Gaiman/Mattotti’s Hansel & Gretel

Old time favorite of all, one of the most famous tales has found a new interpretation, both in textual as well as graphical sense. The great “Hansel & Gretel” by Neil Gaiman (text) and Lorenzo Mattotti (graphic), published by Toon Books.

A precious Deluxe hardcover edition!

Oversized Deluxe Edition, large size: 9.125″ x 12.625″, 60 pages, die-cut cover with high gloss all around.Description of the book

I found this book mentioned in the excellent weekly BrainPickings newsletter (side note, this newsletter and page are strongly recommended if you are in reading!), and as one interested in graphic, design, typography, I immediately went ahead ordering. I decided for the deluxe editions! And I must say, it was worth ordering it. Large size, good paper, and a cover with a die-cut that peeks through the first full spread. Neil Gaiman (author’s page, Wikipedia) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. The designer, Lorenzo Mattotti (author’s page, Wikipedia), is a world recognized Italian comics and graphic artist living in Paris. His illustrations have been published in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue, The New Yorker, Le Monde and Vanity Fair. In comics, Mattotti won an Eisner Award in 2003 for his Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde graphic novel. With these two people behind a graphic novel – I guess you can imagine how happy I was when it arrived, here the book cover full front of the book:

Set in Garamond, embellished with specifically designed florals, the books is also typographically well done.

Nice line spacing in the normal text, a book for reading and seeing at the same time. The only thing I disliked slightly is the design of the initials, a bit blocky/plain for my taste. Not that I wanted one of those super-floral, though.

The book is filled with full spread designs that are dark and creepy. Lorenzo Mattotti has done an excellent job transferring a dark story into dark designs.

A detail from one of the full spreads, simple imagines creating great impressions

And another full spread.

This piece of art shows that even as simple and old stories as Hansel and Gretel can be reinterpreted with new text and enriched with great graphics to produce a wonderful book!