Death – At the threshold of death is an interesting parenthesis that fits into Neil Gaiman’s more serious and profound Sandman. The pretext for the creation of the work, edited both in the script and in the drawings by Jill Thompson, is to be found in the attempt made at the time of the original publication to intercept manga readers with a format, structure and drawings more in line with Eastern comics than with Western ones. The choice fell on the aforementioned Thompson, already author of the Little Eternalswhich thanks to his style cartoonish it was well suited to the operation.
The narrative inspiration that acts as a bridge is to be found in the fourth volume of the Sandman dream epic, The season of fogWhere Morpheus receives the key to Hell from Luciferwho decided to move to Earth by failing in his duties (in what will be the award-winning series of Mike Carey). As you can imagine from the title, the comic focuses on Death who, following the closure of Hell, finds himself having to manage all the souls of the damned who pour into her apartment in disorientation.
The story, proper entertainment along the lines of Little Eternalsalso sees the participation of Delirio, who decides to improvise a party to entertain everyone, and Desperazione, who is forced to participate in spite of himself.
This sum of heterogeneous elements and characters gives life to a fun comic scene in which everything, from facial expressions to gags, is designed to recall the manga, while maintaining an American identity, in a perfectly successful mix capable not only of entertaining and involving fans of the saga but also of attracting a potentially younger audience, strong in the fact that nothing significant is added to the main series and that the volume itself introduces all the characters as if readers were approaching that universe for the first time.
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Death – At the threshold of Death
Jill Thompson
Translation by Giuseppe Buttiglione
Panini Comics, April 2024
200 pages, paperback, black and white – €12.00
ISBN: 9788828777441
