Illustrated Editions

    (Thwack! Pow!, 1995)
™ and ©1995 Gerald Haslam

The first issue of this series, “The Horned Toad” focuses on cultural understanding, the price of freedom denied and the meaning of respect, which are at the core of a young boy’s experience dealing with his Mexican great-grandmother’s arrival in his Anglo father’s home. When his great-grandmother falls ill, the boy’s secret and tragic (for the reptile) adventure with her provides the answer the family needs in a moment of crisis.

This adaptation of California writer Gerald Haslam’s acclaimed short story is done in the vein of Classics Illustrated. But where that line was sometimes criticized for truncated stories, this one falters in its attempt to present nearly every word of the original prose. This results in redundancies that are inevitable when one form is imposed upon the other instead of being merged. Still, the simple, just-enough-detail art nicely showcases the story’s languid pace.
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