-written, it just cancels out any good things that happened in the preceding story. I loved the ending. It wrapped everything up nicely but was still open-ended enough to keep you thinking after you closed the book. It was one of those perfect endings made me like the preceding story even more. It inspired me to go through the book a second time and as I went through again, I focused on different aspects of the art and story. Then I flipped though the book a couple more times.
The story itself was well-written. Henson get's an A+. It's a shame he never produced it while he was alive, but the graphic novel was a good choice. The artist did a fantastic job of bringing the story to life.