Creeped Out by Coraline

With Coraline, author Neil Gaiman once again shows his versatility. From the mind of the man who gave us the entire “Sandman” collection of graphic novels, as well as “American Gods”, “Anansi Boys”, and “Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” clearly wrote this novel with the intent to entertain a younger demographic. Of course, he gets to scare the little buggers in the process too. Gaiman has proven in the past that he truly knows what buttons to press in order to send chills down one’s spine. In this particular book, he preys on the fears everyone has as far as loneliness, abandonment, abduction, rats, and of course, the darkness.

Coraline Jones has just moved into an old house with her parents. The house is divided into four flats, and as Coraline goes exploring, she meets former actresses Mrs. Forcible and Mrs. Spink, Mr. Bobo who trains mice, and an arrogant black cat. When she finds a key to the drawing room, she enters a dark corridor and sees, strangely enough, a house similar to the one she just moved into. Here she meets The Other Mother and The Other Father, people who look almost exactly like her parents, save that they have buttons for eyes. Coraline finds these mirror parents more interesting than her own but when she returns to her own home, she can’t find her real mother and father. Discovering that the Other Mother had kidnapped them so that she could keep Coraline forever, the young girl has to find the courage to rescue her parents while avoiding the creepy-crawlies in the night.

There are definite echoes of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” here, particularly when Coraline enters the other world as Alice did in “Through the Looking Glass”. Instead of a Red Queen, Coraline must instead face the menace of the Beldam, a creature who claims to love Coraline but only wants to collect her. Rather than a White Rabbit, Coraline talks to the nameless cat, a haughty feline who acts as her mentor.

Just like “Alice”, Gaiman weaves a creepy story that has as one of its themes the idea of growing up. He touched on it in his novel “InterWorld” a few years ago, but in “Coraline”, it is a bit more subtle. Everyone goes through times where they wish their parents were cooler or that they hopes their lives weren’t quite so boring. But, when they are presented with the alternative, one really should be careful with what one wishes for because nothing comes free.

The novel version of “Coraline” features a few illustrations by frequent Gaiman collaborator Dave McKean. As one who is used to McKean’s work, he’s not your typical comic book artist. The art that accompanies the novel is abstract and (to put it simply) on the weird end of the spectrum, but in this case, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. McKean’s illustrations give just the right amount of creepiness and menace to send chills down any reader’s spine.

In P. Craig Russell’s graphic novel adaptation of “Coraline”, what we once could only visualize with our minds, Russell draws Coraline’s strange adventure in sequential form. Since he has also collaborated with Gaiman a few times in the past, there is no drop off in quality of art in this graphic novel. Though not as abstract as McKean’s art, Russell draws Coraline and the rest of the characters in the novel as real people. When he gets to the monsters like the Beldam though, Russell gets to let loose. These aren’t just creepy anymore, they’re downright dangerous and destructive. It’s a nice contrast from McKean, and it doesn’t take away from the appreciation of either version.