View source for J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan: The Graphic Novel by Stref

{{infobox1
|title=J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan: The Graphic Novel
|author= Stref
|reviewer=John Lloyd
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=A very pleasing, clear line depiction of the classic children's tale.  Whether you've never read it or know it backwards, this is likely to please.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=96
|publisher=Birlinn Ltd
|date=June 2015
|isbn=9781780272900
|website=http://artbystref.blogspot.co.uk/
|video=4-wmiN3G0Rw
|cover=1780272901
|aznuk=1780272901
|aznus=1780272901
}}

Here's a quiz question for you – despite the uniform seventy year copyright rule, which work has been the sole recipient of an endless extension of it, courtesy of an ex-Prime Minister?  The answer is obvious now at least, as this is one such volume.  It's a very readable and pleasant variant on J M Barrie's original stage version and novel regarding Peter Pan, which of course helps and always will now help the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.  And for a boy who never grows up, at 111 years old he's in spritely good health. 

Perhaps there's a way in which this volume sticks too closely to the original we know and love.  The Red Indians are there purely to get Hook and Pan together, be Boy's-Own colour for the adventure, and have no resolution to their story but to die.  Tinker Bell leaves a string of fairy lights headed by a larger glow across the page, and if she looks like Wonder Woman's lasso at times she still flitters about the room and the landscape much as the LED light that forms her on stage would.  And the Victorian attitude does come across as highly out of date and most unfashionable. 

But there is invention on the page.  I loved the quiet way the narration, which dips in and out of a 'royal we' now and again, gets all the relevant parties traipsing around the island unaware of their place in a large circuit of rival gangs, and the island itself is a great invention – cobbled together from a selection of giant nautical shells it really smacks of the never-never.  The original Wendy House is charming, and the Hook face in the clouds (purely on the back cover, mind) shows the design craft involved. 

The actual style is very much Tintinesque 'clear line' – generally a firm black line, shading up to the edge of the field if at all, and peculiar pinpricks of eyes, if they're there at all, which could be a little unsettling.  I was expecting the usual stage doubling-up of the Darlings with Hook etc to be mimicked in the facial design, but no – the book concentrates on the story and what is vital to it – introducing the characters in a firm, strong manner, quietly taking us through the wonder of flight, giving us the clearest full-splash pages when relevant – and showing all its shortcomings off as well, such as actual real background to Peter, the aforementioned disposable side characters, and the 'next generation' ending.  Still, even if the book is a little weak at times, this variant of it is strong, with an elan that shows a lot of reasons why it has been loved for so long.  You won't miss the songs, but you do get the direct address imploring you to clap along – and you never-never know, some of you just might. 

I must thank the publishers for my review copy. 

[[Peter Pan and Wendy by J M Barrie]] is a succinctly-done recap of the Barrie novel version, for the young. 

{{amazontext|amazon=1780272901}}
{{amazonUStext|amazon=1780272901}} 

{{commenthead}}
[[Category:Confident Readers]]