Title The Problem of Susan and Other Stories Series --- Author Neil Gaiman Illustrator P. Craig Russell, Scott Hampton, Paul Chadwick Publisher Dark Horse Books - 2019 First Printing Dark Horse Books - 2019 Category Anthology Warnings Some graphic sex Main Characters Susan, October and more Main Elements Retellings of various tales

From Hugo, Eisner, Newbery, Harvey, Bram Stoker, Locus, World Fantasy, and Nebula award-winning author Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell (The Sandman, The Giver), Scott Hampton (American Gods), and Paul Chadwick (Concrete) comes a graphic novel adaptation of the short stories and poems: The Problem of Susan, October in the Chair, Locks, and The Day the Saucers Came.

Two stories and two poems. All wondrous and imaginative about the tales we tell and experience. Where the incarnations of the months of the year sit around a campfire sharing stories, where an older college professor recounts a Narnian childhood, where the apocalypse unfolds, and where the importance of generational storytelling is seen through the Goldilocks fairytale. These four comic adaptations have something for everyone and are a must for Gaiman fans!

I was picking up a different graphic novel by Neil Gaiman at the library when this one caught my eye. I wasn't sure what it was about (well other than the Susan story) but one usually can't go wrong with Gaiman.

I've read the Problem with Susan before, but didn't remember Gaiman's take on why Susan was left behind when the rest of the children were allowed to go to what is essentially Heaven. Had to do with the fact that she stopped believing, became more interested in "lipstick and pantyhose", but then I have a lot of problems with Lewis doing that to her. Remember she's the second oldest and had already been told she wasn't allowed back to Narnia anyway, so she had to make do with our world. And unfortunately she was a woman, in 1940/50's our world. Back then if a woman didn't wear pantyhose and lipstick she wouldn't be able to get a job or be considered acceptable in society. No one said she actually liked them, she HAD to wear them if she was to function out here as she wasn't permitted to go back in there. So I can see how as an elderly woman having been left behind, alone, by her entire family, she'd start viewing Aslan in a slightly different light. The wars that were once glorious and triumphant become a field of dead bodies, a little baby deer with an axe stuck in its back. And Alsan and the White Witch collaborating together, even sexually, after Aslan dismembers a young Susan, leaving her head alive to watch only to be devoured later. I could see how her god had rejected her long before she rejected him. Anyway, it might be about Narnia but this is not for kids!

Locks I struggled a bit to really understand. I mean it was cute how the little girl kept interrupting her father and making up nonsense about what came next in the Goldilocks tale. But there was something dark there, about the father feeling like the little bear who had all his food eaten, his chair destroyed and someone in his bed. At the same time it was about passing on stories from generation to generation and how it binds us across the years.

October in the Chair is a tale where all the months gather together in the woods to tell tales (Gaiman does like his tale in a tale). It is a tribute to Ray Bradbury, which I assume refers to his October Country stories...which unfortunately I have not read so I can't actually confirm that the obvious "October" is related. But I really enjoyed the story of the boy who ran away from home and encounters a little ghost boy named Dearly.

You don't notice the saucers invading, because you didn't notice the zombies crawling from their graves, and you didn't notice Ragnarok and all manner of other things...because you were too busy waiting for a boy to call and you were just sitting and staring at your phone when you could have been reading a book!