Graphic Novel: Metaphrog's Feminist "Bluebeard" Coming May 2020

Publisher Papercut, has just acquired a new fairy tale graphic novel and it's one to watch for fairy tale and folktale folks.

The Eisner award-nominated graphic novel creators of The Little Mermaid (winner of The Excelsior Award Junior 2018) and The Red Shoes, Metaphrog, are already getting high-level kudos from The Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard, and others well-known in the field, making it quite an anticipated addition to the world of graphic novels. (Images below are linked to their page on Amazon - each has an extensive preview available.)

Metaphrog, who have as the tag-line on their website 'The Dark Side of Fairy Tales: More Than Just Graphic Novels' are no strangers to adapting fairy tales for modern readers.

John Chalmers & Sandra Marrs of Metaphrog

We loved fairy tales as children and we still love them now. We especially love them dark. Fairy tales bring the magic back into our lives, they tell us about ourselves and about others, about human nature, and link us to our ancestors: fairy tales have been told and retold for generations. Lotte Reiniger, the silhouette animation pioneer and creator of The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) said: ” I believe in the truth of fairy-tales more than I believe in the truth in the newspaper.” Here we reimagine our favourite tales as graphic novels and hope to have created an immersive, lasting reading experience. (Sandra Marrs and John Chalmers aka Metaphrog)

Metaphrog, which consists of artist Sandra Marrs and writer John Chalmers, commented “’Bluebeard’ is one of the darkest fairy tales and resonated with us when we were children because of this darkness. It felt necessary to create a feminist retelling and so we developed our heroine’s backstory to highlight her struggles in the patriarchy. We hope the result is a compelling, suspenseful read. ‘Bluebeard’ is seldom seen in children’s books nowadays and has never been adapted into a graphic novel, and we wanted our version to appeal to adults and children alike.” (Multiversity Comics)

If the tale of Bluebeard fascinates you too, check out Metphrog's Tumblr account HERE which has a lot of Bluebeard artwork from different sources, movie clips, book covers and more. (And, yes, you can expect to see a little Beauty and the Beast in there too, since BatB is considered the flip side of the Bluebeard coin.)

Little Mermaid Wave by Metaphrog

Near the end of 2017 both members of Metaphrog were interviewed by Threadless, as they had just created a line of merchandise for the first time through the company, using their artwork. The interviewer, Carlyn Hill, asked specifically about Metaphrog's views on fairy tales and we thought we share that here. Here's an excerpt of the interview with Sandra ('S) and John ('J') of Metaphrog:

What inspires you most about finding the dark side of fairy tales? What are some of your favorite stories to put a darker twist on? 

S: Fairy tales and folk tales often have a dark side, and that darkness holds a lasting power and helps get the core message of the story across. The darkness and light of such stories are held in balance. 

J: For example, in The Red Shoes, although the story is dark and treats themes of obsession, possession, and hope, it still has a lightness and a strangeness. The reader is encouraged to suspend disbelief. 

What do you think the importance of fairy tales – both light and dark – is for all of us as story lovers and as human beings? 

J: Fairy tales and folk tales tell us what it is to be human. They tell us about ourselves and about others. Their messages are so powerful that they speak to us still, even after centuries. Sometimes there is more truth in a story than there is in the news.

Photographer unknown

 

S: Human beings need stories. Not only as something to provide escapism but also to allow us to learn and grow, to sympathise and empathise. Some stories carry powerful warnings while others provide hope or allow us to suspend disbelief and dream. 

J: Both of us felt the thrill of reading as children and fairy tales, in particular, made the hairs on our necks stand on end.

Official synopsis of Bluebeard: A Feminist Fairy Tale:

“Award-winning duo Metaphrog transform the classic folktale into a feminist fairy tale, about the blossoming of a young child to womanhood striving for independence. Eve spends an idyllic childhood of long summer days with her sweetheart Tom, and together they dream of exploring the world. But that dream is soon shattered as she comes of age. The mysterious Bluebeard is looking for a new bride and has his sights set on Eve, and rumour has it that his former wives have all disappeared. What will Eve find in the castle beyond the enchanted forest? A forbidden chamber, a golden key and the most terrifying secret, take on a new life in this gothic graphic novel.”

Bluebeard: A Feminist Fairy Tale will be available through all major booksellers on May 2020 in both the UK and the US. You can pre-order through Amazon (US) HERE right now.

Note: The Red Shoes and Other Tales includes another Andersen story, "The Little Match Girl", and an original story, "The Glass Case". ("... about a boy who runs away to be with a living doll in a museum—and then turns into one." Description from School Library Journal)

NB: Amazon links are for your convenience. We do not receive any commission from them and are not currently an affiliate.

Maria Tatar is Working on A Book of African American Folktales!

These European fairy tales we know and love also exist in traditional African culture. "You can find a Little Red Riding Hood, you can find The Juniper Tree, which we think of as a quintessentially German tale, in Africa as well..." (Tatar, speaking to BFM radio)

We're so excited for this - and it's annotated! The book is due out Halloween 2017 (so not too far away). Here are the details:

This is the project description from the Hutchins Center, with whom Tatar is working on this with:

The Annotated African-American Folktales will present 50-60 tales from African-American traditions to a general audience.  It will begin by charting the origins of the narratives and tracing their dissemination, adaptation, and reinvention in the Americas, North and South, as well as in Caribbean regions.  The volume will include introductions to each tale, historical commentary, cultural information, illustrations, and photographs.  It will include works ranging from stories about Anansi to tales about Brer Rabbit, always providing information about how the tales have been inflected in different cultures and how their afterlife manifests itself today. 

Informed by scholarship in an array of disciplines including folklore, anthropology, African American Studies, and linguistics, it will seek to explore popular vernacular traditions through the medium of print culture.  The ambition is to remind us all that the tales are “still here” and that they have the power to reinvigorate our cultural productions with their humor, wisdom, and electrifying social energy.

And the description from Amazon:

The Annotated African American Folktales 1st Editionby Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Editor), Maria Tatar (Editor) 

Collected for the first time, these nearly 150 African American folktales animate our past and reclaim a lost cultural legacy to redefine American literature. 

Drawing from the great folklorists of the past while expanding African American lore with dozens of tales rarely seen before, The New Annotated African American Folktales revolutionizes the canon like no other volume. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar assemble a groundbreaking collection of folktales, myths, and legends that revitalize a vibrant African American past untainted by romantic antebellum sentiment or counterfeit nostalgia. Beginning with introductory essays and 20 seminal African tales as historical background, Gates and Tatar present nearly 150 African American stories, among them familiar Brer Rabbit classics, but also stories like “The Talking Skull” and “Witches Who Ride,” out-of-print tales from the 1890s Southern Workman, and stories that finally incorporate Caribbean and Latin American literature within the canon. With illuminating annotations and revelatory illustrations, The New Annotated African American Folktales reminds us that stories not only move, entertain, and instruct but, more fundamentally, inspire and keep hope alive. color throughout; 160 illustrations 

You can already pre-order it on Amazon HERE.

Note: All images are by Leo and Diane Dillon for the book Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales by Virginia Hamilton

New "Beauty and the Beast" Images In the Wild (Posters, Images, Costumes, Toys...)

New French Promotional Poster

There are more images of Disney's live action Beauty and the Beast out there in the world (wild), thanks to overseas posters, displays around LA to promote the film over the busy Christmas movie period and, of course, merchandising. Being the holiday period, if you can it's nice to indulge in frivolous things, so here's a image roundup for those looking forward to the film to enjoy.

The costume display will make people who have been less-then-thrilled with Belle's yellow ball dress a little more please, we think, as well as a pic below where she's holding a (different?) candelabra and you can see more costume/period details.

Take a look:

First up - books! And yes, they're releasing a new version of Villeneuve's tale, with Walter Crane's gorgeous illustrations too - yay!

1. A new edition of the making of Beauty and the Beast will be released including new material from director Bill Condon

2. A new edition of Villeneuve's original tale classic, the current known version is based on.

3. A French edition of Beauty and the Beast. No further info yet (March 8th '17)

4. Beauty and the Beast: Belle's library: quotes, drawings and new material from Linda Woolverton (January 31st '17)

5. Book based on the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast. Unknown release date.

6. Lost in a Book: by Jennifer Donelly. Belle discovers a Book called Nevermore which takes her to a new magical world. (more detail on this and a better close-up of the cover below)

New promo poster 

This next one is interesting - channeling a little Jasper FForde and Thursday Next (wonderful series)... here's the description:

The story is an original addition to the beloved Beauty and the Beast fairytale. It follows lonely, bookish Belle as she finds an enchanted book in the Beast’s library called “Nevermore” that carries her into a glittering new world. There, Belle is befriended by a mysterious countess who offers her the life she’s always dreamed of. But Nevermore is not what it seems, and the more time Belle spends there, the harder it is to leave. Good stories take hold of us and never let us go, and once Belle becomes lost in *this* book, she may never find her way out again. 

 A collection of costumes and props on display in movie theaters around Los Angeles, during the popular holiday theater-going season:

Ball scene costumes

Lumiere and Plumette

Belle's basic outfit and magic atlas ('Magic' atlas!? Apparently yes.)

Enchanted rose and mirror on table

Gaston and LeFou

Lumiere, Plumette and Cogsworth

Accessories and enchanted objects set (I see the Enchanted Objects being coveted by adult fans) 

On the back of a toy box - not sure which one - but it shows nice dress details

Tea set - bringing tea time back for afternoons

The Royal Celebration outfit - note: NOT A WEDDING (people are getting yelled at for saying it is)

Royal Celebration doll pair (to show Beast's/Adam's outfit)

New promo image used a few countries, not just France 

For our costume and fashion readers: here are Belle's costumes seen so far

'Ask Baba Yaga' Is Getting Published! (And She Needs Your Help)

Vasilissa the Wise by Arantzazu Martinez

No - we're not asking for money, or anything similar. What Baba Yaga needs is your questions. Now.

It has been confirmed that oracle Taisia Kitaiskaia, has been offered a publishing deal for a published collection of Ask Baba Yaga. Here's the notice to Taisia from her agent:

And the official Publishers Marketplace announcement:

"Author of the forthcoming LITERARY WITCHES Taisia Kitaiskaia's ASK BABA YAGA, a collection of her surreal advice column of the same name for The Hairpin as well as all-new material, featuring write-in queries with responses from the perspective of a mythical Russian witch, to Allison Adler at Andrews McMeel, by Adriann Ranta Zurhellen at Foundry Literary + Media (NA)."

CONGRATULATIONS TAISIA!

Taisia has specifically asked for Once Upon A Blog readers to help out our favorite advisor by providing a wide variety of questions Baba Yaga can consider answering, to include in the new book. (!) Although she can't guarantee that every question will be answered and published, she is very keen to answer as many as she can in the time given her.

Mikhail Petrov

She's looking for 15 new questions in particular, and, as we know, first letters in, get the hungriest Baba!

Ask Baba Yaga, the book, has yet to have a confirmed release date, but we have our fingers crossed for 2017.

We'll make you a deal - if we hear via oracle-post that Once Upon A Blog readers have been eagerly sending Baba Yaga questions, we will host a giveaway contest of the volume when it is released.

Deal?

Good.

Go write up your message, send it, and we'll wait here, because we have more news to share.

Go on.

We're not going anywhere...

*whistling*

Back? OK then.

As we mentioned, that's not the only project our favorite oracle is working on. She's collaborating with friend and artist Katy Horan on a volume titled, Literary Witches, in which they've imagined canonized writers (such as Emily Bronte and Virginia Woolf) as witches. It works so well, you wonder if perhaps they might not have uncovered a long-hidden truth...

Take a look at some examples:

Amazing, no? You can see a few more examples HERE.

As far as the Ask Baba Yaga column goes, Kitaiskaia is still serving as oracle when she can, though a little less frequently at present and does hope to continue with it after publishing as well, though that all depends on how the wind, and Baba Yaga, blows at that point in time.

Mikhail Petrov

In the meantime, let's do all we can to get that collectible volume published, er, support Taisia with her expanding publishing career and help inspire her communication with Baba Yaga, by providing lots of brief, searching and heartfelt emails. And don't worry - your darkest secret questions will not have your name attached. (We should note, we would happily have Baba Yaga give us a nickname if she so preferred, as unflattering as it's likely to be.)

So, dear readers, email your questions directly to Baba Yaga herself - as soon as possible - using the address below:

AskBabaYaga AT gmail DOT com

Taisia awaits your requests and assistance in approaching Baba Yaga, for the benefit of us all.

It doesn't have to be fancy, flattering or formal - just a single sentence question is fine. Baba Yaga doesn't have much patience for more than that anyway.

Now, if you haven't already, go write your burning question - make it a good one - and hit that 'send' button ASAP. You may get your answer in permanent print!

You may be wondering: but where's our Thursday dose of advice? It's coming. Later today, this time. We wanted to be sure you saw this, and acted on it, first.

Stay tuned!

Note: we promise to provide updates on the Ask Baba Yaga volume as we get them. In the meantime, we will keep our column going for as long as Baba Yaga makes it possible.

Kate Forsyth Finishes 1st Draft of "Beauty In Thorns"

If you're a Kate Forsyth fan (Bitter Greens, The Wild Girl, The Beast's Garden) you probably know she's been neck-deep in writing her retelling of Sleeping Beauty, titled Beauty In Thorns, set in the "passions and scandals of the Pre-Raphaelite circle of artists and poets".

The great news is that just this week the book was finished! Well, the first draft was. We here at OUABlog heartily congratulate Kate Forsyth on what has been a very intensive research and writing journey.

Here's more information about Forsyth's retelling, from her website:

In 1890, the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones finished a monumental series of paintings inspired by ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Greeted with ecstasy by the public, it sold for a record 15,000 guineas and made the artist a rich and famous man.

Told by the voices of six extraordinary women – the wives and mistresses, sisters and daughters of the famous artists of the Pre-Raphaelite circle – BEAUTY IN THORNS tells the story of love, desire, obsession and tragedy that lies behind the creation of this famous depiction of Sleeping Beauty. 
Told by the voices of six extraordinary women – the wives and mistresses, sisters and daughters of the famous artists of the Pre-Raphaelite circle – BEAUTY IN THORNS tells the story of love, desire, obsession and tragedy that lies behind the creation of this famous depiction of Sleeping Beauty.  

The ‘Sleeping Beauty’ fairy tale haunted the imagination of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones, and he returned to the theme many times over the course of thirty years. 

Are you as intrigued as we are?

You can read more about it HERE.

The novel is expected to be published in August 2017.

The Legend of Briar Rose - The Sleeping Beauty (Mural 4 of 4) - Edward Burne-Jones

Book in the Works: "Mother Goose Refigured"

Consider this an official 'heads-up" from us, for your fairy tale studies and folklore libraries:

Coming in November from Wayne State University Press is a fascinating new book on a topic that has had quite a bit of attention in the past coupe of years. It's titled Mother Goose Refigured, written by Christine A. Jones, and, unlike most people's impressions that Mother Goose is a nursery rhyme figure only, the character and archetype often made appearances alongside fairy tales as well, especially in the French fairy tale salon era, of which Charles Perrault was a member. His collection of fairy tales was actually titled Stories or Tales from Times Past; or, Tales of Mother Goose (1697). This book looks at the translations and adaptations of this volume and how that affected the tales themselves.

About the author, who is no newbie to critical writing on fairy tales (we still have our eye on Feathers, Paws, Fins and Claws: Fairy Tale Beasts!):

Christine A. Jones is a specialist of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France at the University of Utah with interests in the luxury trades and the fairy tale. She has authored Shapely Bodies: The Image of Porcelain in Eighteenth-Century France as well as numerous articles on trade history. With folklore scholar Jennifer Schacker, she has coedited Marvelous Transformations: An Anthology of Fairy Tales and Contemporary Critical Perspectives and Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy Tale Beasts, illustrated by Lina Kusaite (Wayne State University Press, 2015).

And we must mention: we adore the cover with Red in the wolf-en forest!

Here's the write-up. Included are two images from the book:

Charles Perrault published Histoires ou Contes du temps passé ("Stories or Tales of the Past") in France in 1697 during what scholars call the first "vogue" of tales produced by learned French writers. The genre that we now know so well was new and an uncommon kind of literature in the epic world of Louis XIV’s court. This inaugural collection of French fairy tales features characters like Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Puss in Boots that over the course of the eighteenth century became icons of social history in France and abroad. Translating the original Histoires ou Contes means grappling not only with the strangeness of seventeenth-century French but also with the ubiquity and familiarity of plots and heroines in their famous English personae. 

From its very first translation in 1729, Histoires ou Contes has depended heavily on its English translations for the genesis of character names and enduring recognition. This dependability makes new, innovative translation challenging. For example, can Perrault’s invented name "Cendrillon" be retranslated into anything other than "Cinderella"? And what would happen to our understanding of the tale if it were? Is it possible to sidestep the Anglophone tradition and view the seventeenth-century French anew? Why not leave Cinderella alone, as she is deeply ingrained in cultural lore and beloved the way she is? Such questions inspired the translations of these tales in Mother Goose Refigured, which aim to generate new critical interest in heroines and heroes that seem frozen in time. The book offers introductory essays on the history of interpretation and translation, before retranslating each of the Histoires ou Contes with the aim to prove that if Perrault’s is a classical frame of reference, these tales nonetheless exhibit strikingly modern strategies. 

Designed for scholars, their classrooms, and other adult readers of fairy tales, Mother Goose Refigured promises to inspire new academic interpretations of the Mother Goose tales, particularly among readers who do not have access to the original French and have relied for their critical inquiries on traditional renderings of the tales.