This is a charming idea for a comic/graphic novel series, and by and large, it's a solid initial entry. The appeal is in getting to experience four folklore adaptations - or, sometimes, new stories cobbled from old elements - each told in a different style, with explicitly different art, but all sharing the same loose theme. So far, so good. The main selling point, though, is in being a continuation of Jim Henson's cult favorite TV series, The Storyteller, and the book falls down a little there. The first two stories only feature the Storyteller and his dog in the absolutely most minimal cameos; they might not as well be present. They're a little more involved in the third story, and of course, they are fully woven into the final one (which is an adaptation of an unproduced teleplay from the series). That's a slightly awkward imbalance that will plague this particular series; it's almost as if most of the contributors have never seen the show. Certainly, nobody writes the Storyteller's dialogue like the late, great Anthony Mingella; his unusual cadence leaps off the page, even highly truncated as it is here. I've read eleven other of these latter-day Storyteller installments so far, and only one of them even attempts to sound like the actual show.

As for the stories themselves, they're a solid bunch. Of the first three, the one that makes the strongest impression is the first, "The Magic Snow Goose and the Lord of the Forest," chiefly due to S.M. Vidaurri's vibrant and eye-catching art. The real star here, though, is the final entry, "Vasilissa the Beautiful"; even if it wasn't taken from a screenplay, it would be the strongest story both in plot and in art (here provided by Jeff Stokely). It's very hard to turn down a Baba Yaga story, and this one is particularly fun. The unabridged screenplay, along with some uncolored art for that story, is provided at the back of the book - a nice additional treat that raises the whole affair about half a star in my estimation. ( )