5 crampons out of 5

I’m not a Henson-ite.  I love the Muppets when they’re on, and I did my Sesame Street bid, but I don’t get all teary whenever I read a bio, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to seeing Labyrinth.  But I acknowledge Henson’s genius and his still unique vision – the recent Henson expo at the Museum of Moving Image (in Queens, NY) was intensely fascinating, not for the trip down Muppet-memory lane, but for the glimpse into the history of creations Henson had a hand in.

Archaia knocked it out of the park with this recreation of an unearthed script from Henson and his writing partner Jerry Juhl.  Archaia has been a publisher on my radar since they started up some years back with The Secret History and Mouse Guard.  While a good percentage of their output belies the amateur nature of their generally independent creators / contributors, the printing and presentation just feels so proud to be a comic that I love giving the company my money.  That bias aside, this is still an excellent collection.

The script was written after Jim’s initial short films, which were rather surreal in nature.  The book is definitely that.  It’s sort of a Western, sort of an action adventure, and sort of a story about a guy just trying to light a cigarette.  There’s not much dialogue, but it doesn’t fly by like a lot of mostly illustrated books – the concepts and pages are so deep and worthy of study that you want to stay and figure out what’s going on.  The earnestness and honesty that were found in Henson’s later creations are also present here, meaning that, although the story wanders it doesn’t come across as pointless or haughty.  It’s interesting.  Exciting.  Funny.  And rich, and rewards rereads.

But none of this would’ve been possible without the amazing illustrations and colors of artist Ramon Perez.  Whatever his role was in putting this together, the pacing and look are all his, cutting and pasting pieces of the actual script (I suppose) and using it as background elements, some pages are ridiculously jam-packed with insanity but are still clear and flow so well.  This is a book that deserves it’s oversize nature.

If you see this in the store, at least flip through it.  Even if you don’t buy it, taking a look won’t be a waste of time.

The cover truly does this no justice.

buy me