Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand realized by Ramon K Perez 2011

            I would like to start by congratulating Ramon Perez. Tale of Sand was the most beautifully rendered graphic novel that I have read in a long time. Normally, I do believe this level of rendering to be unnecessary, but it’s always commendable and in this case remarkable. I do feel like Henson’s screenplay gets lost amid the glitz and glamour of the illustrations, but I think what that does is make the piece more of an original work by Perez. Despite this more conceptual hang up, I absolutely loved the way Henson’s script was physically lost within the illustrations. Throughout the novel, snippets of the script are used as backgrounds and other visual elements to actually create the illustrations. So, while I will ultimately consider Perez responsible for my experience with this story, it is still obvious to me as a reader how much Henson did to set the pace for this quirky surreal story. What is less obvious however is what artistic liberties Perez took, aside from making it gorgeous, of course. The omission of extensive dialogue is something, I imagine, was decided by Perez, but nevertheless, this particular element along with the way in which the story was concluded make it very re-readable. I point out this quality of re-readability here, but it isn’t something I normally consider when reading/reviewing graphic novels. I now find this strange because I believe that one of the greatest strengths, and paradoxically, one of the greatest weaknesses of graphic narratives is that they’re over too quick. A really great graphic novel is never long enough; you always want more when it’s over.