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It is clear from the first panel that Loisel has no interest in giving us a white-washed narrative: 'London... cold, hunger and misery merge to set the scene...' It's a Dickensian nightmare. The houses are cramped, the streets are full of cynical, selfish people and all is awash in the ordure of poverty. While it's clear that they all suffer together, there is precious little sense of community. The Londoners prey upon each other like rats in a cobble-stoned coffin. The single factor connecting the adult world and that of the young is a gnawing hunger to escape. So, we come to Peter, a ragged child holding forth to a group of orphans in a tiny yard. When we first meet him, his only magic lies in his words, transporting the children with marvelous stories of far away places and warming their hearts with the 'words of tenderness' he claims his mother whispers to him. (That damned harpy!) His struggle to maintain innocence in a tawdry world is heart-breaking, and renders the book firmly in the arena of adult reading. Loisel does an excellent job of portraying the darkness and terror of the adult world from a prepubescent perspective, in imagery, language and inference - laying down the psychological tracks that lead to Peter's perpetual childhood in Neverland. This is not a world for children.
Although he chooses to root the story in reality, the bulk of the adventure takes place in Neverland - though it's not actually named in the book. If there is one thing that Peter Pan represents, it's the joy of unfettered imagination, and Neverland fits him like a glove. Loisel's artwork is of the very highest quality, but the flames of his creativity burn brightest in Neverland. The island is brought vividly to life, in all its contradictions: blending Greek mythology, fairy tale, stories of the blood-red waves and the wild west. The character design is fabulous throughout: from Hook's haggard and bestubbled face to the Peter's gap-toothed grin, while the Lost Boys have never looked wilder. The pirates' attempts to steal the fairy treasure (and latterly exact revenge on poor Peter) is perhaps the one weak point of the story. It suffers from the same malaise as Barrie's original, with outlandish ploys and schoolboy tactics. That said, Hook is a formidable bully when roused, representing as he does all Adults in his grasping nature and cruel injustices. If this is a 'children's' story, then it's the kind they tell each other when there are no grown-ups around: full of brutality and bloody excess.
This is one of those rare books that gives you more and more each time you read it, whether it's in the spectacular detail of the artwork, fresh insights to story, theme or meaning. The artwork is sumptuous, the drama intense and the emotional punches are near-crippling. How many comics delve into gnaw-knuckle nastiness one minute and move you to tears the next? Precious blooming few, and that's a fact!