Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Cardboard Box
On the Case with Holmes and Watson #12
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Retold by Murray Shaw and M. J. Cosson
Illustrated by Sophie Rohrback and J. T. Morrow

Graphic Universe
March 1, 2012 / ISBN 978-0761370987
Paperback, Ages 9-12
Graphic Novels, Classics
Amazon

Reviewed by Beth E. McKenzie

In the spirit of Classics Illustrated, a comic book series of 30 years duration that featured adaptations from classic literature such as Lorna Dune, Hamlet, and The Moonstone, Graphic Universe's On the Case with Holmes and Watson brings the Sherlock Holmes canon to a new audience. "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was first published in the Strand Magazine in 1892 and is the 12th Holmes story to be retold in this colorful graphic style.

Miss Susan Cushing received quite the shock when she opened a cardboard box arriving in the post from Belfast. Resting in a bed of salt were two freshly cut human ears, one weathered and tan, the other much smaller and delicately formed, both pierced. Miss Cushing, who rents rooms, believed that the box was sent in revenge for turning out some rowdy medical students. The newspaper article piqued the interest of Holmes and Watson in Baker Street. In his now well-recognized style, Holmes asks a few odd questions, is denied an interview with Miss Cushing's sister in Croydon, solves a double murder in Liverpool, and confirms the source of the cardboard box. The story is followed by a list of key points that led Holmes to his questions and conclusion.

I decided to read the original story for comparison. It was published in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and also in His Last Bow. In both the original and graphic versions, "The Cardboard Box" contains family betrayal, the description of two violent murders, corpse mutilation, and a love affair. It is amusing to me that Doyle originally considered the illicit love affair in the story inappropriate to younger readers so he had the story removed from the first edition of the Memoirs (London 1894). It was included when the first American edition of the Memoirs was published, but not long afterward a second edition without the story replaced the first volume. It is interesting to me that 120 years later in the 21st Century we dress up the "Box" in colorful cartoons and market it to the 9-12 year-old set. Talk about a change in attitude!