Article: Making Fairy Tales Realistic With Fables Creator Bill WIllingham

Fables Issue 1 Cover

"All of the folklore and fairy tale characters from the stories you know so well, Cinderella, Prince Charming, Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf...are still alive today, living in our world, after having been chased out of their own very magical worlds by the vast armies of a wicked conqueror known only to them as The Adversary," explains series author Bill Willingham of the initial premise. "Now, these refugees have banded together in an underground community in New York City."

 Since I've just posted on Bill Willingham's Fables  - the premise of which I've included above in the creator's own words - I thought it'd be interesting to look back on his approach to fairy tales and how he adds his own dose of realism (before Once or Grimm appeared).

This article is from io9.com in June this year to coincide with the release of the anthology Happily Ever After which Mr. Willingham wrote the introduction to, and has a lot to say on Mr. Willingham's thoughts about fairy tales and about writing based on them.

K: Why do you feel that fairy tales continue to be popular through the years?

  W: One, because they belong to everyone, and not just everyone in terms of group or national ownership, which is a silly notion, but every single individual who wants to do something with them, or simply read along, or watch along, as someone else does something new and wonderful with the material.

Two, because fairytales are powerful...

(you can continue reading HERE).

I like that Mr. Willigham has a self-imposed rule on how he uses tales too, to keep a solid grounding:

...The original tale of each character I use happened just the way the old tale states it. Then I work on what's happened since then, and how I can justify the changes I make in the character, in reasonable story terms. Now there is some wiggle room there, since many of these old stories have multiple versions, and so I can pick the version that works best for my plans, and still remain true to the governing rule.

 Check the images below for a quick summary of how the Fables story started (or at least where Bill Willingham starts writing his version of the characters).

 You can read the whole article on how Mr. Willingham writes reality into fairy tales, as well as a little more on the anthology HERE.

Between the Pages: Video Discussion on Fairy Tale TV, Movies & Fables

With all the recent fascination in fairy tales being updated and twisted, Bill Willingham's Fables have come up in discussion since day one of the Once & Grimm TV premieres, the concern being that his long popular idea has been "ripped off" (with special finger pointing at the Once Upon A Time producers).

Bill Willingham himself met with the Once Upon A Time producers to sort out any misunderstandings (a meeting which went very well) and has assured fans in a self-interview/essay that there is no "rip off" in progress but instead more of a "fairy tales in the zeitgeist" situation. You can read all about it in this article HERE from earlier in the month which has the "self-interview" and a more recent one HERE in which the Once creators are interviewed on their view of the meeting (this is the one The SurLaLune Blog linked to this week).

I have to post an excerpt because no matter what gripes and niggles I have about anything based on fairy tales, this is my main feeling too. Mr. Willingham asked himself this (and I'm posting the "general" answer part, though he gets more specific in the article):

"Do you like (the ABC series) Once?" 

I like anything that raises the awareness of fairy tales and folklore as the raw stuff from which some of our best stories are being told today. The mercenary part of me hopes that every single fan of "Once" will also check out "Fables." Remember, stories aren't automatically in competition with each other. If I like Batman, it doesn't mean I have to dislike Captain America. I'd hate for "Fables" to be the only fairy tale-based story out there. If that were the case, I'd have nothing to read or watch for pleasure in this genre I love. I want more of what I want. Snacks are nice, but a feast is better.

Not all fans are so accepting of this trend though, particularly comic book enthusiasts, despite Mr. Willingham's plea to fans to back-off with the accusations:

As grateful as I am to discover so many loyal Fables readers, willing to man the barricades, to help protect a story they love; as much as it moves me to realize I’ve been part in creating something that clearly moves you, affecting your lives in ways only a good story, well-told can, I think it’s time to lay off.

Some of the fan responses haven't been nice at all, calling Mr. Willingham a "coward" (among other things!) but I think it's clear that despite it all, Fables is very likely to attract a whole new slew of fans because of Once. (Maybe that's the fan-plan after all. :D ) As far as I can tell Mr. Willingham hasn't responded to these comments and personally, I don't think he should have to. I think he said it all incredibly well in his interview/essay.

This leads me up to today's actual post topic (apparently I had more preamble in me than planned!) which is a new web show called "Between the Pages". It discusses issues going on in the comic book world with a guest and right now, fairy tales are the hot topic. This week they discuss everything from comics to TV series to the variety of movies coming out based on fairy tales. Take a look:



What do you think? Do you agree with their assessments for the TV series? How about their movie success (or lack of) predictions?

While we're on the topic of comparisons, I thought I'd throw this is in for some extra fun. Here is a "pre-Once" article from October which pits Disney characters against their Fables counterparts to see who wins. Here's the idea:

The idea of fairytale characters exiled into the real world appeals to readers because of their familiarity with the characters -- or at least the kid-friendly version from Disney. But how would the Vertigo revamps stack up against their all-ages counterparts? We've asked Invincible Super-Blogger Chris Sims to put some of our favorite Fables against their Disney counterparts for a head-to-head comparison to find out!

It's a recommended read and should leave you smiling. :) Check it out HERE.

"The Thorn & The Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story" by Theodora Goss

 

Writer/poet, Theodora Goss

We have a new book to look forward to in January from Theodora Goss, whom you may know from her gothic-styled fairy tale short stories of her book The Forest of Forgetting.

This particular work The Thorn & The Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story is more legend than fairy tale, being loosely based on the legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but it's unique form - and I mean physical form here - is making even those people completely won over to e-books and digital formats sit up and take notice.

 

You can read and see more about the construction and format of the book on Ms. Goss' blog HERE. (Bonus - she has her book propped up on some lovely William Morris pillows. Nice.) She also mentions she was going to write about her challenges with this particular story construction but I haven't managed to find that yet in my already-borrowed-more-than-planned computer time today!* I do recommend having a browse and read through her blog if you're interested in writing. She has a lot of interesting observations on life, myth and much much more that will appeal to fairy tale people.

You can choose to either read  side of the star-crossed lovers story: Brendan's version or Evelyn's. They're both incorporated into the binding on opposite sides by being printed in an accordion-style.

Check the images in the post and the book trailer below and you'll see what I mean.



 I have a feeling this will be a big seller for Valentine's Day. :)

*My apologies: I'm SO behind on fairy tale news and emails this week with hardly getting any time online. I will have to do a catch up post if I possibly can. There's too much good stuff happening right now to not at least comment on it. I can't promise I will but I do promise to try.

Su Blackwell Designs Sets For "The Snow Queen"

Poster for The Rose Theater's 2011 Production of The Snow Queen, with designs by Su Blackwell.

Yesterday, fantastical paper-and-more artist Su Blackwell posted her designs for a theatrical production of "The Snow Queen" and, as you might expect, her magical touch with paper cutouts rules the set.

In an interview Ms. Blackwell talked about her approach to set design, something which she hasn't tackled before. Here are some excerpts:

"It starts off with an industrial, Victorian, brick town in Denmark, which is quite bleak and then as Girder travels through the seasons, it becomes a magical, fantasy world," says Blackwell. "My favourite scene is Mrs D's garden, which is quite surreal and topsy-turvy. I had fun playing with the scale of props for that and planning explosions of colour for the stage."

...When it came to the set designs, each one was made by hand, on a small scale out of paper first before being turned over to the production team to recreate, scaled-up in canvas. "It was quite a restrictive way of working because the Rose is a circular theatre, so everything is on view and you haven't got the advantage of hiding part of the set away," she says.

You can read the whole article HERE.

And here's a very important piece of fairy tale news from the same article:

She's also illustrating a book of fairytales that will be out next autumn.

I'm putting that on my fairy tale wish list right now! :)

You can read a full review of the production by The Guardian HERE, which, as you might also suspect, has some lovely things to say about Ms. Blackwell's design.

A nice theatrical addition to this production is The Snow Queen Christmas Trail. From the Rose Theater website:

The Rose Theatre presents a selection of free performances of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales on the streets of Kingston to celebrate our adaptation of his most loved work, The Snow Queen. (Dates indicated here) ...The Snow Queen Trail project is supported by the Mayor of London's Outer London Fund which aims to strengthen the vibrancy and growth of London's High Streets.

The Rose Theater has been posting some images from the traveling players on the "Trail" on their Twitter account too. For instance:

 The Snow Queen went out into Kingston last night

to find a child to fix her broken mirror.

 

 Our travelling players get to work in Kingston...

The Trail runs from December 7th through to the 23rd and look like a wonderful way to build interest in the production, the story and help people enter the fairy tale world. I wish I could see it in person.

Nick Frost Interviewed on "Snow White & The Huntsman" & Going To Dwarf School

 

With filming now wrapping up on Snow White & the Huntsman, British actor/writer Nick Frost was recently interviewed by Huffington Post on the various film roles he's working on and the unique challenges he's facing in each. Despite the being put through his paces with unique CG capture work and additional training to add to his already substantial skill set, according to Mr. Frost, nothing compares to preparing for Snow White And The Huntsman.

"We had to attend dwarf college for, like, two weeks before we started shooting, to learn how to move like a dwarf," Frost told The Huffington Post of the preparation for his role as Nion, one of seven warrior dwarfs. "It's very, very weird and quite tough, because you have to stick with it for the whole thing. You can't forget and suddenly start walking quickly or your arms get long. You have to stay with it all the time. It was a great shoot -- I got to hang out with Bob Hoskins for three months."

Joining Frost and Hoskins, who played the dwarf Muir, were Ian McShane, Toby Jones, Eddie Izzard, Ray Winstone, Eddie Marsan and Stephen Graham, composing quite the distinguished group of dwarf college alumni. But things didn't get much easier for the crew once they were handed their diplomas.

 Read the whole article HERE.

I do like that they made an effort with this particular attention to character detail. Dwarfism is a medical condition with a unique set of challenges for those born with it and, with the rigorous training reported for the role of Snow White's companions for this movie, I'm hopeful this has been respected and treated with sensitivity.

 One of the things I like about reading the Grimm's Little Snow White is that the dwarfs never seemed like "funny, magical fairy people" to me but just a group of down-to-earth people with similar physical challenges (symbolically the idea of dwarfs in tales was specifically to do with nature and the earth and I think I got that, even as a child). Their perspective and way of life not only provided Snow with shelter and safety as she grew up but also gave her solid roots for her future. Can you imagine if she had somehow survived growing up within in the castle? Apart from oppression and the likelihood of abuse from an 'untrue parent figure', the worst thing would be that history repeated itself and Snow White's own vanity - which gets her into trouble three times - ends up mirroring her stepmothers, continuing the cycle and very likely exacerbating it when she moves into power herself.

But back to the movie. :) I really like this new trailer they're showing, although Snow White herself remains very quiet. I'm beginning to like that too.

 The Queen, played by Charlize Theron is obviously a force to be reckoned with and is looking more and more like the Queen of my imagination, perhaps not exactly in looks but definitely in spirit. I'm actually starting to look forward to this movie.

For something fun I found this invitation to the Snow White & the Huntsman wrap party. (Found HERE.) Neat stamp, huh? I can see fans making good use of it.

Butterfly Dresses

 

You may already have seen this amazingly-gorgeous-wow dress by Luly Yang. Although I'm not really into high fashion this incredible dress caught my eye quite a few years ago and I haven't forgotten it.

 

(Does that magazine cover say '68??! It must have made a comeback in the early 2000s for me to have noticed it.)

Here's a slightly different version which is being used around the web. It appears to be designed after (ie. "in the style of") the Luly Yang dress but I don't know who the official designer is of this one or when it appeared.

2011 (as far as I can tell) was the first year a designer came close to making the same impact with an original take on the butterfly theme. You have to admit, the monarch butterfly is so striking all on its own. To have a dress that would make as big an splash not using the monarch design and colors would be difficult. One designer seems to have found a way to look beyond this (now) classic, still using the impact of the monarch but in a very different way.

The designer is Alexander McQueen, who has an incredible flair for the fantastic in his designs.

 

 

There are even matching shoes! (I'm thinking comfort isn't premium for these sandals, though looks can be deceiving.) 


Check out the Alexander McQueen website and click on The Experience - wow. The 2011 collection in particular all looks like it was designed for a modern court of Faerie, complete with those princess-hip-flares [hip bustles??] you see in King Louis the XIV court styles. The 2011 collection is definitely nature inspired too so, again, perfect for a modern Faerie court.

I only wish the dress were longer with a sleeker silhouette, rather than going for the hip-bustle (?) short skirt look. I think a long sheath version, perhaps with a large and long hem flare and train, would be incredibly elegant and regal.

This is a backstage shot but I love the natural looking lighting here. I'll have to search to see if they did a magazine shoot for this dress. Imagine the possibilities!

Normally you think butterfly dress = fairy queen or Midsummer Night's Dream and that certainly is fitting. I, however, can't help think of a butterfly dress being the perfect outfit for Cinderella. (Has anyone done that anywhere?) The metaphor is fitting and I even found a very different butterfly dress that would work for a Cinderella character too. This dress is now in a museum and apparently marks an emergence in the history of fashion design (although this reminds me of ancient Egyptian silhouettes...).

Charles James (American, born England, 1906–1978). "Butterfly" Dress, 1955. Smoke gray silk chiffon; pale gray silk satin; aubergine, lavender, and oyster white tulle. Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. John de Menil, 1957 

From the Brooklyn Museum:

This design invites multiple interpretations. The form alludes to the extreme bustles of the 1880s and at the same time can be imagined as a transformation of the female body into that of a butterfly with iridescent wings that shimmer when they move. References to the past aside, it was a form hitherto unknown in the history of fashion. Twenty-five yards of tulle were used in its making.

And since we're on the subject of butterfly dresses I had to include this art piece titled "While You Were Sleeping" by Su Blackwell (perhaps best known for her incredible fantasy paper cut work) which, again, feels very Cinderella-appropriate to me.

Little aside: while butterflies have married well with Cinderella in my brain for some time now, I hadn't thought to connect Cinderella and sleep before. I love that there are so many different ways to look at the tales!

The dress, and other pieces of Ms. Blackwell's work, reminds me of that last beautiful scene from The Corpse Bride (which is, as you probably know, based on a Russian-Jewish folk tale). I wonder if Tim Burton was inspired by Ms. Blackwell and her butterflies? The butterfly is the running theme throughout that movie and is used so beautifully.

"Il Etait Une Fois": A Pop-Up Book of Fairy Tales by Benjamin Lacombe

Today , yesterday (don't you hate it when your planned computer time just doesn't happen?), Heidi posted my Fairy Tale Favorite Things Christmas Wish List on her SurLaLune Fairy Tales Blog and the first two items had something in common: they're both by the amazing Benjamin Lacombe*.

If you don't know who this artist is, this is the best way I can think of to introduce you to the wonder that is Benjamin Lacombe.

Just have a look at this amazing book trailer, which is for the second "most wanted" item on my wishlist:



The book is a brilliantly realized and beautifully printed pop-up and although there isn't a whole lot of text, you really don't need it (which is extra fantastic if you don't know much French). Take a closer look at some of the pages.

Peter Pan

Bluebeard

 Mr. Lacombe is not only talented in illustration,  he writes, was very particularly involved in the process of creating the cut outs and design for the pop-up and if I understand correctly, he was not only intimately involved in planning and designing the animation for the trailer, he even tried his hand at the actual animation himself (with amazing results!). It helps, of course, that he's obviously very drawn to fairy tales and even his other illustration that isn't based on fairy tales still has a fairy tale feel to it. I haven't found anything he's illustrated I don't like yet. :)

Red Riding Hood

Thumbelina

I'll write more about his many talents and the variety of his work another time but for now you may have noticed I wrote this amazing book is not Number 1 on my list but Number 2.

Why?

Because Mr. Lacombe has also illustrated his own version of "Blanche Neige" (Snow White), which has been on my must-have-as-soon-as-possible list since I first saw it and has been my number one wish item for the entire year...

Amazing, no? And the cover has this illustration wrapped around it.

Although Snow White (or Little Snow White) has been a favorite tale of mine since I was small (for different reasons at different times) it's not the only reason I'm drawn to this book. Wait until you see how Mr. Lacombe handled the telling (showing) of the story and oh-so-familiar scenes and you'll see why. This beautiful book is something even those skeptical about the Snow White tale seem drawn to.

I will (hopefully!) add another post just for this amazing book tomorrow (also known as the very next time I get some computer time to put the finishing touches on my post and make it live!). Stay tuned!

*Yes! Benjamin Lacombe IS on Facebook (that's where the link goes). And you get to see lots of lovely previews and extras if you 'like' his page. :)

Red Riding Hood Cosplay: Are You Afraid?

 

With all the attention to cinematic loveliness focused on some of the more popular fairy tale characters this year and last I'm not surprised to see people getting even more creative with their cosplay (short for "costume play") and photography.

Even though the examples here are clearly inspired by Catherine Hardwicke's recent Red Riding Hood movie adaptation, that doesn't take away from the final images. I really like the titled photo as a mock-book cover.

The title "Are You Afraid?" makes it clear the idea was to show a wary Red Riding Hood. Perhaps the apples are to represent temptation?

The cosplayer is GarnetTilAlexandros and the photographer is Мокрушина Оксана✪[MAD.CREATIVE.CHARACTER] aka mokrushina.

You can see even more photos from the cosplay shoot HERE.

Source: HERE