Monstrous Creatures by Jeff VanderMeer

Author:Jeff VanderMeer [VanderMeer, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Guide Dog Books
Published: 2011-06-07T04:00:00+00:00

Five Years of Sfar and Trondheim’s Dungeon Series

Omnivoracious, May 2009

One of my great reading pleasures this decade has been the discovery of Dungeon in the lovely little volumes from NBM Publishing, which provides English translations of this near-iconic series originally released in France. This month, you could do worse than check out the whole series, as NBM is celebrating five years of Dungeon with the tenth volume, Zenith: Back in Style.

Dungeon is the brainchild of French geniuses Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim. Part of their brilliance in creating these books is to both send-up the heroic fantasy genre and provide one of the most compelling arguments for its relevance. The Dungeon books chronicle the adventures, trials (sometimes literally), and tribulations of the inhabitants of the titular dungeon, which is run by the Dungeon Keeper, an old bird with a thousand stories under his wing. Recurring characters include the heroic battle veteran Marvin the Dragon King, the sometimes foolish but always feisty Herbert the Timorous Duck—perpetually in love with the cat-like Princess Isis—and Marvin the Red, a crazy rabbit named after the dragon king, and clothed in what sometimes looks like atomic armor.

Each of these characters, and many supporting players, are fleshed out over the course of the series to an astounding degree. One masterstroke by Sfar and Trondheim in mapping out the narrative was to create different story “threads.” Thus, readers can enjoy three main series—the dungeon’s Early Years, Zenith, and Twilight—with minor stories that still support the main narrative collected in the parallel series Monstres and Parade. Not only does this allow the creators, and a series of guest artists, to work on whatever parts of the narrative interest them at any particular time, it makes the effect truly three-dimensional. Further, you can, more or less, begin with any particular thread you want, and then read through the others—every point of entry creates a different experience of situation and character.

For example, if you start with the Dungeon Zenith series, you may have a view of the Keeper as a somewhat cold, jaded character. But, if you then backtrack to volume one of The Early Years, The Night Shift, you find a riveting, often tragic tale of how the Keeper came to run the dungeon, and your view of the character becomes much more charitable.

Another example? Marvin the Dragon King, also known as the Dust King. Throughout the series, he’s the bed-rock of everything that’s noble and reasonable and heroic in a recurring character, even with a few lapses. Marvin projects those qualities no matter where readers first encounter him. However, the Dungeon Twilight volumes one and two deepen and provide nuance to Marvin’s character.

The “twilight” of the dungeon also refers to the twilight of the world of Terra. In this series, Terra has stopped turning, creating a perpetual world of light and a perpetual world of darkness. A now-blind Marvin must undertake a harrowing quest to the graveyard of the dragons, accompanied by his namesake Marvin the Red. This volume is fairly dark, and among the most affecting in the series.

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