''Harlequin Valentine'' is a bloody and romantic

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

(1999) and

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

(2001) based on the old

Commedia dell'arte (; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Charact ...

and

Harlequinade ''Harlequinade'' is a British comic theatrical genre, defined by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' as "that part of a pantomime in which the harlequin and clown play the principal parts". It developed in England between the 17th and mid-19th cent ...

pantomime. Both the short story and the graphic novel were written by

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

. The latter was drawn by

John Bolton John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948) is an American attorney, diplomat, Republican consultant, and political commentator. He served as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, and as the 26th United Sta ...

, and published by

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, or a contestant that on paper should be unlikely to succeed but yet still might. Origin Th ...

Books. The short story has been republished in ''

Fragile Things ''Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders'' is a collection of short stories and poetry by English author Neil Gaiman. It was published in the US and UK in 2006 by HarperCollins and Headline Review. Most of the stories in this book are repr ...

''.

Overview

The story takes place on February 14 with the

harlequin Harlequin (; it, Arlecchino ; lmo, Arlechin, Bergamasque dialect, Bergamasque pronunciation ) is the best-known of the ''zanni'' or comic servant characters from the Italian language, Italian ''commedia dell'arte'', associated with the city o ...

giving Missy his heart, literally, by nailing it to her door. The story follows the unflappable Missy as she tries to discover who gave her this gift, and what she does with it. The merry harlequin follows her the whole time, wondering what this ''

Columbina Columbina (in Italian Colombina, meaning "little dove"; in French and English Colombine) is a stock character in the ''commedia dell'arte''. She is Harlequin's mistress, a comic servant playing the tricky slave type, and wife of Pierrot. Rudli ...

'', as he calls his various loves he has given his heart to, will do with it. True to his classic

trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwi ...

ways, in the same vein as Puck, he's constantly meddling with other people's lives and causing mischief as he goes, which often get blamed on

Pierrot Pierrot ( , , ) is a stock character of pantomime and '' commedia dell'arte'', whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a diminutive of ''P ...

. The story concludes with Missy eating the raw heart (with a side of hash browns and ketchup) at a diner; she is transformed into a new harlequin, while the old harlequin is transformed into a kitchen helper named Pete, who has no memories of ever being the harlequin. The story includes many of the classic characters from the Harlequinade in modern forms. Most obviously is Harlequin and his sought-after love Columbina, who is named Missy in this modern version. Pantaloon, the third person in the love triangle, also exists here in full. The artwork is a mixture of digitally enhanced photographs overlaid with painting. This serves the story very well as the fantastic Harlequin follows and interacts with the sensible Missy in her normal world. The backgrounds are made very drab, compared to the colorful characters which almost vibrate on top of them. At the back of the book is Gaiman's essay, "Notes on a Harlequinade," which tells us a little about the old harlequin stories of the Italian Commedia dell'arte and the English Harlequinade.

Stage adaptation

A stage adaptation of this graphic novel has been produced by

Metatron Metatron ( ''Meṭāṭrōn'', ''Məṭaṭrōn'', ''Mēṭaṭrōn'', ''Mīṭaṭrōn'', ''Meṭaṭrōn'', ''Mīṭṭaṭrōn'') or Mattatron ( ''Maṭṭaṭrōn'') is an angel in Judaism mentioned three times in the Talmud in a few br ...

's Men ( pl, Słudzy Metatrona) group made of members of Śląski Klub Fantastyki (Polish: ''

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

n Science Fiction Club''), starring Jakub Ćwiek as the harlequin and Klaudia Heintze as Missy.

External links

A Rare Gift: ''Harlequin Valentine'' by Neil Gaiman and John Bolton
- review by Erin Donahoe

- review by Mary Harvey Comics by Neil Gaiman 2001 graphic novels Dark Horse Comics graphic novels Fantasy short stories Comics based on fiction Short stories by Neil Gaiman 1999 short stories {{DarkHorse-Comics-stub

Overview

Stage adaptation

See also

External links