Gaimen's book, as illustrated by Michael Zulli, was composed of two short stories: The Price and The Daughter of Owls.

In the first, a slinky black cat adopts itself to the home of a writer and his family. Night after night, the cat turns up battered, bloody, and near death. The man thinks it is a typical predator or even another cat and so sits one night to watch. What he discovers staring through his window with a pair of night vision goggles is something distinctly NOT a typical predator. It is the battle between the most classic evil vs. the most classic good. Angels vs Devils.

Daughter of Owls touches upon the same sort of shapeshifter idea as the first but this one takes place in a setting many many years earlier. An infant shows up on the steps of a local Church in the town of Dymton and the women in the town immediately condemn her, saying she is the daughter of owls and should be burned at the steak. The local priest, however, merely sends her to a convent where she lives on her own with a crabby old woman who wants nothing to do with her. Nevertheless, the girl grows into a lovely young woman (aren't all good stories that way?) and word of her loveliness spreads to the town. Being a village of suspicious women and apparently evil men, the gentlemen lie to their wives, claiming a hunting trip, and go to pay the girl a decidedly ungentlemanly visit. Her payback is their folly and the only thing found of these dastardly men are some watch bits and buttons and the girl is never seen again.

Having both good stories, and lovely illustrations, I surprisingly didn't love this book that much. The stories were typical Gaimen and good in their own right. And Zulli's illustrations are lovely and intricate. And yet... they don't seem to mesh for me. I would have preferred simpler illustrations for Gaimen's work. And I would have much rather seen Zulli's work in a book of fairy tales. But what do I know? This was my first ever graphic novel. ( )

With CREATURES OF THE NIGHT, Michael Zulli adapts two of Neil Gaiman's short stories. In "The Price," an author adopts a stray cat who gets involved in violent confrontations every night. In "Daughter of Owls," a mysterious baby grows up alone and unloved in the ruins of a monastery.

Whenever I approach a graphic novel adaptation, I ask myself whether the story benefits at all from this new treatment. Does the different approach illuminate any aspect? Do I come away from it with the feeling that I've seen the story through new eyes? Do I feel like I got anything more out of the graphic adaptation than I did from the prose version?

Unfortunately, CREATURES OF THE NIGHT strikes out on all counts. It's a beautiful book, yes, but I just don't see why Zulli chose these particular stories. I don't feel like he's added much, if anything, to Gaiman's original prose work. The pacing is good and the artwork is lovely, but that's really all there is to it. He doesn't take some small, overlooked element of the original story and shine a light on it. He doesn't make us rethink the content. He's really just broken the story down into its component parts, then illustrated it. It is nicely done, but it's far from essential reading.

Unless you're a Gaiman completist and/or a big fan of Zulli's art, I don't think you need to rush out and buy this. You'd be better off borrowing it from the library or seeing if a friend has a copy.

(This review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )

This graphic novel reprints two short stories from Gaiman's collection of short stories in "Smoke and Mirrors" with illustrations provided by artist Michael Zulli.

In "The Price" a middle aged writer (echoes of Gaiman here) living with his family in rural England adopts a stray black cat which serves as an addition to the growing number of pets in his home. The newly adopted cat shows signs of desperate combat resulting in serious wounds every night. When the writer stays up one night to see who is fighting the cat, he finds out that it is actually a demon wanting to gain entry to his home. The only time I even came close to liking black cats.

"Daughter of Owls" takes place in some 1600's English village. An infant foundling girl is discovered with owl feathers in her basket and an owl pellet clutched in one hand. The women of the village believe her to be a supernatural creature of evil and suggest that she be put to death. However, the elder men of the village give her instead to a former nun living in a ruined convent. The girl grows up as a feral child -- because no human voice ever speaks to her -- and when she matures her beauty sparks inspires the men of the village to make a disastrous plan to exploit her. It is a haunting story; you can't help but feel like a sudden misogynist.

Book Details:

Title Creatures of the Night
Author Neil Gaiman & Michael Zulli
Reviewed By Purplycookie ( )