Chivalry

Ms. Whitaker is your average old widow in England, living a quiet life with her own simple routine.  A routine which involves stopping by the local thrift shop each Thursday after collecting her pension.  It’s on her latest trip there that she discovers the Holy Grail on sale under a fur coat for a steal at 30 pence.  Ms. Whitaker takes it home, washes it out, soaks it in vinegar, polishes it and places it on her mantle between a china basset hound and a picture of her late husband at the beach.  That would be the end of the story if it wasn’t for the knight who stops by the following day.  He is Galaad, charged by his King, Arthur, to find and retrieve the Holy Grail.  The catch being that Ms. Whitaker won’t part with it.  She’s quite partial to how it looks on her mantle.

I hope that the summary of the story above makes it quite clear that the tone of this story is Very British in the way that it treats something extraordinary in a very ordinary way.  Your appreciation of “Chivalry” is going to hinge on whether or not you find this kind of thing amusing or simply too clever for its own good.  Given that “Chivalry” is another adaptation of a Neil Gaiman story from Colleen Doran (who previously adapted “Troll Bridge” and “Snow, Glass, Apples” for Dark Horse) the details and the presentation are pitched just right for me to feel that this is more of the former than the latter.  Of note in this regard are Doran’s art, particularly with the illustrated manuscripts, and the increasingly fantastic items Galaad brings to win Ms. Whitaker over.  I wouldn’t say that this feels like the most substantial addition to the publisher’s Neil Gaiman Library, but it’s still a fun one.