I’m of two minds on this one. On the one hand, Greg’s art is gorgeous, an absolute treat to look at. If you ignored the words completely this would be one of the better books out there. That sounds unduly harsh, as the story isn’t terrible, it’s just completely random. The idea is that a gingerbread man buys cigarettes for some kids and then gets in trouble with the police. There are some beautiful panels of a long chase scene, something that I thought would have been difficult to pull off in a comic, and then it’s all over the place. The gingerbread man is on the run, but ends up having to cross a river with The Big Bad Wolf. One of the kids he buys cigarettes for ends up getting a crush on him and writing it in her diary, which causes a fight with her brother. There’s an interesting assemblage of characters and the story moves along at a good pace, but it just doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Who knows, maybe that’s the point. This book is something that I read a couple of years ago, when I was first starting the site, and I couldn’t really come up with much to say about it. My rambling skills have improved since then, so I have a bit more to say, but all this boils down to a bottom line of me being indifferent to this book, and this artist is too unique to put out a mediocre book. Hear-Say was wonderful, so I know he’s capable of amazing work. I won’t settle for less! Still, if aesthetics is your thing, this is a book that’s hard to ignore. Check out the Highwater page for samples from Greg and all their peoples…
