Garlands of Moonlight [Paperback]

Jai Sen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2002

Silent and merciless, a creature of darkness has come to prey on an island village. Babies vanish, mothers are murdered, and the threat of evil grows with each night. The village becomes a battleground as the onrush of the twentieth century clashes with tradition--and the restless spirits of the island’s mythical past...

Set in late colonial Indonesia, Garlands of Moonlight relates a Malay vampire legend in graphic novel format. Printed in a black and silver duotone, the book captures the quaint feel of turn-of-the-century daguerreotype photographs. Illustrated by Indonesian artist Rizky Wasisto Edi; winner of a 2002 Xeric award.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Absolutely gorgeous. Seriously, I have never seen artwork so lovely. Ever. I actually gasped when I first saw it. -- Regie Rigby, Silver Bullet Comics, June 2002

Edi's art brings further life to the story, drawing us into Marsiti's world and keeping us fixed till the end. -- Joe Palmer, The Gay League, June 2002

High production values will surely mark these books out from the pack. -- Borderline Magazine, May 2002

About the Author

Jai Sen, a writer of speculative fiction, divides his time between New York and Tokyo.

Born in Hyderabad, India, Sen lived in Indonesia for seven years. There, he acquired a taste for supernatural folktales. He is the author of Garlands of Moonlight, and is currently working on a historical graphic novel planned for release by Shoto Press in the late fall of 2002.

Product Details

• Paperback: 86 pages
• Publisher: Shoto Pr (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971756406
• ISBN-13: 978-0971756403
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,691,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jai Sen spent his early years in India and Indonesia, and later lived in Japan. He is now based in New York, though he travels often.

He is the author of The Golden Vine, an alternate history of the empire of Alexander the Great illustrated by Tokyo-based artists Seijuro Mizu, Umeka Asayuki, and Shino Yotsumoto. He is also the lead writer of The Malay Mysteries, including the Xeric award-winning and Eisner-nominated Garlands of Moonlight; The Ghost of Silver Cliff, which he co-authored with Eric Bryden; Island of Glass and Ashes; and the newly published Sita's Shadow and Other Stories.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mesmerizing!, November 22, 2002

By 

Camille Fremed "momsquared" (Fairfield County, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Garlands of Moonlight (Paperback)

I can honestly say I've read this book through at least 6 times. Each time I open it, Im once again drawn into the town and its inhabitants. It's rare for me to get this captivated by an illustrated novel, but Garlands does it for me. The exquisite illustrations in black and white are so in tune with the plot line, that the characters seem to come alive. I can't wait for the next in this series!![.]

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautifully Done Horror Tale, December 2, 2002

By 

Daniel V. Reilly (Upstate New York, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Garlands of Moonlight (Paperback)

Garlands of Moonlight is the first effort from creators Jai Sen (Writer) & Rizky Wasisto Edi (Illustrator), but you'd never know it by the finished product.

The story is deceptively simple: An isolated island village is plagued by mysterious deaths, which the local medicine woman believes are the work of a supernatural creature. Within the relatively tight confines of the book's 86 pages, Jai Sen makes the village come alive with vividly realized characters, and Rizky Wasisto Edi's art is simply breathtaking. At first glance, it looks relatively simplistic, but a closer look shows a very talented illustrator at work; He knows just how to frame a scene, and each character looks like a real individual. The book is printed in a small format, so the price is accessible, and rather than standard black-and-white, an eye-catching silver ink is used. The result is really something special to see. The story itself moves briskly, and I was surprised to see how much story Edi fits into these 86 pages without bogging the pace down with unnecessary dialogue and/or extraneous captions. The ending is downright chilling. I'll definitely be on the lookout for future projects from these two extremely talented creators!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moonstruck!, June 14, 2002

By 

Gary Beck (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Garlands of Moonlight (Paperback)

Not knowing anything about the premise of this book, I entered into it cold and found I could not put it down until I finished reading it. Jai Sen has written a captivating tale of Asian mythology, drawing the reader in and entrancing you until the very end. Each character came to life so much so that you were able to truly relate to their personalities as you read the tale. It takes an incredibly creative, soulful writer to bring characters to life so quickly in a story.

Rizky Wasisto Edi's artwork is phenomenal! The illustrations cast the right amount of detail without a lot of clutter, which would have truly distracted from the telling of this story. From a production standpoint, the black and white artwork with silver inking to bring out the details is outstanding! I have never seen that used in a comic before and it complemented the artwork beautifully as well as bring the mysticism of the story to life!

This is Shotopress' first book. With this type of quality story-telling and illustrations, they will undoubtedly have a long, successful publishing career.