Goblin Fruit ~ Winter 2014 Issue Is Live

Header/border by Zarina Liew

Renowned fantastic poetry journal, Goblin Fruit, has just released their latest quarterly collection of new fairy tale work and it's a truly lovely collection.

Here's an excerpt from the introduction by the Editors:

"...into the chattering season's teeth we throw this small morsel to sate it once and for all: here are songs of love and death, poems of winter's beauties but also of their banishment, of confrontation and change. Against the pale brilliance of glass, diamonds and cold stars are set colours all the brighter for striking against white — rose petals, apples, the feathers of hunting birds. This is an issue of women grasping their stories by the shoulders and shaking them into difference, tattering gowns into more comfortable wear; impossible as it seems, dear readers, Winter will break itself against a blossom growing out of a shoe."

So lovely and inspiring! That should make you want to drop everything else you're doing for the next little while and go grab yourself some fruit.

Here are this issue's contents:

The Cat on Love by Catt Kingsgrave 

Godfather Drosselmeyer by Sonya Taaffe 

The Vow of Frozen Time by Alexandra Seidel 

Through the Heron Door by Jack H. Marr 

The Right of It by Seanan McGuire 

Dear Prince by Kristina McDonald 

Said Rapunzel to the Wolf by Sally Rosen Kindred 

Spelling for Worse by Peg Duthie 

After the End by Kellelynne H. Riley

My favorites are The Right Of It by Seanan McGuire and Dear Prince by Kristina McDonald. I found these two in particular both inspiring and liberating. (Thank you Ms. McGuire, Ms. McDonald and Goblin Fruit!)

You can read the new works from Goblin Fruit HERE.

You should also be aware that Goblin Fruit is looking for patrons (your choice of amount you pledge per issue) to help expand more of what they do. When patronage builds to $100 per issue they'll be able to produce a podcast for each issue. At twice that they'll be able to triple the (almost token) amount paid to the truly excellent writers/contributors for each issue and ultimately they hope to be able to produce more print and e-book chapbook collections of each issue. Here's the summary from the patron pledge site:

Since April of 2006 Goblin Fruit has been publishing some of the best fantastical poetry out there, by new and established authors alike, putting out four issues a year without fail, for free and without ads. We've been fortunate enough to showcase these poems alongside the work of tremendously talented artists such as Oliver Hunter, Galen Dara, Betsie Withey, Elisabeth Heller, Paula Friedlander, and many more.   

For its first five years Goblin Fruit was a labour of love paid out of pocket by its editors; we opened up to donations with our Fifth Anniversary issue and have operated on that basis since 2011. With Patreon we hope to reach out to new readers, enable our current readers to support us more easily and with reward options, and bank towards running a podcast by April 2014 as well as produce more print and e-book chapbook collections.

And here's the promotional video for the journal: 

A promotional video for Goblin Fruit (http://www.goblinfruit.net) - the internet's coolest online fantasy poetry zine, published quarterly. Music is "The Night Journey," words by Terri Windling, vocals and instrumentals by Oliver Hunter.

You can contribute any amount from $1 up, HERE.
In the meantime, go read (and listen to) the issue. Be inspired.* It won't take very long, but it will stay with you, in the best way, for a long time to come.

* This issue is so deeply gorgeous, I would love to see what artists might create in response to these! Even if you don't consider yourself "an artist" and only create in private and for yourself, go read. This issue is like a creative well to dip into.

Erstwhile 2 (Uncommon Fairy Tale Comics) Kickstarter Needs Your Help (And There's Only 3, 2.. Days To Go!)

I am doing a large "cut-n-'paste" type repost from Tumblr & Kickstarter in the interest of getting this news out ASAP because it just came to my attention that Erstwhile isn't close to reaching their goal to produce a second volume of lesser known fairy tale comics - even after the first volume was well received and reviewed.

So here goes the info:

An anthology series adapting six rare Grimm's Fairy Tales into comic form. Three artists, six complete stories!

(FTNH: Here's the Kickstarter promo video.)

ERSTWHILE is an anthology project adapting the lesser-known GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES. That means you won't be seeing the same old-same old when you open this book. The tales are not watered down versions, but the real deal. The dark stuff is not edited out for mass consumption, but it is illustrated in a tasteful way to make the comics suitable for both kids and adults. There are three artists on this collaborative project, Gina Biggs, Louisa Roy, and Elle Skinner. Each have their own distinctive style and each of these ladies takes a turn at illustrating one of the tales.

Those of you who are new to Erstwhile please feel free to read the ENTIRE series online for FREE! If you like what you see, come on back and support our kickstarter.

Erstwhile volume 2 is a FULL COLOR HARDCOVER book weighing in at 176 pages. Volume 2 contain six completed tales; Brother & Sister, Iron Hans, Snow White & Rose Red, Death of the Little Hen, Doctor Know-It-All, and The Worn-out Dancing Shoes (aka The 12 Dancing Princesses). Each volume of Erstwhile contains its own set of completed stories, so you can jump in at any time to enjoy. And if you want to get the first volume, we have that offered in our pledge levels as well!

Snow White & Rose Red introduces us to two sisters who are as different as night and day, but love each other dearly and always promise to share everything between them. Everything goes as planned until a kindly talking bear and an evil dwarf change their lives completely.

Brother & Sister tells the tale of two abused children who run away from home. Once alone in an enchanted forest the brother falls under a curse, transforming him into a wild creature, and the sister finds herself wooed by a king.

Iron Hans is a story of growing up. A young spoiled prince accidentally frees the wild man, Iron Hans, while selfishly trying to acquire his lost golden ball. He runs away from home, fearful of punishment, but once on his own finds both pride in his work and meaning to his life.

Death of the Little Hen follows the hilariously morbid tale of a Rooster and his selfish wife, Hen. The biggest nut on Nut Mountain is greedily gobbled up by Hen and leads to her death, but the tragedy only leads to more mayhem as Rooster and friends travel to the funeral.

Doctor Know-It-All is a man who knows everything, or at least appears that way. The poor farmer in disguise finds himself in over his head when a wealthy merchant hires him to discover the mystery behind the thefts in his household.

The Worn-out Dancing Shoes (aka The 12 Dancing Princesses) tells of twelve royal sisters who awake each morning with their shoes worn to shreds and their bodies worn to exhaustion. The king declares whomever solves the mystery will succeed him to the throne, but whomever fails will get the axe.

The first volume of Erstwhile included the following tales:

                        

   

If you'd like to read a non-affiliated write-up and review, please check out Heidi's posts over at the SurLaLune blog HERE.

We're all thrilled that the lesser known tales are getting some attention and that people are making an effort to bring them to the public again but being an independent group of artists they do need help to make it a reality. The artwork and writing is just about complete so it's not a matter of concern over the substance of the project at this point, so much as getting it properly published. If you're able, please consider sending some dollars their way and let's see how close we can get them to their goal.

Julia Griffin's "The Snow Queen" Heading To Print (Kickstarter)

Do you remember this lovely art post with Julia Griffin's amazing illustrations of The Snow Queen HERE?

I've seen a hugely positive response everywhere the illustrations were posted but didn't realize she was having trouble getting it into a book! Ms. Griffin initiated a Kickstarter to help make the book a reality and there is only just over ONE DAY TO GO to be able to contribute to this (happily funded) project.

Here's her Kickstarter video, explaining what her (initial) plans were:

As the initial goal has been reached, Ms. Griffin is now making sure every backer will have the offer of a free PDF download as well as an audiobook version of the story, also to be available as a download and for "big backers" the thank you/reward is now the original artwork (that would be SO DIFFICULT to part with!).

The book will now also be printed at a slightly larger size and closer to the original artwork size as well (which equals excellent details!)

The neat thing about Kickstarters is that, not only do you get to fund projects you know are worth your investment at a ground roots level but the artists (of all kinds) go to great lengths to provide some truly lovely keepsakes and gifts for those who donate their hard earned dollars to help them. From "on record" thank you's to art cards, to a signed book to original artwork - depending on your contribution level, you will get something for your trouble as a special thank you.

I wish Ms. Griffin every success with her book!

"The Grim" - Animated Web Series Halloween Premiere

This is a Kickstarter project that was successfully funded and the completed premiere webisode was uploaded this evening.

Months after the wolf attacked, Red Riding Hood must relive the terrible events and rediscover herself in this ongoing series.

The Grim is an ongoing series project that takes the characters of Grimm's fairy tales and nursery rhymes and works to connect their stories. The story begins with Red Riding hood. It's been months after the wolf attacked and she has completely blocked the traumatizing incident from her mind. As she continues to walk into the forest to search for the grandmother she still believes is alive the truth of that day begins to come back to her. Along with this she comes to learn that the wolf is relentlessly searching for her for reasons she doesn't yet understand. What commences is a story that finds Red searching for the origins of the wolf, the reason it hunts her, and how to stop it. Along the way she'll encounter many other familiar fairytale characters who will all have a mysterious connection to her journey and the wolf. This is a story about a girl coming to age in a harsh and grim world that is very unforgiving with its life lessons. The Grim also aims to take fairy tale creatures like Gingerbread men and make them surprisingly human.

This project definitely has potential and, if they've kept it fresh from other familiar mash-ups we know, is likely to take some twists and turns we're not familiar with. I like the post-wolf attack and unreliable memory premise. It would make for a different coming of age story to the usual LRRH ones. The first episode, titled "Fox", has very specific jaws this girl is worried about are different than the norm and it seems an apt metaphor for the place she's in post-attack as well.

While on her way to her Grandmother's, Gertrude Byrnes finds herself trapped and the only help she can find may only give her more trouble.

"Wolf" - Hasani Walker

I have to say I am impressed with what I've seen so far. While computer animation tends to be off-putting to me much of the time, the production is impressive and uses a smart mix of miniatures, stop motion puppets and computer animation to good effect. The opening frames of the main character didn't convince me but a minute or two in to her story I was far more interested than I thought I would be. I'm not completely sold on all the design aspects but was surprised how quickly they grew on me.

The fox and wolf characters (wolf shown in drawing only so far) are very reminiscent of Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke characters, something that I think works here. It's early yet and there are only two characters interacting so far so we'll see, but overall, this seems promising.

You can watch the first episode below:

If you enjoyed that and would like to keep up to date, subscribe to Hasani Walker's YouTube channel for updates and to be alerted for new episodes when they're uploaded, or follow on Tumblr which should do the same. Hasani Studios is also on Facebook and posting updates, behind-the-scenes and more from all the various projects.

Mr. Walker is currently continuing work on The Grim and submitting it to festivals.

The Green Book Of Oz (A Project We Want To See Completed!)

The Green Book of Oz by Alessandro Previti (An indiegogo Project)

Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends of Fairy Tales, I'd like you to meet the very talented Alessandro Previti!

Although you may feel as if there are Oz projects everywhere you look with the 75th celebrations looming (and there are), I promise you this one is worth your time and, hopefully, your support. It's also a very nice and different way to celebrate a milestone anniversary of America's most famous fairy tale.

From Previti Art Studio's Facebook page with many updates on the project

While many current projects seek to update The Wizard of Oz by "cutesifying" characters (eg for toys) or aiming for the dark side (like the video America McGee has been developing) - and while many of these are beautiful - Previti's approach is gallery-worthy fine art with a refreshingly different take.

Take a look at the video explaining the project:

Although we all think "Emerald City" when looking at green + Oz, Previti has taken an eco-friendly view to the idea and will be printing it on specially recycled paper in an eco-friendly manner, complete with the following certificates:

           

The art is also unique, taking the styles of Marc Chagall, Giacomo Balla* and a sort of modern-meets-impressionist-meets-stained-glass approach (among others), making the art (and different aspects of the story) accessible to children without "dumbing it down". The resulting pieces are gentle, pleasing to look at, layered in meaning and encourage further adventures in art and imagination. I'm so impressed by the effect that I'll be sharing some of these images with my son's first grade class in our future art lessons together**. As a bonus I get to share a fairy tale the school system won't have a problem with me referencing! :)

Previti is no stranger to fairy tales either. One look at the Previti Art Studio Facebook page will tell you he has a long time fascination with them and you'll see peeks of his Le Petit Chaperon Rouge project as well (HERE). There's a lovely video for that HERE too.

Pages from Previti's Green Book of Oz

Although I'm late to finding out about the Green Book of Oz indiegogo project (a crowd funded site very similar to Kickstarter) and the clock is a-ticking down to the final days of the deadline (8 DAYS TO GO!), if all the readers here just put in one dollar we could easily see this beautiful book become a reality. Note: Though the indiegogo page appears in Euros, if you click on contribute, after you enter the "Euro amount", you'll be taken to a PayPal button, which will convert and process any currency automatically for you (as a guide, currently, $10USD= ~ €14).

Here is an excerpt from Alessandro Previti's statement on the Indiegogo site. You can see how his personal sentiments are clearly reflected in his art:

My name is Alessandro Previti, I'm an illustrator and a dreamer. 

While illustrating the story of Oz I had in mind parents and children reading the book together, enjoying the vibrant, expressive pictures.  

The main inspiration to draw these illustrations were children and their artistic expression. I studied hundreds of children’s drawings and combined them with the style of italian futurism. 

The resulting pictures offer the joy of vivid colours and leave a wide space for deeper contemplation.  “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, one of the most charming and enchanting stories ever written is in the public domain. It is a great privilege for independent artists to self publish this masterpiece of fairy tales gifting it a personal touch.

Personally, I'd love to see this book on my own library shelf and share it with my son. The art style is so different to many children's illustrated books today and I love the idea of exposing him to children-friendly creativity and imagination outside the typical.

Thank you Mr. Previti! We wish you every success with your beautiful project and hope to see your book soon.

* The links take you to Pinterest pages full of examples of each artist's work so you can see some of Previti's style inspirations.
** Note: I'm not a regular school teacher. I volunteer and also teach art lessons through the school's Art Appreciation program. My aim is to help make sure the students (including my son) have exposure to - and opportunity to create - Art. :)