Jim Henson's Storyteller: Tricksters #1

Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Tricksters #1

Archaia 2021

Written by Jonathan Rivera

Illustrated by Jade Zhang

Lettered by Jim Campbell

The Storyteller and his faithful dog take shelter one night from a storm, when the dog becomes scared of a large spider who is also occupying the shelter. Now, discover the story of Anansi, the spider-god, and his quest to free all stories from his father, the sky god Nyame. But when Anansi becomes the keeper of all stories, he hordes them until his son confronts them to free the knowledge that could change the world!

I’m not really sure if I care what anyone says, the Storyteller and his faithful dog remind me of the old man and the pup from Fraggle Rock. Personally I’d love it to be them and have things kind of come full circle as it were tying in his franchises in some truly remarkable and interesting ways. I saw the cover here and I got excited and without even putting 2 + 2 together it was during the first page of the book that I knew it was centring on Anansi. I love that this is bringing a better look at the God Anansi and how this Trickster God from West Africa has become a household name.

I am loving the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. One aspect of this that I find myself really appreciating is that if you don’t know who Anansi is then that’s okay because the way we are introduced to him is so well done and so new “reader” friendly. The character development that we see is utterly amazing and how the characters act and react to the situations and circumstances as well as how we see their dialogue really fleshes them out beautifully. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, the characters and their world it’s an impressive display of storytelling.

I am a fan of the way that this is being structured so that we see the layers within the story emerge and grow beautifully well. That this lends itself to a more all-ages style of storytelling here is absolutely incredibly well done so that it’s easy to follow even centred on a Trickster god. The way that we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow is spectacular to see.

I believe that this is my introduction to the work of Jade Zhang and I think it’s absolutely lovely. The linework we see with its varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this detail work that we see is stunning. The faces and facial expressions, including the dog, are spectacular and work to improve the characterisation. I do wish we’d see more backgrounds being utilised however, with the way we see the composition within the panels bringing us this nice depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book is extremely nice to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a solid eye for storytelling. The colour work is beautifully rendered. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of colour.

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I love these Jim Henson’s Storyteller series of arcs. The worlds that Henson has created have been rich and lush, full of verve and promise and that they are as in demand and have such incredibly talented creators playing in this sandbox makes for some of today’s most awe inspiring stories.