![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexxkayPCR is an extremely talented comics artist who specialize in adapting prose and operatic works into the comics medium. For some years, on and off, he's been doing The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde. Volume 5, _The Happy Prince_ came out recently, completing the set.
Though I am in general a big Wilde fan, these fairy tales are pretty depressing. They are full of christian moralizing, and a Han Andersen tone. As an anti-theist, I find the last line of this one to be a rather Lovecraftian horror: `You have rightly chosen,' said God, `for in my garden of Paradise this little bird shall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall praise me.'
That said, PCR's adaptation is, in despite of the old Russian proverb, both beautiful and faithful. He's got quite a challenge in this one, as the title character is an inanimate statue for most of the story, yet he still manages to imbue it with emotion. There is room for a few touches of his sly humor. The expression of the little bird when the second drop of water hits it is priceless. And there's a shot of three sad princesses that are (in a quite naturalistic way) doing the "see/speak/hear no evil" poses.
The artwork gets a strong recommendation, the story, not so much.
Though I am in general a big Wilde fan, these fairy tales are pretty depressing. They are full of christian moralizing, and a Han Andersen tone. As an anti-theist, I find the last line of this one to be a rather Lovecraftian horror: `You have rightly chosen,' said God, `for in my garden of Paradise this little bird shall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall praise me.'
That said, PCR's adaptation is, in despite of the old Russian proverb, both beautiful and faithful. He's got quite a challenge in this one, as the title character is an inanimate statue for most of the story, yet he still manages to imbue it with emotion. There is room for a few touches of his sly humor. The expression of the little bird when the second drop of water hits it is priceless. And there's a shot of three sad princesses that are (in a quite naturalistic way) doing the "see/speak/hear no evil" poses.
The artwork gets a strong recommendation, the story, not so much.