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The Facts In The Case Of The Departure Of Miss Finch

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The world of Neil Gaiman looks pretty normal -- until you see the dark, eerie, bizarre things that swim just under the surface.

So expect nothing less from the primly-titled "The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch," a graphic novel adaptation of Gaiman's short story. Michael Zulli's matter-of-fact artwork serves as a solid complement to Gaiman's eerie story of an ordinary, innocent outing for three friends and one biogeologist -- and the strange disappearance that came from it.

The narrator and his pals Jonathan and Jane are planning to go out for sushi and a circus, but are "lumbered" with a prissy, stuffy acquaintance named Miss Finch. While Miss Finch tortures the others with descriptions of the parasites in sushi, the little group arrives at the circus. But this is no child-friendly funfest -- instead they're taken into an underground labyrinth by a vampiress.

Devils, freaks, monsters and an Alice Cooper ringmaster are all down there, but the four visitors are very unimpressed. Then a strange apelike creature offers to give someone in the audience a wish, and pulls Miss Finch into the darkness. And when the remaining three friends venture into the next room, what they find is not what they expected of Miss Finch...

"The Facts In The Case Of The Departure Of Miss Finch" sounds like a Victorian-era mystery, perhaps something by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in which a spinster is kidnapped or murdered. In the hands of most authors, it wouldn't be much more than that, even if it were a fantasy story. But in the hands of Neil Gaiman, that story becomes something much more.

Instead this story dips down into a darker area, and gives readers a glimpse into a strange world that defies the everyday, where you're not sure what is illusion and what is supernatural. In fact, the Theatre of Night's Dreaming is the real star, as Gaiman devotes plenty of time to showing us the perverse, the weird, and the outright ghastly -- and the climactic encounter with Miss Finch ("which, as I have mentioned, was not her name") is a silent masterpiece of graceful intensity.

With, of course, tongue in cheek, such as the ringmaster's warnings ("... on pain of DOOM, bodily injury, and the loss of your immortal soul! Also I must stress that the use of flash photography or of any recording devices is strictly forbidden"), Miss Finch's ghastly fluke conversation, or the wry observations of the three writers.

Michael Zalli's artwork has graced other Gaiman works, such as "Sandman." So it's not surprising that his slightly faded, striking artwork is an excellent complement to Gaiman's detailed prose. And he's excellent at the subtle stuff, such as the close-ups of Miss Finch's face that show how pretty she is... right before a wide shot that makes her look like a frumpy spinster.

Despite its dull name, "The Facts In The Case Of The Departure Of Miss Finch" is an eerie little nugget brought to colorful life, and it's definitely one of Gaiman's more intriguing short stories.