It's an interesting interpretation but one that meshes well with everything else we've seen up until now. The black and white nature of Mattotti's illustrations in particular make the gingerbread house no longer something of wonder, but something to be feared in this dark and dangerous world. This works in the book's favor, their silhouettes transforming them into stand-ins for every young child in the world they're no longer random characters, but somehow almost someone you know and fear for. Hansel and Gretel are little more than shadows in a world of darkness, lacking any distinguishable features aside from being a little boy and a little girl. There's an amazing sensation of motion on these pages, with the thick inks swirling and swooping from one location to another. These black and white illustrations are gorgeous, bringing adjectives to mind like wind-swept and flowing. Hopefully, this will go a way towards fixing that. Savvy comics readers will have encountered his dark, gloomy art in publications like "Chimera," "Fires," and "Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde" before, but he's never had a massive breakout success in the comics world that put his name on everyone's lips. Painted in india ink, it's easy to see how Mattotti's illustrations inspired multiple showings of the work.
Switching from one form to the other doesn't break the spell, it in fact enhances it, plunging you further and further into the shadows of the story. As a result, the two contributions end up feeding off of one another. What makes this setup work so well is that both creators are able to own their own conjure up dark, disturbing images. The book goes back and forth in that regard, never letting you go too long without a dose of one creator or the other. The format of the book is a little different than you might expect it alternates, first with a two-page spread of a single illustration by Mattotti, then two pages of traditional storybook text from Gaiman.
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