Review:
This work, an adaptation of one of Neil Gaiman's short stories, follows what happens when Mrs. Whitaker, an elderly English widow, finds the Holy Grail in a charity shop. She's fully aware of what she's found, but she views it as much the same as any other knickknack or other decorative item in her house - it looks nice on the mantelpiece in her parlor. Then she gets a visit from a handsome man in a suit of armor who claims to be Galaad, a knight of the Round Table on a quest to retrieve the Holy Grail.
This was a nice and gentle bit of light fantasy. Galaad offers a few different things in exchange for the Grail, and Mrs. Whitaker provides him with tea and has him help a bit around the house. He and Mrs. Whitaker seem to be the only two people aware that anything magical is going on.
I'd initially passed this by because the medieval manuscript-style cover art didn't really appeal to me. Overall, though, Doran's art was lovely and fit the story well. In particular, I thought the way Doran depicted the effects of one of the apples of the Hesperides was really well done.
What really made this adaptation for me, though, was Colleen Doran's "Notes" section at the end, in which she discussed her love for this story and her initial thoughts about adapting it and the way she revised her ideas. There are also several pages of her pencil sketches, as well as some images of her tests of various real and faux golds. This part really made me wish I could see the original artwork rather than just reproductions.
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