Another PANiverse Worth Crowing About...

Allow me to direct you to an online comic/graphic novel that deals with everyone’s favorite eternal boy. It’s written and drawn by none other than Jesse Rowden (a.k.a. Musapan), the young lady whose Peter Pan Guild interviewed me once upon a time. (Link on the left.) I have to say I’m enjoying it.

Jesse is an avid Pan fan herself. She, too, gets quite irked when the storyline and facts are carelessly altered. In other words, she’s a purist. However, I have to admit that I don’t fully agree with the timeline and such as she’s laid it out. But then, she also assures me that she has her reasoning. For instance, her tale takes place now, in the 21st Century, and Tinker Bell is still around. Apparently Jesse concocted a great backstory as to how she is alive again... but we’ve yet to find out what it is. She also has a different timeframe in terms of when and how long Peter Pan remained an infant in Kensington Gardens before going to the Neverland. (You’re probably aware that my upcoming interquel Peter Pan: Betwixt-and-Between deals with this very subject.)

I, of course, am not the end-all be-all of the Pan universe... but I'm the only one in print who stays accurate as best as possible to Barrie.*  But this aspect may also very well apply to Jesse's tale as well.  Since I remain in the dark on some it, I can’t really pass full judgement.  Yet I am confident that she’s taking her work very seriously and wouldn’t want to compromise any part of Barrie’s tale. Perhaps she has another lens that applies just as well. It does, however, make it incongruous with my own Pan tales.

Even so, another way of looking at it is that her tale is in pictorial form, whereas mine is in written. Thus, in that sense, hers is entirely different to begin with and she seems to have a handle on her version of the Pan universe.  Each of us are, in theory, consistent within our own works and Barrie in our two mediums.

At any rate, the art is delightful. Cheery, slick and sophisticated all at once. Her panels and each "reveal" are well accomplished.  She’s got Peter Pan’s personality down, too. I particularly like the “game” he proposes (yet again!) and to be honest, I wish I’d thought of it myself. Brava, Jesse!

The 'comic' is still in development, as in she’s plunking away at it admist this thing called Life and every so often another fresh panel of fun appears. A little suspense never hurts, so it’s actually a grand way to experience it.

Please go and check out another tale of the Neverland, Adventurous Soul, and the magic that is Rowden’s art!

Adventurous Soul (links at bottom of pages to bring you to the next...)

* Hook & Jill by Andrea Jones can be considered to do so as well, but hers had been intended to veer off course from the original story... while remaining true to the themes, characters and mythologies of Barrie.