No, it isn’t the tale of a bunch of Van Halen fans – it is in fact a very groovy new series from the wonderfully deranged mind of Clive Barker. Clive has long been known as the king of alternative horror – his books took a tired, often cliché-ridden genre and gave them a kick up the backside before mutating it into something nasty, scary and utterly fascinating – a kind of Lovecraft for the 80s and 90s.
Ah, but Clive has many hats to wear and fantasy is one of them. His horror novels often contained many elements in common with the fantasy genre (just as Tim Lebbon’s forthcoming Dusk novel is a fantasy with many horror elements) – look at the excellent Weaveworld for example. Another hat from the Barker rack is placed upon his head and it is the Younger Reader’s Fantasy Hat. This hat is accompanied by his matching Painter’s Glasses accessories. Yes, we have arrived at the world of the Abarat – a gorgeous fantasy of a young girl in the cornfields of American discovering another world.
Abarat has fabulous colourful paintings by Clive (some people have too much talent, dammit) showing the 25 islands of the Abarat archipelago (one for each hour of the day and a mysterious extra one) and its bizarre inhabitants. It is one of those fantasies that kids will love partly for the sheer imagination but also because Clive doesn’t talk down to them and he doesn’t back away from having a dark side to his fantasy. We all know kids can handle this – the best younger reader’s fantasies have darkness in them, from Potter to Narnia and the kids trust the story more because of this honesty.
Which brings us to Jump Tribe and Art Asylum. The moment I saw a painting from this series I knew who it was right off. That’s Clive Barker’s work, I thought and yes indeed it was. Here was an odd but loveable-looking, big, purple character called Yaboo. Who’s Yaboo? Yaboo is part of the Jump Tribe, Art Asylum told me. The first in a planned series of plush figures, fun to squeeze and hug. The plush looks exactly like one of Clive’s paintings, so right off the bat Barker fans will want one.
Ah, but there is more! Each Jump Tribe box contains not only a delightful plush doll but also a little hardback book (which is available only with the plush) which details a charming and odd tale involving that character. Yaboo and his friends encounter a portable hole (has Clive been reading Spike Milligan?) and being too curious (or perhaps he just lacks a cat) Yaboo decides to explore where this hole goes to himself. Of course, holes have more than one side and things can come out of them as well as go into them…
Throughout this charming little hardback there are strange characters inscribed on the edges of the pages. When you reach the end you will find a Jump Tribe language decoder so you can go back and find what secret message has been inscribed in the book (its like being in the Warlord club again getting your secret message from Lord Peter Flint! Oh, he shows his age there…). It’s a great little set with the plush and book in the box – a perfect gift for the young and the young at heart alike. Like his Abarat series Clive has made something which younger readers will adore but which will appeal to adults too. I’ve got Yaboo sitting on my desk as I type this and he is nodding his enthusiastic agreement. I like my Yaboo.
Fri, Oct 14, 2005
Merchandise, Reviews