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Title: Death: The High Cost of Living
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, make sure you read this before your kids do. There is cursing, mild violence, a story about AIDS and sex in the very back, and a discussion on death and life. Neil Gaiman fans will not be disappointed, and neither will Vertigo fans. Everyone else should read this because this is a philosophical look on life as well as a great story with three-dimensional characters. |
This is a short review because the story is short. What about Magic Knight Rayearth, you ask? Well, that was a three-volume manga where there were over two hundred pages worth reviewing. I'm not even sure if this story goes over a hundred pages. But even so, this story definitely doesn't miss a beat. When it comes to American comics, who can forget Neil Gaiman? One of the best fantasy writers in America, Neil Gaiman wrote the award-winning Sandman series about Morpheus, the King of Dreams, and his siblings the Endless: Destiny, Death, Despair, Desire, Destruction, and Delirium, who used to be Delight. Sandman changed the way American comics were looked at because it was the first DC Comic during the time period that didn't focus on action and heroics, but instead on fantasy, something unheard of when you had people like Superman part of the Justice League. And when it ended, it ended because Neil Gaiman felt that it should. It didn't get cancelled or anything.
To quote him, "The best stories have endings." If other comic book companies would realize that, then maybe Japanese people would read American comics for a change and realize how brilliant Batman can be when the story's told right. Someday I am going to review the series, but for now, I will stick with one of the spin-off series that he wrote, the first being Death: The High Cost of Living. This launched the Vertigo line, which focused more on fantasy than heroics. Also, it is going to become a movie soooner or later, but the movie's going to have a lot more than this little baby. On one hand, I fear for how much will be mutilated. On the other, Neil Gaiman is writing the script. As long as they choose the right actress for Death, then I will go see it. The story starts with a madwoman cutting up a dove, but that is pretty much a prologue. Then we switch over to New York, where we meet a sixteen-year old named Sexton who is writing a suicide note because he feels that his life is pointless. After his mother shoos him out of the house, he ends up at a garbage dump with a refrigerator pinning him down...and a girl named Didi pulls it off.
He learns about Didi's life, about her parents, and then she claims that they didn't exist. She tells him she is Death, and she knows what happens to people when they die. Of course, he thinks she's crazy (who wouldn't?) and walks out on her. But then the old crazy lady (she's two hundred years old), who's named Mad Hettie, comes up and forces him back up. She wants Didi to find her heart. And then an Eremite is after Didi because he believes that she is Death and wants to know the secrets of life. There is a lot to like in this series: first off, the characters. Most of them, if not all, are at least understandable in their actions. Mad Hettie wants her heart because she wants to know how well she hit it. The Eremite believes that Death is evil, and he wants to know all the secrets of life and death; his actions are explained, if not justified. Didi is one of those rare girls, the one who cares about everyone's well-being, be they good, bad, or in between, and appreciates everything in life. Sexton starts out as a kid who knows little about life's meaning, which is why he wants to end it, but by the end he comments that he can wait till the end of his life to see Didi again. The second thing is the discussion about death and life. Keep this in mind; this is a very short story, a collected miniseries.
Yet it manages to say a lot in a limited amount of pages, about what happens when Sexton spends one day with this girl. Didi appreciates little things like the taste and texture of an apple and breathing, stuff that we take for granted. Since she is Death in this story, only mortal from one day, it made me wonder what I would appreciate if I had one day to live. There's a running theme of prices, and how nothing in life is free. Even Death's one "day off," if you want to call it that, is considered a price for her function: to meet everyone when their life ends. That sounds cheesy, but it's true. And for once in a long time, I am satisfied with the ending! If you have read my review for Magic Knight Rayearth, you'll know that I don't like abrupt endings. After the climax, the denouement is philosophical and is so satisfying that I was almost disappointed to see the extra story included in the back. This is the shortest comic book story that I have read, and it manages to be one of the most satisfying. I am not going to question how Neil Gaiman did it; he is just able to accomplish it. This extra story is about how to avoid STD's such as AIDs. It should be a pedantic, but Death's narrating it. And Death makes the story entertaining as well as informative.
Dave McKean's depiction of her is a little bizarre as she looks wrinkly when she's supposed to be young, but overall the art is good. The art for the miniseries itself is pretty good, but since this is about Death, not Dream, there aren't any of the fantastical backgrounds that you encounter in Sandman. This takes place in a non-magical New York. This was before Neil Gaiman moved to America, but he nailed New York pretty well, if not completely accurate. I have a feeling that he may have visited it while working on Sandman. The character designs are original, and I love Didi's outfit. She may have pale skin, but she still looks human. I really want to give this series an A+. I really do. However, the extra story in the back with Death looking old is what keeps it from getting there. Dave McKean may have intended that, but it doesn't work. That's why I'm lowering the grade to an A. Even so, request this from your library or buy it from a bookstore. It's $12.95 plus tax, but it's worth it. Sandman fans get a story finally focused on Death that is her own (the one in Dream Country doesn't count), and everyone else gets a philosophical story.
- -Review By Jaya Lakshmi - -