New Fairy Tales Magazine: Issue 4 Now Live

Issue 4 of New Fairy Tales Magazine is now available HERE for downloading!

(Actually, it's been available for about three weeks now but I'm behind on finishing my draft posts - sorry Claire!)

This issue has a new format (i.e. even more gorgeous than before) and awesome prizes to win in a competition that will help children in need. (More about that in a bit.)

If you don't know about this wonderful online magazine, treat yourself and download it (for free). The high quality of the new, original fairy tales editor Claire Massey* chooses and the artists she works with for each issue have to be seen/read to be believed. I have a feeling Claire is actually on the hunt for the next H.C. Andersen or Dickens, with a devious plan to be the one who discovers them first and prints the next generation's favorite new fairy tales!The PDFs are gorgeously presented and a true pleasure to browse and read. Personally, I'm hoping that one day all the issues will be available in hard copy form. They would be an awesome collection to keep and display.

You can see in this post some examples of the art included in this issue. New art includes papercuts by one of my favorite papercut artists, Oona Patterson, and a silhouette by the amazing Cate Simmons (a.k.a. SteeringForNorth on Flickr), whose work I never tire of featuring. The lovely color illustration is by Samantha Davey, URL unknown sorry!And about that competition, through which you also help a child at Derian House Children's Hospice (the charity New Fairy Tales supports): by simply making a donation to the extremely worthwhile charity, Derian House, lucky UK readers will be in the running to win a creature from the Curiosity Cabinet called the "New Fairy Tale Nymph". But international (including US) donators have an awesome opportunity too. Oona Patterson's papercut fairy tale book "Ream" (this has been on my 'MUST get' list ever since I first saw example pages). You need to go HERE and follow the instructions to be sure you donate in the correct manner to be entered.

The magazine continues to be awesome (Issue 4 definitely lives up to the awesomeness), Derian House is money well-donated and the bonus prizes qualify as total awesome-alerts. Go treat yourself and download some awesome for free. And if you've been blessed enough to give a little back, do that too. The awesome factor just might triple itself in your favor.As always, story or art submissions for the next issue are welcome from anyone but please check the guidelines HERE before doing so. The next deadline is April 15, 2010.

*Claire Massey is also the author/blogger at The Fairy Tale Cupboard - although a fairly new blog, it's already proven to be an important resource for fairy tale enthusiasts and students alike. You can find it HERE. She's currently featuring Queens of Snow and Ice.

Grimmer Tales: A Wicked Collection of Happily Never After Stories

There's a new book out (released December 9, 2009) of fairy tale retellings in which the stories are told in comics with a rather grim version of a funny bone.

The author/illustrator is Erik Bergstrom and the reviews are using phrases like "homicidal whimsy" and "joyfully morbid masterpiece" so this won't be everyone's cup of tea.
From Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing:

The book consists of a series of extremely nasty comic-strips telling the aftermath of the classic folkloric fairy tales. For example, one running gag has Pinnocchio telling polite social lies in panel 1, while panel 2 depicts his sprouted nose gouging out the eye of some innocent (i.e., "Cute baby! -- stab").

These running gags are pretty funny, but the really standout moments are the longer strips, especially the "What a Witch" strip, in which two witches standing over a cauldron extol the virtues of Kiddee Flakes, which are much more convenient for kidnapped-child-fattening than candy-houses. This is good, wicked humor at its finest -- if you loved Fractured Fairy Tales...

The link for more information is HERE.

And the Winner of "The Pursuit of Happiness" Giveaway Is...

... (drum roll please)....

Aubrey Z.!!!

Congratulations Aubrey!
Your prize is being prepped for shipping as I type.
A sincere thank you to London Particulars for making this giveaway possible.
NOTE: Although Aubrey's name is cannily similar (ok, the same) as The Professor's, Aubrey swears she is no relation (that she knows of) to the aforementioned character - nor to his cat Happiness, though she does admit to having happiness of her own as a result of winning this contest. Aubrey's winning email entry was chosen by random.org and had nothing to do with her name. We can only put it down to 'destiny' (which may be the name of Aubrey's future cat - or not)... :)

Stories for the Season: The Elves & the Shoemaker

"The Elves and the Shoemaker"
Retold from The Brothers Grimm and Illustrated by Jim LaMarche

The story of "The Elves and the Shoemaker" by the Grimm Brothers takes place around Christmas and used to be much more well known than it is now.

Here's the fairly straight retelling from Golden Books (plus an annoying cuckoo that kids seem to love), which includes at least some nods to the Christmas aspect:


I found a lovely trio of illustrations by Steve Morrison which succinctly tell the story in just three panels.You can see more of Mr. Morrison's lovely work HERE. (He's currently showing pen-and-ink style illustrations he's done of A Christmas Carol.)

Strangely, there don't seem to be a lot of similar tales across cultures but I wanted to point out that one of them "The Hand With the Knife" is now available to read online HERE. The similarity lies in the good hearted being helped by an elf but there's no thankfulness or Christmas in sight.

I also found a panel from an apparent book in progress and there's a familiar visitor to the Shoemaker's shop in this one...You can find more by artist Kasia Dudziuk (a.k.a. Kasiacreations on deviantArt) HERE. She's done illustrations for a number of other fairy tales too.

We also have The Muppets to thank for keeping fairy tales in the public consciousness. Muppet Classic Theater which is both out of print and has never been released on DVD (!) retells six fairy tales in true muppet style, "The Elves and the Shoemaker" being one of them. (The other five are: Rumpelstiltskin, King Midas & the Golden Touch, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Three Little Pigs.)

The clip below starts from the beginning of this story rather than the beginning of the overall presentation so it appears as though you're starting in the middle of something, but you're not missing anything important from the tale.

Enjoy!

Stories for the Season: Prep & Landing

You could definitely argue that the story and traditions surrounding Santa are a modern-day folktale so I think it's appropriate to draw your attention to a new featurette (about 25 minutes) now available online from Disney.

It aired on ABC on December 8th but now you can watch it ('with limited commercial interruption') in HD online.Now: I've known about this for a while and the promo posters and artwork I saw didn't interest me at all BUT I finally saw this yesterday and found this short to be very sweet, full of heart, (lots of great and gentle humor that doesn't try to be too clever (most of the time) and doesn't veer TOO much into the 'self-referential' realm, very Christmas-sy (nodding to more Christmas traditions than you may realize we include in our Holiday celebrations) and, overall, possibly one of the best things to come out of Disney features in a decade.So take a look. It's free to view HERE (and I strongly suggest full screen so you can properly enjoy it).

I'm including a preview below, just in case ABC takes it offline (I know they're planning to air it yearly from now on, so in all likelihood it will disappear sometime soon). It doesn't quite give the sweet feeling that the actual short manages to capture but it explains the premise (not necessary to know to enjoy the short by the way). If you just watch this promo/making of and it still doesn't appeal, give the short a go anyway. I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe you will be too. :)

Stories for the Season: The Nutcracker (Like You've Never Seen It Before)

I mentioned I was going to focus on Christmas/Yule/Winter Solstice appropriate tales over the remainder of the Holiday season so it makes sense to start with "Nutcracker"."The Nutcracker" is possibly 'the' fairy tale most think of when it comes to Christmas time and I'm often surprised to hear of the types of people that make going to see a 'Nutcracker" ballet production a yearly tradition. People who don't normally think about fairy tales or follow ballet often grew up going with their parents so it's become something Christmas wouldn't be complete without.

Since a lot of you follow the SurLaLune blog too I won't repeat much about E.T.A. Hoffman's story, the many books which beautifully illustrate it or the traditional ballet. Instead I have two Nutcracker offerings you may not have come across before, both by ballet companies.
The first is Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker and has a few twists to the story, although it remains a family-friendly ballet with a strong positive Christmas feel.Here's a summary from The Royal Sadler's Wells Ballet Company - a production that's quickly become loved and a new tradition itself:

This delicious theatrical feast has family-sized helpings of Matthew Bourne's trademark wit, pathos and magical fantasy. Nutcracker! follows Clara's bittersweet journey from a hilariously bleak Christmas Eve at Dr. Dross' Orphanage, through a shimmering, ice-skating winter wonderland to the scrumptious candy kingdom of Sweetieland.

There's a whole website especially about Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker too, with tons more information - you can see that HERE.Here's a montage/promo:


It's also available on DVD HERE.
The second is a more adult ballet, choreographed by Graeme Murphy for The Australian Ballet Company and is called "Nutcracker - the Story of Clara".Here's the summary:

This is no ordinary Nutcracker; it is a quintessentially Australian reinterpretation created by the incomparable Graeme Murphy, who was for many years the driving spirit of the Sydney Dance Company. It is a reinterpretation that celebrates the history of ballet in Australia, and of the Australian Ballet itself with its links to the great Russian ballet tradition. In this version, Clara is not a child but a frail Russian ex-ballerina, reliving her illustrious career (Edit FTNH: through feverish dreams) on a hot summer night in Melbourne (Edit FTNH: Christmas is, of course, blisteringly hot in Australia!), and looking back on her St Petersburg days with a group of her fellow expatriate dancers. In the course of this career we see child Clara on her opening night, Clara at the height of her career, and the older Clara looking back.

Here you can see the film that's projected onto the back scrim during a key sequence - "Graeme Murphy's Nutcracker is set on a sweltering Melbourne Christmas Eve in the late 1950s. Clara is not a child but a frail ex-ballerina, reliving her rich and eventful life in one night of feverish dreams. This film segment is projected over the whole set; it sets the scene for the start of the Russian revolution. The Bolsheviks are now portrayed as rats and our heroin is woven amongst this extraordinarily well shot footage of Siegei Eisenstein's Oktiabr (October: Ten Days That Shook the World), which was - incredibly! - filmed some 80 years ago..." (from the video description):

You can learn a lot more about Graeme Murphy's Nutcracker ballet and see lots more images HERE and/or get a copy of the production on DVD HERE.
Both use Tchaikovsky's score, are beautiful and are undeniably 'Nutcracker', albeit in different ways. If you love the Nutcracker ballet or dance and ballet in general I highly recommend them both.

Running Behind...

Just a little note to say I'm running behind - way behind! - in answering email.

If you've written to me and I haven't gotten back to you yet, hang in there. I'm not ignoring you and I haven't lost your mail (I don't think!). I'm slowly getting through my inbox... but I've got a ways to go.

[Don't worry - the "Pursuit of Happiness" contest is a priority.
I'll be doing the drawing for the lucky winner on the 21st as originally planned.]

Thank you for all your comments and mails. Knowing people enjoy the news, art and posts gives me extra incentive to try to post daily, no matter how busy things are.

May you find time to enjoy the season
and to explore a little more of the world of fairy tales with me.

(And thank you for patience as I wade through to the top of my inbox!)

*White Rabbit by the talented H. Kyoht Luterman who does a lot of folklore based art. You can see her website HERE and see even more on in deviantArt gallery HERE.

Last Day To Enter the "Pursuit of Happiness" Contest!

(Made possible by the generous and awesome folks at London Particulars)

Today is the last day you can enter before the deadline!
You have till midnight Pacific time December 20th, 2009 in the US.

The (very easy) contest details are HERE.

The prize preview is HERE.

Good luck!

Shrek Forever After: The Final Chapter - Trailer Released

Dreamworks has done very well with the Shrek franchise, despite general agreement that the installments following the original movie were... 'not as good'. But they're making another one - the 'last' one - and it's coming in May 2010. (Actually there will be one more if rumors are correct, but perhaps that will be confirmed only if/when the numbers from this movie come in...).

The trailer for the fourth Shrek film has just been released and it appears that Shrek is basically getting the It's A Wonderful Life treatment, with the fate of his kingdom dependent on how he manages in this alternate universe.Here's the plot summary from Empire Online:

In the fourth outing for the fairytale spoof adventure, Shrek is seemingly tired of his domesticated life with wife Fiona and the kids, and pines for a time when his mere presence could send villagers scattering.

But when he strikes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin to try to regain his mojo, the beardy trickster (Edit FTNH: where's the beard?) makes his life magically hell, transporting him to a version of Far Far Away where he never existed.

There, he finds Donkey reduced to cart duty, Puss In Boots as a lazy slob and Rumpelstiltskin ruling the place....

Here's the trailer:

I'm sure we'll see more before May. The question really is, is this a good way to bring the magic back?

Jorinde & Joringel Stamps

This is a completely random find (found HERE) and I just had to share as it's so rare to find anything to do with this fairy tale. Germany has great love and respect for the Grimm tales though so I'm not surprised this is where the stamps originate from.

These stamps have scenes from the story and tell most of it comprehensively in only six panels.

If you don't know the story you can read it HERE at SurLaLune or read my steampunk retelling by downloading a FREE PDF from HERE. You can also hear a complete recording/podcast of my story with music and sound effects. :) The links to the parts are HERE.