Sherlock Holmes: The Final Problem
Most graphic adaptations of classic literature are massive disappointments. They tend to either go with a generic comic-book look or adapt the work in some way that makes a mess of the source material, often without even being interesting.
Swiss artist Hannes Binder’s illustrated version of Conan Doyle’s “last” Sherlock Holmes story, “The Final Problem,” is a wonderful exception. I put last in quotation marks because this is the story where Holmes was supposed to be killed off, falling from the Reichenbach Falls, only Doyle had to bring the great detective back due to popular demand. Even though it’s not really much of a story, it’s always been a favourite among illustrators because of the iconic scene where Holmes and Moriarty grapple at the top of the falls before plunging to their supposed deaths. That’s a moment you get here as well, though I think it’s worth pointing out that it’s not an event that is ever described in the story itself because in fact it never happens.
Binder’s black-and-white scratchboard technique is well suited for evoking mists and smoke and spider-webs, as well as hinting in a way I can’t really explain at a sort of aural quality. I think this latter is something Binder is conscious of too, as the full-page drawings of a screaming mouth and then an ear point toward the same thing. The mouth and ear are also suggestive of vortices that, like Moriarty’s sinister web, draw us in to our doom. Then the illustrations of a falling brick or a utensil shattering a dessert explode in ways that don’t require any textual effects. We can hear them well enough.
The text is abridged and adapted quite a bit, but in a way that I thought was remarkably efficient. And I liked the way Moriarty, a figure almost entirely absent, at least as a physical presence, from the story, shows up as a glowering atmospheric presence, a demonic eye of God. Binder isn’t just doing his own thing here but is making something distinctively in his own style while respecting the source. Holmes has been illustrated by a lot of different artists, right from the first published versions of his stories, but Binder doesn’t take a back seat to any of them.
Alex Good 
Excellent work on the cover, and Sherlock looks remarkably like Basil Rathbone.
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Yeah, Basil set a standard for such things. I don’t think Benedict is the same iconic figure (yet).
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No, don’t think they’re doing any more TV with him as Shirl. I googled how many actors have played him, 350 including radio and stage. Some great actors in the list, most surprising (to me) was Michael Caine 🤣 can’t imagine a cockney Sherlock.
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I think I watched that Michael Caine Sherlock. It was a farce/parody if I remember correctly. Sherlock was a fraud and it was all Watson in the background. If it is the one I’m thinking of, it was pretty amusing.
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Without a Clue 1988. I know I saw it but can’t remember it well now.
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I haven’t even wrapped up the Cumberbatch tv Sherlock, so I suspect any forays into the graphic novel side of things will be left strictly on your plate. You’ll have to eat an extra helping to make up for me not partaking 😉
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I’ve got a Sherlock Holmes pop-up book I’ll be getting to sometime!
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I wouldn’t say that event never happens, but that it un-happens. Doyle himself thought of Holmes as dead after that. So I think all the illustrators were right.
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They *were* right. But then they were wrong. There was a disturbance in the space-time continuum.
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You know that won’t work with me. I still don’t believe Vader is Luke’s father. What was, is. The rest is just nonsense. : -)
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You have unplugged from the matrix, and I salute you.
I can still say I haven’t seen a Star Wars movie or show or any part of the franchise after the original trilogy. I take it the mythology got kind of scrambled.
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Who knows? I don’t get it. Star Wars is complete in itself to me. You’ve got the right idea. If it weren’t for my kids, with whom I’ve seen two or three of the later movies, I would only ever have seen one additional movie because I think I was dumb enough to watch the first prequel once.
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