Keeper of Soles (review)

Colin the shoemaker is dismayed when Death comes for his soul one night, but he sticks to his last to the last, observing that poor Death is barefoot and insisting on kitting him out with a spanking new pair of sandals ("They would go with the robe"). When Death returns for his sandals and their maker, Colin sends him off to test the sandals for a week; upon Death's return, the cobbler convinces him he needs boots, and so on until Death has a lavish footwear wardrobe and Colin has finagled many extra years. When Death finally puts his well-shod foot down and insists that it's really, undeniably time for him to take Colin's soul, Colin shrewdly responds that he's been giving Death sole after sole, causing an amused Death to settle for Colin's soles until they wear out, at which point he'll finally come for the shoemaker's soul. Rather than just leaving her primary pun to carry the load alone, Bateman helps her story along with a folkloric structure, wry, witty text ("Death was used to people trying to bargain their way out of his services. Nobody before, however, had inquired after his footwear"), and evocative but never overwhelming touches of dark imagery (Death's voice "spoke of graveyards and dark, starless nights"). While Colin is an appealing protagonist, this is a refreshing break-out role for Death, here an unmalicious if limited sort who's really just trying to do his job and enjoys actually getting to know somebody for a change ("Death visited him often enough that they became friends, if such can be said of Death"). Yayo's acrylic art emphasizes the folkloric quality of the story with quirky narrow figures, nonchalantly naïve draftsmanship, and a muted carnivalesque palette; creative interpretation adds to the amusement by employing shoe shapes both explicitly (Colin has a shoe-shaped bed) and implicitly (the landscape of Colin's village appears in the outline of a shoe) and larding the images with creative details (Death's Colin-made sandals have a coffin-shaped sole). This would be a splendid partner to Rees' Grandy Thaxter's Helper (BCCB 10/04) or make for a terrific and appropriately light-hearted read for the Day of the Dead.