Master Snickup's Cloak;

Master Snickups Cloak is a Medieval moral tale animated by the spirit of Poe and Burroughs. It weaves a web of Gothic horror around a story of childhood love, tragically betrayed. Alexander Theroux creates a pageant of characters that wittily parodies 20th-century preconceptions of the Dark Ages. Amongst these characters are the divinely beautiful but mercenary Superfecta; the money-grabbing burgher, Mijnheer van Cats; and Master Snickup himself, wanderer, ascetic and recluse. Brian Froud's illustrations depict in subtle colors a world teeming with tiny spirits and mutant devils. The text is set as in an antique parchment, a context that perfectly complements Theroux's wryly humorous fable.