In the 70’s and 80’s, Jim Henson became famous for his work in children’s entertainment. Between “Sesame Street,” “The Muppet Show,” “Muppet Babies,” “The Storyteller,” “Fraggle Rock,” the Muppet movies, “The Dark Crystal,” and “Labyrinth,” Henson left a legacy behind unmatched by anyone but the great Walt Disney himself. However, before his career as a puppeteer and entertainer took off, he dabbled in a series of experimental films with much more adult themes. Through the short film “Time Piece” (which earned him an Academy Award nomination) and the much longer teleplay “The Cube,” Henson sought to explore the human psyche, our insecurities, and our relationship with the outside world and the expectations it imposes on us.
At some time in the late 60’s, he began working with his life-long writing partner Jerry Juhl on the script for a full-length feature film that was to be the culmination of this line of work. Despite working on the script for nearly a decade and going through three major revisions, they were unable to find a studio willing to produce the film, as its experimental, esoteric nature did not lend itself well to mainstream financial success. Thus, the project languished in his company’s archives for decades after his death, until it was rediscovered by Henson historian Karen Falk. As the only known feature film Henson had never managed to complete, it was obvious that something had to be done with it. All of the reasons it couldn’t be filmed were still there, however, as it had limited commercial value and would require a decent budget for special effects. It was then that Archaia Entertainment suggested turning it in to a graphic novel, and through the hands of talented artist Ramon K. Perez, “Tale of Sand” is finally a reality… or perhaps, a surreality.
On the surface, the story is about a man named Mac who, while wandering through the desert, comes upon a small town throwing a big party. He is surprised to learn that the party is for him, and he is being sent out in to the desert with a backpack and an excessively large key with no explanation as to why or what he’s supposed to do. He soon finds out he’s not alone, as he is being pursued by a heavily-armed and well-dressed gentleman in a tuxedo, with a goatee and an eye patch, and a beautiful blonde woman with rapidly changing clothing and hairstyles. Other obstacles he runs in to include a ravine full of bear traps, a lion in a limousine, a swimming pool full of sharks, an army of Arabs, and a team of angry football players who appear to have lynched their own coach. To the casual reader, it might seem like a bizarre acid trip of a tale simply for the sake of being bizarre, but what lies underneath this tale is a look within the human psyche and our struggles to relate with the outside world.
[Spoiler Alert: In order to discuss these themes, I have to give away the “Big Twist” in these next two paragraphs, skip them if you wish.]In the climax of the tale, it is revealed that the sharp-dressed man is actually Mac in disguise, or perhaps, the person that Mac is aspiring to be: rich, assertive, desirable to beautiful women, etc. The struggle in “Tale of Sand” is actually a struggle within one’s self, and the disconnect between self-image and reality. I see the party in the beginning as a birth or coming-of-age moment, and his release in to the desert is Mac essentially going out in to the world on his own for the first time. He has no clue what the purpose of it all is; after all, life does not come with a set of instructions. We are all released in to the wilderness of the world with a random assortment of tools, baggage and values handed down to us by our parents, but in the end we are all lost in the desert of life on our own. Quite often, we struggle within ourselves as much as we struggle with the outside world.
We try to put up a front like we know who we are and are in control of our lives, but in the end, we are all making things up as we go along and shooting in to the dark hoping to hit something big. As had been said in Henson’s “The Cube,” we are all casting projections in how we present ourselves to others, when the reality does not always live up to the projection. We are terrified of what might happen if people find out the truth about us. Mac’s nemesis is his own projection, the suave, successful person he wants to be and wants others to see him as. The reality is at odds with this projection, and so Mac must struggle against himself and his own insecurities due to the mismatch between who he is and what he wants to be. Many of us struggle all of our lives to match reality to our projections as if that’s what we’re supposed to be, but Henson and Juhl appear to be saying that happiness and success can only be found when we cast aside such pretexts and become true to ourselves and honest with ourselves about who we are.
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Henson and Juhl may have written a masterpiece with “Tale of Sand,” but their genius has been recognized for a long time. The true shining star of the book is artist Ramon K. Perez, who is perhaps best-known for his work on the webcomic “ButterNutSquash.” He also wrote and drew the graphic novel “Rifts: Machinations of Doom,” and has drawn and/or inked for “Deadpool Team-Up,” “Captain America & the First Thirteen,” “JSA Classifieds,” “The Incredibles” adaptation, “Hulk: Gamma Games,” and “Thundercats: Origins,” to name a few, as well as a large body of work for various role-playing games, collectible card games, magazines, and children’s books. I’d seen his work before, but his name never stuck in my mind, until now. His work for “Tale of Sand” is on another level from all of that; it’s simply outstanding.
Perez’s linework is masterfully crisp and clean. He dabbles in mixed media at times, using paint to accentuate the mood and atmosphere of certain frames, and including excerpts of photocopies of Henson’s script as background material in some scenes. He chose to eschew a traditional panel arrangement almost entirely. Panels seem to wander across the page, and bleed out in to the margins on nearly every page. There are no traditional gutters in the book, although there are some areas that aren’t part of a panel. These are typically filled with musical notes, excerpts from Henson’s script including his hand-written revisions, or simply negative space to accentuate a particular panel apart from the rest.
All of this, combined with the size of the book itself, gives the story a very cinematic feel. It’s easy for the reader to conceive of the story as Henson had, in how it would play out on the Big Screen, but at the same time, Perez manages to do things that would have never been possible on a screen (even a really big one). This is not one of those failed movie plots that was turned in to a comic as an afterthought and never really works in our beloved medium. It seems to me that from the moment this project switched mediums, those responsible (especially Perez) committed to it entirely, taking full advantage of the particular strengths of sequential art. It’s easy to see why this book has placed so highly on nearly everyone’s Best Graphic Novel of 2012 lists (including our own, at #4), it is one of the most innovative books I’ve read in a while. Jim Henson’s fame may overshadow Perez going in, but it is Perez’s talents that make this story truly stand out on its own merits.
Equally talented are colorist Ian Herring and letterer Deron Bennett. Bennett designed a font especially for this project, based on Henson’s own handwriting, and I can’t think of a better tribute to the late author. While there wasn’t much for him to letter, as the story is mostly silent, what there is was expertly done. One of my favorite examples is a quick one-panel conversation between a football player and an Arab, where the player speaks in terms of a football play and the Arab’s reply is in Arabic, and yet the reader has no trouble following along. Herring’s coloring, on the other hand, is everywhere. Every page is an explosion in color, and every bit as successfully experimental as Perez’s linework and Henson and Juhl’s script. A shout-out is due to several other artists who contributed inks or colors: Terry Pallot, Andy Belanger, Nick Craine, Walden Wong, Cameron Stewart, Jordie Bellaire and Kalman Andrasofszky. Their contributions fit in so seamlessly that I can’t personally tell where they helped.
As a history and Henson fan, I loved the extra materials in the book. Henson historian and archivist Karen Falk’s foreword is a touching tribute to Henson’s career and the evolution of the “Tale of Sand” script. Henson’s daughter Lisa Henson, CEO of The Jim Henson Company, writes an equally heartfelt tribute to her father and gives the story of how the script turned in to a graphic novel. Perez’s concept sketches for the main characters are also included in the back matter. These contain additional tidbits of information that inform our understanding of the story, so I recommend reading everything from cover to cover. I also recommend checking out Henson’s previous works that led up to this. “Time Piece” is available for purchase in the iTunes store, but you can find a trailer on YouTube. You can see the entirety of “The Cube” there, as well.
Continued belowOne of my favorite things about Archaia is the amount of attention they pay toward book design for their hardcovers. From the materials used to cover designs to title pages, the attention to detail is phenomenal, and matches the character of the books themselves. “Tale of Sand” is no exception. It’s a beautiful 11.5 inch by 8 inch tome with a blue-on-yellow cover design emphasizing the desert scenery while focusing on Mac in his solitude, lost in thought. It comes with a hefty elastic band in the vein of a Moleskine journal, useful for keeping the book closed or as a handy bookmark. The quality of the paper inside is also superb, emphasizing how much Archaia cares about the art and story printed on it.
“Tale of Sand” is one of the must-reads of 2012. It’s easy to see why it won three Eisner Awards, for Best Graphic Album-New, Best Publication Design, and Best Penciller/Inker. The story may not be for everyone, and it certainly requires some effort on the part of the reader to follow along, but this is a book that pushes the boundaries of what comics can do, especially adaptations of motion-picture material. This is a must-read for true fans of the medium itself.
