FORMAT: HARDCOVER | RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 24TH
Jim Henson’s The Storyteller might have only brightened screens for a short time in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, but it’s proved to have the long life of all the best stories. And for the past few years, Archaia Entertainment has kept the flame alive by creating new tales from the eponymous elfin storyteller (memorably played by the late, great Sir John Hurt on TV). Now he’s back once again for a new themed collection.
Aware that the comics will be read by an older audience than the original TV series was aimed at, the Archaia comics aren’t afraid to go darker and scarier than the show. And that’s definitely the case with The Storyteller: Ghosts, which collects four folk tales of the supernatural, with each one coming from the twisted mind of a different writer/artist.
The series created many memorable creatures, but let’s be thankful these spirits never made it onto TV as an entire generation would’ve been scarred for life. Jennifer Rostowsky’s ‘Envy and Ash’ contains a lovesick ghost that’s just a head and a nervous system, antlered demons of death stalk the night in Ver’s ‘The Promise’ and a kid wishes his father back to life, with dire consequences, in ‘The Last Lullaby’ from Michael Walsh.
Perhaps the best of the bunch is the opening issue, ‘The Myling’, from Mark Laszlo, which features the creepiest spook of all – the ghost of a dead baby that grows to enormous size due to its pain and sorrow. But the whole miniseries is full of invention, chills and gorgeous artwork. This is just the thing to keep us satiated while we wait for Neil Gaiman to reboot The Storyteller for Netflix.
