The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch by Neil Gaiman, carrying an April 2008 publication date from Dark Horse Books, has recently been added to my collection.
The book’s summary at the publisher’s site includes:
Come, come and hear of the strange and terrible tale of Miss Finch, an exacting woman befallen by mystery and abduction deep under the streets of London! New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman delivers another stunning hardcover graphic novel with longtime collaborator Michael Zulli (Creatures of the Night, The Sandman). This is the first comics adaptation of his popular story “The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch,” which saw print only in the U.K. edition of Gaiman’s award-winning work Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions and was recently interpreted for his Speaking in Tongues CD. The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch is a “mostly true story” that combines the author’s trademark magic realism with Zulli’s sumptuous paintings, and has been newly rewritten for this hardcover. Join a group of friends, with the stern Miss Finch in tow, as they enter musty caverns for a subterranean circus spectacle called “The Theatre of Night’s Dreaming.” Come inside, get out of the pounding rain, and witness this strange world of vampires, ringmasters, illusions, and the Cabinet of Wishes Fulfill’d.
This is an extraordinarily short book, but it’s a very nice one.
At only fifty-one standard comic book sized pages in length (plus a few extra pages for authors’ profiles, etc.) this might seem a light weight piece of literature for which to pay fourteen dollars full retail, as I did. But the horror story contained inside is of the highest quality, the artwork on heavy, glossy paper is simply beautiful, and the hard cover binding is both sturdy and attractive.
All things considered, this book is one which I’m very glad to have in my home library.
It seems almost a shame to call this a comic book, but that’s exactly what it is: a hard cover comic book that anyone would be proud to display.
