One of the first things you’ll notice about Chivalry, the latest collaboration between Neil Gaiman and multi-award winning cartoonist Colleen Doran, is its striking resemblance to a medieval illuminated manuscript. With sumptuous illustrations, gorgeous drop caps, and incredible attention to detail, it’s a book to be savored—a singular achievement that will harken you back time and time again.
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Even if it were a simple, straightforward retelling of well-known Arthurian legend, the book would still be a wonder. In Gaiman’s hands, however, the story is both familiar and off-kilter.
First published as a short story in Gaiman’s 1998 collection Smoke and Mirrors, the story’s unlikely protagonist is the elderly widow Mrs. Whitaker. She’s a bit stodgy, fairly quirky, and immensely likable, typically filling her days with gardening, having tea with friends, and shopping for occasional knick-knacks at the local thrift shop.
One day, for a mere 30 pence, Mrs. Whitaker buys the Holy Grail. Once home, she displays the relic on her mantelpiece “between a small soulful china basset hound and a photograph of her late husband, Henry, on the beach at Frinton in 1953.”
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Naturally, soon after that a handsome young knight in “gleaming silver armor, with a white surcoat” turns up on her doorstep, promptly announcing he’s on a quest for the aforementioned Sangrail. Be that as it may, the ever vigilant Mrs. Whitaker isn’t quite so keen to let a stranger into her house without some form of ID.
It is here the knight’s true quest begins. From moving boxes in the attic to depositing garden slugs a collection of garden slugs beyond the back fence, the widow Whitaker ropes the young man into one task after another. Galaad, as he is known, endures without complaint and slowly the two become friends–bonding over the unstated air of melancholy that surrounds each of them.
Dark Horse Books
Gaiman’s witty, poetic, occasionally archaic text sets the stage beautifully for Doran’s stunning illustrations, ornate visual flourishes, and stories within the story. Maybe not the first time through, but at some point you’ll find yourself lost in the book’s self-contained, tangential tales, like the story of Galaad’s lineage and the legend of the Phoenix. There are even occasional Easter eggs, such as a brief allusion to the Bayeux Tapestry, deemed by some to be ”the first British graphic novel.”
With great paneling, a subtle visual rhythm, exceptional page turns, beautifully integrated letters, great colors and gobsmackingly gorgeous two-page spreads, the book works on every level. Like the multilayered Medieval manuscripts it emulates, it’s easy to picture Doran—alone in a dimly lit room—carefully crafting each page with painstaking precision. And it certainly shows. Chivalry is the height of visual storytelling.
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