American Gods : My Ainsel
Neil Gaiman, P Craig Russel, Scott Hampton
Neil Gaiman’s American Gods came out in 2001. The Starz TV series of the same name, which introduced the book (one of the classics of the modern fantasy genre) to new readers came out in 2017. In 2018, Dark Horse Comics started publishing a comic book version, adapted by the redoubtable P Craig Russell and Scott Hampton. Gaiman’s book is about a clash of old and new gods. The old gods include those from various myths (Odin, from Norse; Anansi, from Ghanian; Kali, from Indian; and other such). The new ones are gods that symbolize the internet, the media, the market, and others. Written well into the onset of the internet era, but much before the emergence of much of new media (and new social media), Gaiman’s work is prescient. After all, who worships the old gods anymore? And isn’t it natural for such gods, once venerated, to do everything in their powers to stay relevant?
The comic book adaptation of the book is even better. A collection of nine issues of American Gods Vol 1: Shadows, was released in 2018; the second, that of nine issues of My Ainsel came out in 2019. Russell’s adaptation makes Gaiman’s smooth prose, smoother. Illustrated mainly by Scott Hampton, the result is a comic book that is as enjoyable, but different from the original (to which it is still true). The comics of the third volume, The Moment of the Storm have started being released and a trade-paperback compiling all nine issues of the final chapter of the comic version should be out in
2020. That’s something to look forward to.