Mrs. Whitaker found the Holy Grail.
It was under a fur coat.
The latest collaboration between author Neil Gaiman and artist Colleen Doran starts in a flourish of flowers and calligraphy as a kind-natured pensioner buys the Holiest of Holies for 30p from a secondhand shop. The next day she’s visited by Galaad – knight of the Round Table – who begs Mrs. Whitaker to let him complete his quest and take the Grail home to King Arthur.
Mrs. Whitaker says no, because the Grail looks nice on her mantelpiece. Thank you, nice to meet you, good day.
I’m sure another author telling this story would have made it pretty madcap. I can just picture a TV comedy with the neighbors staring and whispering about the knight as he pulls out his hair in frustration that the dottering pensioner doesn’t realize what the kick-knack she’s bought actually is.
Gaiman’s version is entirely different from that. It’s quieter, and sweeter, with maybe a touch of ridiculousness, but mostly just good natured. There’s a magical realism going on here, one where absolutely no one finds it strange that a medieval knight complete with armor and horse has shown up in the neighborhood.
And Mrs. Whitaker knows exactly what it is she’s got sitting on her mantelpiece. It’s just that her gentle satisfaction at finding the most sought-after treasure in Christendom is the same as how she responds to a homemade meal of fried liver and onions: this is nice.
Galaad meanwhile is literally a perfect gentleman. From the moment he appears at Mrs. Whitaker’s front door he’s polite and charming, speaking in earnest, flowery phrases, dropping to his knees in awe at finding the object of his quest, and a little devastated and confused when Mrs. Whitaker gently shoos him out of the door without it. (I don’t think he’s capable of being annoyed, and he seems to know Mrs. Whitaker isn’t someone to mess with.) He’s the kind of knight who will go on epic quests, or show the neighborhood children how to feed sugar cubes to his horse before setting out to find one of several treasures he uses to try to convince Mrs. Whitaker to let him have the Grail.
I’ve loved this story ever since I first read it in Gaiman’s collection Smoke and Mirrors. It’s just such a unique storytelling style, with all the day-to-day minutia of a simple life of pension checks and three different colors of pills, visits to sick friends in the hospital, and what kind of cake she brings when visiting her nephew’s family, all delightfully contrasted with an Arthurian knight seeking the Holy Grail in the suburbs. And once again we have a Dark Horse book that’s done the impossible; paired a great story with fantastic artwork that makes me like the original tale more than I already did.
The graphic novel includes a collection of in-progress sketches by artist Colleen Doran, and an afterward where she goes into detail about how this book came about. Apparently this project is something that she’s been dreaming about and planning for decades. Mrs. Whittaker’s life is illustrated in lovely pale watercolors in a style inspired by Beatrix Potter, perfectly capturing normal settings like a cozy living room, or the lush green of an herb garden. And then add to that the medieval knight Galaad, giving horseback rides to the neighborhood children, or sitting at Mrs. Whitaker’s kitchen table having tea (with the best china, of course.) Doran throws in several cute details of her own, like Mrs. Whitaker sitting next to a tousle-haired goth on the bus, and from her smile she’s having a perfectly nice conversation with them.
All of this is lovely, but it’s in the sections inspired by illuminated manuscripts where the artwork becomes absolutely dazzling.
The gorgeously jewel-toned font coils all over the scroll Galaad shows to Mrs. Whitaker when she asks for proof of identification, swarming with vines and flowers and the “K” of the word “King” drawn as a red dragon, complete with wings and a tail and a tiny little crown. When he and Mrs. Whitaker chat while he’s performing the heroic labor of “helping to clean her attic”, Galaad tells her stories about his family, and each page is filled with images from legend (accompanied by calligraphy that summarizes Galaad’s stories from Mrs. Whitaker’s point of view, which is a fun little touch).
Galaad told Mrs. Whitaker about his mother Elaine, who was flighty and no better than she should have been and something of a witch to boot.
Mrs. Whitaker’s stories about her family come with their own set of illustrations: 1940’s magazines and attic treasures and meeting her husband during a blackout and celebrating the end of the War.
Each treasure Galaad brings as a price for the Grail has its own page of myths and wonders, sometimes a double-spread, all of it leading to the lovely picture of Mrs. Whitaker as she dreams of being young and in love. You get so much more of an idea here of just what it is she’s being offered.
I’m sure you could ask a dozen people and get a dozen different theories about why Mrs. Whitaker makes the choice she does, and whether it’s worth it, and whether they would have chosen the same thing. But I think part of the point of this tale is that it’s her story, her life, and everything that led up to it is exactly as important as any dream or wish or fantastical adventure. Maybe even more important. The story of Marie in the secondhand shop falling in love with a knight – something that would ordinarily be the main romantic adventure – is practically told in the margins of a story about home baked macaroons and used paperbacks and a treasure carefully packaged in Christmas wrapping paper.
The graphic novel wraps up on a perfect note, with one more ridiculous but absolutely right choice by Mrs. Whitaker; you can almost hear the record scratch as she takes her story in a completely different direction from what the universe expected her to.
