‘Tale of Sand’ Review – Like A Silent Color Film

Book no. 17 this year – Tale of Sand by Jim Henson. Okay, so I am reading a lot of graphic novels this month on the kindle app and the illustrations in this one were AMAZING. The panels are a brilliant splash of colours, in tandem with the surreal story about a guy who finds himself travelling across a dessert, encountering weird people.

It was originally written by Henson & Jerry Juhl as a screenplay for a film. They never got around to getting it made into a film, but instead we have this surrealistic drama on paper. There is very little dialogue & it’s like you are watching a silent film in colour. Those who aren’t very appreciative of art and comic panels may end up being disappointed with the minimal story-telling. But I really enjoyed the illustrations and scenes that made very little sense.

Tale of Sand starts with the protagonist taking part in what looks like a celebration where most people are cheering him on. He then is handed out a map and sent off on a journey, and he has no idea what the mission his. It’s like he is on some sort of a race, with a villain always close on his heels. As he travels in the dessert, bizzare and random things keep happening. It reminded me a little of Samuel Beckett’s work, who was famous for his absurd plays. While on surface they didn’t make any sense, they infact symbolised the nature of life itself.

It’s a solid 4/5 from me for this book. Think I am definitely going to buy a hardback copy later, just because the artwork is so damn good.