Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: At Death's Door by Jill Thompson, a one volume manga graphic novel. ::
by William the Bloody
The basic premise of this comic, is an alternative point of view to the goings on in the Sandman storyline The Season of Mist. That story is about the Sandman heading to Hell in order to challenge Lucifer in an attempt to free his old lover from torment. Sandman gets to Hell ready for battle only to find that Lucifer has emptied Hell of all its inhabitants, demon and tortured souls alike, and is in the process if locking all the doors. Lucifer then hands over the key to Hell to the Sandman, who now has to figure what to do with this acquisition. The Sandman story line basically follows our title character through his decision making process and dealings with various deities who desire to own Hell.
The At Death's Door take on this story is sort of a "behind the scenes" look at all this. Sure, Sandman now owns Hell and doesn't know what to do with it, but what about everyone and everything which once resided there? Death's Door deals with the returning and wandering dead and lost demons and Death's attempt to keep things orderly until everyone can go back to where they belong. Many of the dead are seeking out Death for guidance or, now believing their torment at an end, to be brought into Heaven. There are also those dead who have gone to familiar places on Earth and need to be corralled. So, Death and her sisters Delirium and Despair, take it upon themselves to gather as many of the dead as possible and keep them in Death's apartment until the whole mess can be sorted out.
The Good: Jill Thompson does a great job adapting the various Sandman characters into manga style, basically cutesying them up a bit. She captured Death's and Delirium's attitudes very well. Fans of the Sandman story arch Brief Lives, where Jill did the art, will be pleased with the Delirium renditions, where her constantly changing hair styles and clothes are very well done. (I'd almost go so far as to say Delirium is the secret star of this book) The retelling of the story of the returning dead at the British boys school was excellent. I also liked when Desire is feeling impish, as it often does, Jill gives it cat ears for emphasis, very nice.
The Bad: About 30% of this story is swiped directly from Season of Mists, only with new art by Thompson. Some of this is understandable, to set up the plot, but I felt there was more than necessary. Jill even "stole" other bits from other Sandman stories, seemingly without wanting to admit it. The is a part where a dead man doesn't believe where he is in Death's apartment because it looks like a regular apartment. So, Death jazzes the place up with columns and piles of skulls. This was outright taken from the Sandman Special where Orpheus goes to Death's house to make a deal. Also stolen was a bit from Brief Lives where Sandman believes his sibling Desire caused an obsession in Delirium. In Death's Door, Death speaks to Desire about causing a romance between a dead poet and Despair in pretty much the same fashion. Oh and in the introduction to the Endless family at the beginning, Thompson gets Delirium's least favorite ice cream flavor wrong (she had it as green mouse and telephone flavor when its actually just plain green mouse). Grrrr continuity error! Also, when Despair and Delirium assist Death in collecting dead souls, Death gives them an enchanted ankh which has a fraction of her abilities. That alone would be fine with me, it was the subsequent "By the power of the Ankh, come to me!" which really pissed me off. What the Hell?
Overall, the story and art are really cute, even managing to pull of a cutified Despair. If you're looking for something cutsey-poo to temporarily entertain you with no real redeeming value, go for it. If you're looking for a taut story or something deep and meaningful which would be considered a work of art, steer clear.
To me, B-
