Others have entered the Labyrinth before Sarah. In fact, Jareth decides to tell Toby, Sarah’s baby brother, about one such woman as he waits for Sarah to fail the maze. In 18th-century Venice, a young woman named Maria is married to Count Albert Tyton, and they seem to have the perfect life. But Tyton has been on the run from his father and the authorities since he married Maria, a woman below his station. When his father finally catches up to him, he succumbs to the temptation of his “visions,” the goblins, and wishes his child – indisputable evidence of his marriage to Maria – away. Maria was accidentally spirited to the Labyrinth as well, before the Owl King snatched her child from her arms and sent her back. She forces her return to the Labyrinth to rescue her son. Will she prevail?

It’s hinted multiple times throughout the book that this may be Jareth’s origin story – but in the Labyrinth, where things aren’t always as they seem, who can say? 😉 This first volume is the set-up for what is sure to be a winding tale of courage and deception, just what you’d expect from an offshoot of the original movie. It will be interesting to see how Maria’s journey parallels Sarah’s as the story moves forward.

The art is superb. The colors are bright, eye-catching, and fantastical. The linework is severely precise and clean, lending a grounding element to an otherwise tumultuous story. The goblins, and some new creatures, are rendered just as if they’d stepped out of Jim Henson’s imagination. Jareth and Sarah aren’t rendered exactly as David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly, but there is a great likeness and they are still instantly recognizable.

Looking forward to the next volume!

– Kathleen

Spurrier, Simon, Daniel Bayliss, and Dan Jackson. Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation (Vol. 1). 2018.