It is a tribute to the skills of Gaiman and Zulli that I can't quite tell if the stories in Creatures of the Night are original tales or adaptations of prose tales by Gaiman. Certainly, despite his achievements in comics, Gaiman is one of those rare writers who can really create vivid pictures in the mind using only prose, but somehow his work always comes to life even more effectively when accompanied by the artist of his tales. It probably doesn't hurt that his collaborators are almost always the cream of the crop, and Zulli, with his brand of water-brushed meets photo-realism, definitely falls into that category. Creatures of the Night represents two modern fairy tales, with the same fanciful tone and yet accessible prose that defines most of Gaiman's work.
I am not, by nature, a cat person. I'm allergic to them, and I don't like them besides. But for some reason, the cat seems to be built for this sort of fiction, and Gaiman's tale of a feline-loving family that adopts a black cat who turns out to be something much more reads well to the cat fancier and the ailurophobe alike. There's something both endearing and yet unnerving about all of the cats, but especially the black cat at the center of the tale, and throughout the story, I wasn't sure if the cat would turn out to be hero, villain or something in between. Make no mistake, "The Price" is a story that relies on a knowledge of cats and their nature, but it's also just a straight-up engrossing tale of magic and mystery.
"The Daughter of Owls," on the other hand, falls into the realm of princess fairy tales. It has some of the same mystery feel as "The Price," but it's less about figuring out who or what the girl is and more about figuring out what's going to happen to her. Gaiman's story, like those of Grimm, has a bit of grisly reality to it, and a message that those who would do evil will almost inevitably see it catch up to them. In the way of fairy tales, the actual specifics of the events are left to the imagination, but the outcome is left in no doubt.
Gaiman's prose style is easily recognizable, and his style is perfect for the gothic modern fantasy genre that he has so often worked in. I'm not generally a fan of the flowery, poetic prose, but Gaiman does an excellent job of crafting word pictures without getting so bogged down in the beauty of words that reading becomes a chore. Both stories are told as if from the point of view of a kind, educated man, and so they have an everyman approachability combined with a writer's intelligence and gift for language.
Both of these tales work effectively as simple prose, but it cannot be denied that Zulli brings a lot of the tales. Certainly the true nature of the cat and its adversary is made clearer and more vivid through Zulli's artwork, and he also gives each cat an invidual personality, an important artistic task given that they are really only on panel for a brief amount of time. He gives the same personality, without the gift of dialogue to help define the character, to the daughter of the owls, conveying her innocence as well as a haunting, animalistic countenance. At $12.95 for 46 pages, even hardcover, Creatures of the Night is a bit on the pricey side, but Gaiman and Zulli craft such beautiful and enduring stories that it's hard to resist. 9/10
