Adventure Time's Snow Golem & Fire Wolves

I'm ashamed to say it has taken me A VERY LONG TIME to give the cartoon series Adventure Time a go. Initially I thought the designs were ugly*** and expected crude/cruel humor, awful/hard-to-watch animation and a high cringe factor of subject matter but I was completely wrong.  Not only was I wrong but the mythic and creative aspects have made sure Adventure Time is now being DVR'd in our house as often as possible. I now completely understand how this independent show built a strong underground following and is getting more and more popular over time.

Although Adventure Time will not be to everyone's taste I was happily surprised by the high degree of both creativity and continuous myth-based references throughout. Finn the Human and his magical dog Jake are not only decent and sweet characters but incredibly heroic and venture into all kinds of different worlds (eg. Candy Kingdom, the Underworld etc) rescuing those in need while figuring out what is good and what is not. They're also incredibly funny*. :)

Another nice surprise was seeing how the designs actually made sense when animated (commercials don't give you the correct impression at all) and how whimsical it all became.

The Thanksgiving special, titled "Thank You", shows just how sweet and mythic this show can be. (It has a snow golem and fire wolves for goodness sake! There's a summary of the episode HERE in case I can't convince you to watch and be surprised. PS. I dearly want a fire wolf pup now.) My son, along with me, has watched the episode 4 times again today and still isn't sick of it. The episode is making waves around the internet with how touching it's proven to be.

Just watch**. You'll thank me. :)

* You can expect a degree of boy humor (because that's who the main character is) and the episodes, as with all shows, differ in their appeal but personally, I have enjoyed more of them  - and found a lot of fresh mythic references throughout - than not. I think a key element in tolerating these aspects is that in this show, they are not mean spirited at all. the characters are clearly have hearts of gold. Very much like the naive yet pure-hearted Jacks of fairy tales.
** I don't know if this will be available online for very long so take advantage of the freebie viewing while you can.  
*** The design work on the show is actually top notch! The commercial-editing just doesn't do justice to the look. The pace and spirit of the show backs up the wonderfully naive-like approach to the character looks and it actually works so well, by the time you've watched an episode like "Thank You" you find yourself looking up Adventure Time Art sources on the web for hours!

12 Days: Fairy Tale Quilt

Fairy tales are a popular choice for advanced quilters (many of whom might be considered fiber artists with their innovative use of dying fabrics, applique and embroidery combinations). I have a few unique artworks in my archives to show you sometime, including the original subject I was looking for - a Princess and the Pea quilt - but while I didn't find any P&tP quilts that stood out to me, I did find a simpler, lovely multi-tale quilt for sale on Etsy. It comes with a rod pocket sewn into it so you can choose to use it as a wall hanging if you wish.This one is by MoonGazerQuilts and I'd consider grabbing it myself if it had a more gender-neutral color for the border. It's called "Fairy Tales and Dreams" and you can find the quilt HERE (for under $50!) and also see the details of a lovely Noah's Ark quilt at the shop too.

NOTE: As usual, please note I am not affiliated with any of these stores or products. I do not receive any commission from any visit to the site or any purchase. These are just items I thought may interest people as fairy tale themed gifts for the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Yuletide/Holiday Season. :)


Don't forget the "Pursuit of Happiness" Giveaway!

Entries close IN LESS THAN A WEEK on December 20th, so be sure to email me before then.
(A preview of the prize is coming soon too.)

Details for the giveaway are HERE and the wonderful London Particulars (who are making this giveaway possible through their generosity) can be found HERE.

Creator Nick Percival Talks About His Dark Steampunk Comic "Legends: The Enchanted"

I posted on this coming-in-2010 comic HERE last week and, seeing as there was quite a bit of interest between comments and Twitter, I thought I'd point you to an excellent interview with the creator Nick Percival.

In the interview with Comic Book Resources, he reveals more about the fairy tale characters he's using and how they've been given a new twist. Here's an excerpt from the long, informative and interesting article:

"The Enchanted are looked upon with fear and distrust by normal everyday folk and despised by their dark counterparts, known as The Wicked," says Percival. "Most of the Enchanted operate as vigilantes, outlaws, bounty hunters and so on - trying to find their place and purpose in a land that is growing increasingly hostile towards them. Armed with a hard attitude, unique abilities and customized weaponry, the Enchanted's world is shattered when they discover that some unknown enemy has found a way to break through their mystic immortality and begins slaughtering them one by one beginning with the killing of the half bionic/half wooden warrior, Pinocchio."

Nick Percival: We've got Red Hood, who lives with her daughter in a very dangerous place known as the Bionic Woodlands - this area is overgrown with spiked bio-mechanical trees and living, organic plant life, populated by mutated wolf creatures. Basically, she just wants to be left alone and raise her child, but the murder of Pinocchio and the kidnapping of her daughter force her to reluctantly seek out help from other Enchanted.

Jack the Giantkiller pretty much just looks out for himself. He's sly, likes to drink and burns around on a beast of motorcycle that uses Giant's blood as fuel. Jack acts as a kind of "creature killer for hire." For the right price, he'll sort out any towns terrorized by Ogre problems, which he usually solves by popping one of his "magic beans" that grant him cool powers for a limited amount of time as he starts cracking heads together.

Filling out the rest of the cast are psychic siblings, Hansel and Gretel (Paranormal Exterminators), Goldilox and Bear, her nine-foot half man/half bear boyfriend. They have a "rob the rich to give to the poor" type quest, which involves them coming up against the crime boss, Humpty Dumpty and the Billy Goats Gruff Biker Gang - it doesn't end quietly.

Amongst these, we've got cameos from Rapunzel, a soldier with unbreakable hair that she uses to attack her enemies, Miss Muffet, Rumpelstiltskin, Pied Piper, Jack Nimble and many others all depicted in the same gritty style with attitudes to match in a world filled with goth-type giants, vampire fairies, pissed off trolls, demon street gangs, and all manner of unsavory folk.


Do you have a favorite fairy tale or fable?

I have a lot of versions of the classic tales that the Brothers Grimm collected together, some great old German editions as well. I've also been heavily into Hans Christian Andersen's work, so there are way too many to choose from. But a lot of the ancient Russian folklore is fascinating, and there are some themes in that material that I'm thinking about including in later stories for "Legends: The Enchanted."

You can read the entire article HERE and see LOTS of (very gory) images throughout (which can be viewed larger by clicking).

All the details of the website, when it's available and the preview are in my previous post HERE. A warning again: please keep this away from children. This is dark stuff and definitely in the horror genre. All these new images severely cropped for posting purposes on this blog. If you can deal with the images though (the illustrations are amazing in addition to being ultra-gory), this comic and the developing story sounds like it's worth checking out.

"Legends: The Enchanted" - Dark Steampunk Fairy Tale Comic Coming in 2010

The girl above is Redhood (a.k.a. Red Riding Hood) and she's not the only familiar character getting a dark fantasy/post-apocalyptic/steampunk/horror makeover. Coming in April 2010 is "Issue #0" (yes, that's a zero) of a new comic series titled "Legends: The Enchanted".

Please be warned: despite the title, this comic crosses the line into horror, which is one of the reasons I'm posting on it - so you'll know what you're in for should you ever pick it up. While the feel is dark fantasy, the images are very graphic in both the gallery and on every page in the preview. I'm not even comfortable posting the cover (which has Redhood in a different pose with some scary-looking supernatural creatures flanking her) or the other character images beyond those included in this entry for my blog readers. Please do NOT have children around when viewing the comic website. The official blurb:

From award-winning illustrator and acclaimed comic book artist Nick Percival comes a dark, original fairy tale.

You think you know them. Think again.

Violently ripped from the pages of folklore come the Enchanted. Supernatural immortals living in a dark, steampunk, creature-infested world where nature, technology and foul magic are in constant conflict. When the twisted, burnt remains of the half-wooden, half-mechanical warrior, Pinocchio, are discovered, wolf hunter Red Hood and giant killer Jack realize the fragile rules of their existence have been shattered. With the help of other powerful Enchanted (the mercenary, Goldilocks [edit FTNH: the character illustration in the gallery is tagged Bear/Goldilox, Bear being her hairy, ogre-like companion] and psychic exterminators, Hansel and Gretel), Jack and Red team up on an adventure to stop whatever, or whoever is destroying their powers and murdering their kind.

Poor Red has had so many makeovers, this version isn't surprising enough on it's own, but teaming her up with the other characters in their various bounty-hunter/killer-for-hire personas there might be something interesting there. Steampunk Pinocchio sounds like he never made it past the introduction but Hansel & Gretel as psychic exterminators? Should be enough like "Fables" to draw some fans in for a 'looksee', yet different enough (very, very dark!) to form a new set too. From the preview (available at the website) this is just so violent and gory, as much as I'm curious to see the steampunk variation, I'll likely be giving this one a miss.

If you're still interested you can find out more about the comic HERE and see more pictures in the gallery tab HERE (including possibly the scariest Pinocchio I've ever seen - yikes!).

The Boy Who Blogged Wolf (or Why We Need Fairy Tales In the Social Media Age) - Article Alert

I read this fun little UK Telegraph article by Shane Richmond on updating fairy tales to teach caution in today's digital age and thought it was not only amusing but also had something to say:

We often hear that new media poses a threat to our children. How do they learn the dangers of online interaction and how do they equip themselves for this new world? We can bore them senseless with school lessons on the subject but if we really want children to be aware of risk we’ll need fairy tales.

For centuries we’ve used fairy tales to teach children not to talk to strangers, to avoid getting lost in the woods and not to break into houses owned by bears. They need updating for the digital age. Here are a few suggestions:

Little Red Riding Hood
When her granny sends her a friend request on Facebook, Little Red Riding Hood doesn’t check the details too closely. When ‘granny’ invites her to a housewarming party at her new shack in the woods, Little Red Riding Hood goes along...

Keep reading HERE.

Mr. Richmond offers updated examples of Red Riding Hood (more people need to read this version), Aladdin (loved this one), The Boy Who Cried Wolf (timely - also see HERE for a cartoon on the subject and below for the notes on the gorgeous illustrations included in this post), Jack and the Beanstalk (the giant is great - and true!) and a Cursed Princess story (this needs to be emailed to as many friends as possible... ;D ).

Make sure you read the comments, as they're still appearing. Eg uzalparker said:

I think you’re missing the one about the Ugly Duckling who’s tweets weren’t as popular as his peers…until he became a tech-savvy swan and used tweet deck to rt the wolf to eat his gloating siblings. Wait, that sounds strangely familiar. (edit FTNH: rt stands for ReTweet)

Aaaand, I feel I must add one too:

(Ahem.)

Once upon a time there was a teenage Rapunzel, who, stuck (stayed) in her room, only communicating with those who found her isolated blog/Facebook comments/tweets in the middle of the massive internet wood and called up the long, long strands of hairy internet feeds to get her attention. Of course, being so estranged from the real world, the poor girl didn't realize she was being taken advantage of until she got into trouble, at which point her mother cuts off access, so her suitors are left to blindly wander the internet wood looking for her. Her mother, trying to force her to come to terms with her actions, throws her out into the physical world where she wanders until she's eaten by wolves. The End.

Go read, enjoy, think about it... (and if you have any social media cautionary fairy tales feel free to tell us about them in the comments).

NOTE the 1st: The lovely retelling and illustrations of The Boy Who Cried Wolf is from the book "Wolf! Wolf!" by John Rocco (who was also the Art Director on the animated film "Shrek"). Click on the illustrations for a larger view - you should be able to read the text too. The whole book is lovely - I pull it out regularly - and is a very interesting retelling of the story. John Rocco has a great promo site for the book, with sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes info HERE.

NOTE the 2nd: The Telegraph site seems to be having issues showing the page. Keep trying - it's worth it.

Jack and the Beanstalk Illustration project by Sam Bosma

These illustrations for Jack and the Beanstalk are part of the final student project of illustrator Sam Bosma and remain part of his online portfolio - and rightly so. The work is wonderful. Though he graduated in May of this year his work has already been recognized by The Society of Illustrators.

The captions below the pictures are Mr. Bosma's descriptions.

The swarthy butcher plans on cheating jack out of his goat friend.

I think this panel with the butcher is my favorite illustration. A lot of storytelling happening in this scene.Jack, halfway up the beanstalk, stops for a sandwich.

The giant's wife shows some hospitality.

He apparently rewrote the story for himself as part of nailing down the concept before laying out the illustrations for a book. Though he doesn't say this in his blog, his version seems to have a South American feel, even with the viking-like headdress of the giant's wife.

The giant is less generous with his golden bird.

You can find all his work in progress posts on this project and see large and lovely versions of the final pieces at his blog HERE. I only wish he'd posted his story too. I have to say I'm intrigued by this version.

Much of his work has an air of a folktales or calls to mind urban legends of various kinds (giants and other creatures abound). The black and white illustrations for the Lovecraft story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" are wonderfully moody and tell the story all by themselves. I recommend checking out the artist's website and online portfolio HERE.

Fairy Tale Names

Rumpelstiltskin by Jiri Trnka

In the land of Faery names are very important - to know a person or creatures name is to have power over it and so true names are closely guarded. This sensibility is reflected to varying degrees in many cultures too and so we end up with nicknames, honorifics, and even substitute names for infants to mislead mischievous gnomes, fairies or demons from stealing their souls.

But what about fairy tales? Names aren't usually given to all the characters in a fairy tale. Sometimes only one name is used and sometimes that name is really a representation of the character in focus and not their real name at all. Names still have a certain importance in fairy tales, though not having quite the same weight as the concept does in faery myths and legends but the choosing of an infants name is often given great weight and one tale in particular makes it clear that one's name is very important indeed.

Rumpelstiltskin by Kay Nielsen

I'm talking of Rumpelstiltskin of course. This is the tale with the most names mentioned in any fairy tale ever (that I'm aware of) and is part of the whole point of the story. What I find interesting is that in many of the versions I've read, the Queen (who is unnamed in most versions), when trying to guess the little man's name, starts with exotic sounding names, moves to whimsical/nonsensical names then ends up listing common ones before announcing the true name - which is completely unique - and getting herself, and her firstborn, out of a sticky situation. (You can read the story and the names the Queen recites at the awesome SurLaLune site HERE.)

Rumpelstiltskin by Anne Anderson

Rumpelstiltskin is one of those names that, once you know it, sticks in your memory but it's interesting to see the other fairy tale names that have also 'stuck' through the ages and across cultural boundaries.

This page HERE has an interesting list of names - male and female - in fairy tales for people to consider for their children. While a good portion of them are, unsurprisingly, from Disney retellings, there are quite a few unexpected ones too. (Rumpelstiltskin isn't on the list, presumably because no parent would ever inflict such a curse on their child.. here's hoping that assumption is correct!)

Here's a sampling of some unusual ones on that page:

BABETTE — Beauty and the Beast

FINETTE — Finette Cendron

JORINDE — Jorinde and Joringel

TALIA — Sun, Moon and Talia

WINNIFRED — The Princess and the Pea

It's by no means a comprehensive list but it does get the gray matter working a little! It's certainly a baby name category you don't very often, though I think it would be a very interesting little volume to put together - especially if it were multi-cultural.

Fairy Story (Rumpelstiltskin) by Jesus Blasco

Many of the names for the heroes and heroines are 'everyman' names. For example Ivan is extremely common in Russia, just like Jack is in English. The same goes for Hansel and Gretel which, to English speaking countries sounds exotic but to Germanic people is essentially Jack and Jill. When I was researching Jorinde and Joringel for my recent retelling I found reference to the fact that their names were the equivalent of 'George', in both the feminine and the masculine (which makes you think of the tale a whole different way again).

Sometimes, though, the names are special and unique. I'd be very interested to see a collection put together. Anyone up for the job? ;)

NOTE: I should point out that fairy tale character names were discussed on the SurLaLune discussion board quite a few years ago HERE. It mainly discusses the issue of lead character names but has other interesting points too.

Introducing The Fairy Tale Cupboard

I'd like to draw your attention to a fairly new blog I've linked to called "The Fairy Tale Cupboard". It's run by Claire Massey, the Editor of New Fairy Tales magazine, and is a wonderful treat to read.

(The Fairy Tale News Hound interviewed Claire recently. Watch for it - the post should be up some time today. Very interesting discussion on new fairy tales versus old!)

My favorite feature would have to be the Profiles of Famous Fairy Tale Figures. If you like Sarah Beth Durst's obscure fairy tale commentaries, you'll love these profiles. They're entertaining and educational and a wonderful summary and resource for study.

So far Red (of Riding Hood fame) and Jack (the Beanstalk Jack) have been profiled and we've had information on their names, ages, relationship status, story variations, online appearances and more.Who Has Come To Sing Us Carols?
by Cate Simmons (a.k.a. Steeringfornorth on Flckr)
This is just one of the amazing fairy tale artists Claire Massey has 'discovered' for us.

Here's an excerpt from Jack's rap sheet:

Age: Not as sprightly as he looks; there's no dating the oral story but the first recorded mention of him is in a burlesque version of the tale in an early eighteenth century chapbook...

And from Red's:

Relationship status: Two unlikely love interests, the first is the wolf, as seen in "Little Red-Cap"...

And there are little surprises too, like the recipe for a cake especially for Red's Granny (it has rum in it).

Gathering Together in Silence...
by Cate Simmons (a.k.a. Steeringfornorth on Flckr)

Other regular features include:

Fairy Tales and... : a series of subjects and their relation to fairy tales. Posted so far: Fairy Tales and Shadows, Fairy Tales and Beds. I love this feature too. Fabulous articles!
FoFTs (friends of fairy tales): info about wonderful people who work tirelessly to share and promote fairy tales. These are people we should all be aware of, being fairy tale enthusiasts.
Events/Exhibitions: info and reviews (Especially good for UK readers! Watch for ones in your area.)
Fairy Tale Treats: art, books and other lovely fairy tale related things. Claire has a real knack for finding gorgeous art/illustrations and objects. This is evident in the magazine too.

You can find The Fairy Tale Cupboard HERE.

So there's plenty of fairy tale related work coming from this talented woman, even between issues of New Fairy Tales online magazine.

Speaking of NFT, Claire is hard at working collecting and editing stories and commissioning gorgeous artwork for the next issue. If you'd like to contribute either writing or art, please contact Claire at editor AT newfairytales.co.uk and make sure to read the submissions information HERE too.

Star

by Faye Durston
Her work is featured in the first issue of New Fairy Tales.

"Fairy Tales and Strange Birds" - New Painting Series by Brenda York

"Rapunzel Lays Bare Her Wanton Waves"

by Brenda York

San Diego artist Brenda York is about to show her new series of paintings titled "Fairy Tales and Strange Birds". She describes her style as 'whimsical/figurative abstract' and will be showing her versions of Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Miss Muffet, Four & Twenty Blackbirds, Snow White (and her Little People') and Rapunzel.

Usually contemporary art renditions of fairy tales tend to the uber-dark or disturbing side as opposed to children's illustrations which tend to the other extreme of simple and graphic (ie. strong design) to detailed and traditionally illustrative. It's refreshing to see someone working with fairy tales in this vein for a change.

The image above is the first preview from the series on her blog and she's posted the series on her website since.

Here's what she says about her new works:

As promised, this week and next I will be posting my new series, "Fairy Tales And Strange Birds"...The opening reception will be on this coming Friday, Oct 9 at Bread & Cie in Hillcrest from 5:30 to 7pm. Please drop by for some wine tasting, treats and twisted fairy tales. There will be five new large paintings and eight individual portraits of Snow White's gang (And yes, I said eight!) ...Hopefully in the next couple of days I will have the whole series up on my website for up close viewing.

Jack And The Magic Bean Faux Pas
by Brenda York

You can see more of her work on her blog HERE and on her website HERE. Her fairy tale series can be viewed all together HERE.

Jacque and the Kelp Stalk

Here's a different interpretation of Jack and the Beanstalk: an underwater version!Artist Richard Peter Han explains his interpretation (from his BLOG):

Jacque is a deepsea treasure hunter and scavenger, when he comes across a kelp field and see's a giant sea monster climbing up a gigantic stalk carrying treasures up into his kelp lair.

And here he is, 'running' from the giant/sea monster on a giant nautilis.Here are a couple of design drawings for the main characters:I highly recommend clicking for the full view on the main paintings and the Jacque character sheet in particular - the scope of the paintings are beautiful and the character sheet is wonderfully expressive!

You can see more of Pete's wonderful designs, concepts and drawings HERE.

Keep Their Fairy Tales Away From Hospital

Here's a Romanian ad campaign for a recent charity ball (August 28th, 2009) for the Steps Towards Life Foundation. The English translation on the posters you see here was released this last week (mid-September 2009).The charity ball was run by "La Motoare" Club.

Here's the TV ad (In Romanian, but it's clearly part of the same campaign with some storytelling at the beginning).

The ad shows the phrase: "Ține poveștile copilăriei departe de spital." It translates (very roughly) as "(Keep) youngster story children (?) out from hospital":



You can see the ads full size HERE.

Tough Characters

On March this year Levi's Kids launched a campaign (found HERE) showing tough versions of fairy tale characters, all wearing Levi's of course.

You can click on the images for a more detailed view.The advertising agency is BBH Asia Pacific & the illustrator is Tye Sok Kuan (clicking on his name will take you to his blog to see a lot more of his work).