Russell's Ring, Volume 1

In the best tradition of the BBC, who used to broadcast the Ring Cycle at the rate of one act a week, I've been slowly making my way through volume one of P. Craig Russell's The Ring of the Nibelung. Here's a quick — ha! — overview:

( plot summary... )

Russell's version of Wagner's Ring cycle completely amazing and really seems to capture the spirit of the operas. The text is a translation from the German of Wagner's libretto, so the action follows the plot of the original very precisely, while the images capture all the bizarre contradictions of the original staging — the Rhinemaidens playing beneath the surface of the river, Alberich becoming a dragon and the valkyries carrying the warrior dead into Valhalla. The art even manages to transmute the Wagnerian leitmotivs into comic book form: by repeating a series of images, gradually increasing the detail, Russell is able to evoke the motiv of Nothung, of the ring or of another significant element in the story.

All in all, a work of sublime brilliance. I'm really looking forward to reading the second volume.