The battle for the free world and the safety of dreams is fought in the sleepy little California town of Palomo Grove.  Wouldn’t you just know it would be in Cali?

It all starts decades earlier in the dead letter office of an Omaha, Nebraska, post office.  (Wouldn’t you just know it would start in Omaha?)  Roland Jaffe sorts through the mail that can’t find its destination, pocketing lost money, dirty pictures, and a secret knowledge about a secret side of America.  Jaffe discovers clues and allusions to what may be a secret religion, but discovers it’s much more than that, it’s a secret and private side to humanity.  It’s called the Art, and it’s a key to paradise, to our very dreaming.

Following the clues and any information he can ferret out, Jaffe begins his journey which leads him across an “other” America.  This journey of discovery leads him to an ugly little half-naked man in a hut in New Mexico named Kissoon.  Kissoon is the last of the Shoal, those who protect the dream sea, Quiddity, the island that is found there, the Ephemeris.  There are creatures on that side of being, the Iad Uroboros, who wish to cross the dream sea and wreak all manners of havoc on Earth.  To get to Quiddity, one must use the Art.  Jaffe gets a little freaked because Kissoon won’t teach him to use the Art, he wants Jaffe for his body.  Literally, he wants to take over Jaffe’s body, so Jaffe hits the highway in a hurry and decides to find a new way to Quiddity.

Jaffe soon finds Fletcher.  Richard Fletcher is a scientist who is shunned by academia because he likes alchemy a little too well.  Teaming with Jaffe, Fletcher develops a substance called the Nuncio that can elevate human existence.  It is the Nuncio that made Raul, an evolved ape.  They believe the Nuncio can help them get to Quiddity, but Fletcher believes he has created a great wrong.  In a fight with Jaffe, they both partake of the Nuncio and it transforms them to beings beyond the flesh.  Their intangible fighting leads them to Palomo Grove, and they fall as a lake from the sky.  When a group of local girls take a dip in the lake, Fletcher and Jaffe impregnate the girls.  It’s the children of the Good Man Fletcher and the Jaff (as he changes his name to) who will help decide the fate of existence, both on Earth and in Quiddity.

Don’t look to me to explain the plot of The Great and Secret Show, just read Clive Barker’s novel.  Then read the comic adaptation.  I read the Complete Great and Secret Show, the twelve issue miniseries collected in one volume!, and my first thought was I couldn’t believe it had been twenty-one years since I had read the book.  Oh my Lord, where does the time go?  The Great and Secret Show was the first Barker novel I ever read, and it was the book that made me a Barker fan.  You wouldn’t know it from the comic adaption.

The Complete Great and Secret Show is a good read, and it was nice to visit the material again.  But it feels sketchy.  It feels like something was left out of the story, leaving it somewhat underdone, akin to a Cliff Notes version.  Plus it doesn’t have the feel of Barker’s prose.  I wasn’t too fond of the artwork, either; it was too Saturday morning cartoon to my liking.  You could do worse, but do yourself one better and read the original novel.

3.5 out of 5
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