By Amie Macias
Staff Reporter
(Hawaii)– Dark Horse Comics once again brilliantly paired Neil Gaiman’s dark and beautiful storytelling with Michael Zulli’s elegant artwork in this graphic novel collection, Creatures of the Night. This book contains two amazing yet creepy short stories from Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions, The Price, and The Daughter of Owls.
I loved these stories the first time I read them, as well as the seventh and ninth… I was just marveled at how well the artwork brought these eerie tales to life. Even the choice in lettering Todd Klein used from story to story was cleverly executed. I especially liked how the use of different lettering to show change of narrator in The Daughter of Owls.
In The Price, where our hero and would be protector comes in the form of a black stray cat, causes the reader to ask themselves, “What price would you be willing to pay, when your soul and existence is in jeopardy?” The second story, The Daughter of Owls, is a harrowing story about a superstitious town and an infant ostracized because of an unusual object clutched in her hands when found on a doorstep. It delves into the disturbing notion of malicious men, what happens if left to their own devices, and gives the reader satisfaction with an almost karmic twist.
I have loved everything these three have worked on together, and can’t wait to see what they do next. This a must read.