Fantasy artist Charles Vess rarely turns his talents to comic book art. When he does, it's something special -- like, for instance, his occasional forays into Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, where Vess helped Gaiman bring Shakespeare into the realms of fantasy.

An atypical example of his work is the graphic novel Spider-Man: Spirits of the Earth, which Vess wrote and illustrated. But, while Vess decided to tackle Marvel Comics' most endearing and enduring superhero, he opted to take the hero out of his usual haunts among the skyscrapers of New York City. Instead, we find plain Peter Parker taking a second honeymoon with his supermodel wife, Mary Jane, to the wild Scottish highlands.

Thus begins a tale of ghosts and faeries, pubs and castles, ancient moors and dank ruins, kidnappings and lies. And, of course, an earnest hero at the center of it all. (Of course, Peter never travels without his tights.)

It's an amusing point that Spider-Man, accustomed as he is to swinging between skyscrapers, must now leap from cottage roof to cottage roof and climb trees to get around. At least there's one ancient castle for him to clamber on. And Vess's rendition of the windy Scottish countryside is gorgeous, both majestic and mystical.

Vess has a knack for artistic realism. While no one would mistake his artwork for photographs, his panels in this book contain a sense of reality and of stopped motion that many artists strive and fail to achieve. He works well in the shadows and in twilight scenes -- and, as a writer, he has a good handle on the Scottish dialect.

And then there's Peter's wife. While some Marvel artists accentuate the glamor and plastic of supermodels, Vess draws a down-to-earth Mary Jane, the sort of woman one might actually fall in love with. She is far more appealing -- and infinitely more real -- in this incarnation. She also exhibits a toughness, and an acceptance of the duty that calls her husband from her side on so many nights, which many Marvel writers avoid. While they might prefer her to be a screaming, shrewish wife for Peter, I like Vess's interpretation.

And if it might seem a little obvious that, in a small Scottish village, an American couple appears, and later the woman is seen in the company of a masked hero with an American accent -- well, who are they going to tell?

As a bonus, Vess has included a brief journal of his own time in Scotland, accompanies by photos, sketches and a list of the music he listened to while working. It's a nice, personal touch to round out the book.

[ by Tom Knapp ]