Chapter 22: How They Met Themselves

Happy #PRBday everyone. To celebrate here is a use of the Pre Raphaelites that inspired the creation of this very blog. 

When I  last looked at Neil Gaiman I spoke about the writers use of the "story behind the story" trope. This is where a fictionalized version of an established writer or artist' work is inspired by a event that happened to them in the fictionalized world of the story they appear in. This is another case of the trope in Gaiman's work, this time within his famous Sandman series.

How they Met Themselves by D.G.Rossetti

First published in the comics anthology Vertigo: Winter's Edge #3 (2000) The Sandman: How They Met Themselves imagines the story behind Rossetti's painting of 1860-1864 as being based on a jounrey that he, Lizzie Siddal and Algernon Charles Swinburne took. During this winter excursion they meet the personifiaction of Desire (Sister/Brother of Dream, the main character of the Sandman), leading to the events that inspire the painting.

From Absolute Sandman vol.3

Gaiman's use of the character is perfect, from Rossetti using the Guggums nickname for Lizzie and his brash egotistical characterization, Lizzie's jealously and fears over losing Rossetti and Swinburne's plee to Desire (Which I will not spoil, but people who know his history will get a kick out of it). The story is helped by the beautiful artwork of Michael Zulli, an artist with noticeable Pre Raphaelite infulences. His likenesses are beautiful. 

I wish I could say more about the story but I can't as that would spoil it. It is a narartive that needs you need to come to without much infomation because spoliers rob it of it's imapct. 

While you can still find copies of Winter's Edge cheeply, you could alternatively buy the much more expensive Absoulte Sandman Volume 3, if only to see Zulli's beautiful artwork in a larger format. 

Buy Vertigo: Winters Edge #3 US|UK

Buy Absolute Sandman vol.3 US|UK

Chapter 9: Snakes and Ladders

Alan Moore is widely recognized as one of the best writers working in the medium of comics. Personally I have mixed feelings about his work, I'm not a fan of his celebrated Wacthmen superhero graphic novel (art by Dave Gibbons) but think From Hell (art by Eddie Campbell), his graphic novel dealing with the Jack the Ripper murders to be one of my favourite works of fiction. I will be covering From Hell at some point in the future but today I want to look at a lesser known work of his that deals with the Pre-Raphaelites: Snakes and Ladders. 

Unlike his more famous works, Snakes & Ladders did not start life as as a comic but rather a spoken word performance. The death and disinterment of model, poet and artist Lizzie Siddal is connected with that of Oliver Cromwell along with the life and writing of Welsh author, Arthur Machen. Along with Siddal, her husband Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his friends William Morris, Edward Brune-Jones and John Ruskin also appear. One of notable and interesting aspects of much of Moore's work is connecting seemingly unconnected events and personalities from history and he succeeds here by creating a wonderfully dark and mysterious work. This is added by Moore's reading (he has the perfect voice) and the music by Tim Perkins.        

When the performance was made available on CD in 2003, images of Siddal, Rossetti, Morris, Brune-Jones and Ruskin featured in the liner-notes.

There is also a comics adaptation (published in 2001) of the performance with art by Eddie Campbell that mixes the artist's excellent likenesses of the real life characters and use of existing art.  

You can find both the recording and the comic on archive.org (all images taken from the scans found there), however, those wishing to buy copies of the CD can comic can find them at:

CD: Amazon US | Amazon UK
Comic: Amazon US | Amazon UK