P Craig Russell - Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde torrent

I've been holding off on this run of P Craig Russell books, mostly, because I can't seem to locate my Vol 5 of this series. Time to let it go, share and move on...

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'Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde'

Vol 1 The Selfish Giant & The Star Child
NBM Publishing, 1992 (this edition), 50 pages

While Oscar Wilde is best known as the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest, he was also a teller of fairy tales. After polishing his tales through private readings over the years, Wilde eventually published them in two collections between 1888 and 1891. Although these stories have remained engaging throughout the years, this volume allows acclaimed artist P. Craig Russell to breath a vivid freshness into them. Like any good illustration, the art never gets in the way of the story; Russell's depiction of the characters always remain real enough to believe in, but never so real that they take you out of the fantasy world. Russell makes illustrating look easy, and the result is pure enjoyment.

Vol 2 The Young King & The Remarkable Rocket
NBM Publishing, 1994 (this edition), 50 pages

The second volume in a series of comic book adaptations of Wilde's tales gives "The Young King" and "The Remarkable Rocket" the comic book treatment. In elaborate underground "comix" style, Russell reintroduces the tales with an accessible if nontraditional approach to picture-book illustration and better-than-average adaptations of the original texts.

Vol 3 The Birthday of the Infanta
NBM Publishing, 1998 (this edition), 34 pages

Here, Russell transmutes Wilde's darkly sardonic tale, using much of Wilde's abundantly rich language. The Infanta, on her twelfth birthday, is a spoiled princess who resembles the famous Velazquez painting "Las Meninas." Her father, the king, still broods over her mother's death, but for the birthday celebration, dancing bears and Gypsies and jousts are brought out for her entertainment. So also is a little dwarf (who looks like the cartoon version of Quasimodo as a boy), whose dancing amuses the princess and the crowd, for he is misshapen and ugly. The princess gives him the white rose from her hair, and he searches the palace when she departs, looking for her. But the sight of himself in a mirror breaks his heart...

Vol 4 The Devoted Friend & The Nightingale and the Rose
NBM Publishing, 2004 (this edition), 34 pages

The next volume in the prize-winning and greatly acclaimed complete adaptations of Wilde’s tales presents “The Devoted Friend” on what constitutes real friendship, and “The Nightingale and the Rose” a stirring story of sacrifice to love with a cruel twist.


As mentioned above, Vol 5, The Happy Prince, is not included in this upload.