"Erstwhile" Volume 3 Is Coming! (& You Can Help)

If you've been following this blog for a few years you'll be familiar with Erstwhile comics - the amazing team that rewrite and illustrate little known Grimm tales in an effort to bring them back into circulation. You may not know, however, that Erstwhile are preparing to print they're final volume... with a little help.

If you read any other fairy tales blogs (which we dearly hope you do! They are all unique treasures!) you will know how much all of us committed fairy tale folk love this project and heartily lend support whenever we can. For a cliff notes version (ie. short but highly informative) of the team behind Erstwhile and just what these comics are  - and why they're worth your time - Fairy Tale Fandom has a nice write-up and tribute HERE.

Erstwhile comics are one of the only retellings that actually add to the tales without really impairing the originals in any way. That's... amazing. As a bonus, these comics are set in different times and have a wonderful diversity of characters as well. Just take a look at some of the individual tale covers scattered through this post.

The comics and volumes are largely a labor of love so each collection (volume) has been helped into existence by way of a Kickstarter fund and Erstwhile 3 is doing the same. This time around they've gotten extra creative with their supporter rewards too.

There is just 28 days to go, (at this writing) with just under $4 000 of the goal (of $15 000) remaining, so you have just a few weeks to snag some exclusives and be part of history.


The stories in Erstwhile 3 will include:

• The Singing Springing Lark 

• King Thrushbeard 

• The Wolf & the Man 

• The Twelve Huntsmen 

• Sweetheart Roland 

• The Ungrateful Son 

• The Leftovers 

• The Wolf & Seven Kids 

• Mother Holle 

• The Golden Key (exclusive to the book)

And here are the Erstwhile comic collections so far:

One thing we don't see mentioned much, with regard to Erstwhile, is the fascinating discussions they inspire  as each page, or set of pages, was released. Their pattern was that they would upload pages twice a week from a story in progress, with a whole lot of interested comic fans watching and commenting as they (often) read this story, for the first time, in installements. The comments archives for each tale and page are really interesting to read! (Make sure to have a big cup of coffee with you, if you dive in. There's s LOT to read!)

You can check out the comics on the web for yourself HERE, to find out even more about this wonderful long term project. We're sad to hear this is the end of the series but the world of fairy tale appreciation is wider and more informed due to theses women's amazing work.

Hats off  to you Ladies!

"Erstwhile" Says Goodbye With "Mother Holle"

Would you believe Erstwhile, who have been bringing us wonderful comics of lesser known fairy tales, has been going for eight years? Sadly for us, the wonderful team of Gina, Elle and Louisa now feel it's time to bring this adventure to an end and to free themselves up for other things they've been wanting to do. While many of us sort of half-expected them to continue until all the tales were tackled, it should be acknowledged how much wonderful work in writing, designing and illustration these girls have done, consistently beautifully, over many years now. The web comic now unfolding twice a week, Mother Holle, is their final installation but well worth following, especially as it's the last chance we will have to do so - at least like this.

A note from the creators from their official website:

We are most honored to present to you our final story for the Erstwhile series, Mother Holle, by Gina Biggs. Yes, this story will indeed be our swan song, though it will be a song that carries on to the end of August and end with a Kickstarter for our third collected volume of fairy tales. 

Louisa, Elle, and myself have worked on Erstwhile for eight years now, though not all of those years was the series available online as a webcomic. In that time we have tackled twenty-four of our most favorite lesser-known fairy tales and we are quite proud of that work. 

We agree that it has been an amazing eight years together, but all feel that it is time to say goodbye. We want to move from this structure and possibly branch out with new comics, new fairy tale inspirations, and new adventures. We thank you so much for sharing in this love of fairy tales with us. We hope you will read to the end and in August grab the final hardcover volume of the collection. Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts! 

Now, please enjoy the comic!

There are a few pages out already and if you logged in while they were having glitch and server issues and were unable to see their pages, that's now been resolved. Although comments (which are always wonderful to read and a great discussion center) have been lost for those pages, they are once again showing in order and the new pages are stable.

If you haven't yet, you can purchase previous volumes of Erstwhile tales via HERE and, after Mother Holle is complete, they will be Kickstarting a campaign for the third and final volume of fairy tales as well. (All are/will be available in print and in e-copy form.)

This wonderful team have done amazing work in bringing lesser known tales back into circulation and we're so grateful for all their work. I can't wait to see what they plan to do next, especially with regard to fairy tales.

Note: The artwork shown within the post are the covers for the two volumes to date, which are still available to purchase. We'll keep you updated on the Kickstarter campaign for the third and final volume when it happens.