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Title: Grimm Fairy Tales volume 7
Created by: Joe Brusha and Ralph Tedesco
Art: Varies by issue; please see contained issues list below
Publisher: Zenescope Entertainment
Volume: TPB #7, contains issues #37-42 and the short story “The Collection.”  $15.99.
Release: Grimm Fairy Tales volume 7 will hit stands on March 3.
Issues: “Little Miss Muffet part 2,” written by Joe Brusha, with art by Clint Hilinski (colors by Julius Ohta).  “The Lion and the Mouse,” written by Ralph Tedesco, with art by Jean-Paul Deshong (colors by Blond).  “The Scorpion and the Frog,” (the title is switched around on the title page) written by Joe Brusha, with art by Cliff Richards (colors by Thomas Chu).  “The Goose and the Golden Egg,” written by Raven Gregory, with art by Eduardo Garcias and Dave Hoover (colors by Mark Roberts).  “Dante’s Inferno Prelude,” written by Raven Gregory, with art by Gabriel Rearte (colors by Mark Roberts).  “Baba Yaga,” written by Joe Brusha, with art by Anthony Spay (colors by Cirque India).  “The Collection,” written by Joe Brusha, with art by Brent Peeples (colors by Cirque India).

The basic and early premise of Grimm Fairy Tales involved a mysterious, sexy woman (sexy librarian, pretty much, with a remarkable resemblance to Snow White) who carried around a book of fairy tales, and visited (sexy) young women (or men) with various problems.  She would transport them into a fairy tale (or a twisted version of one, anyway) to teach them a lesson or help them solve their real world issues.  The story expands from there, as it seems that the mysterious woman is gathering together a group of people needed to fight in a great battle.  There’s quite a lot of cheesecake fan service here.  That’s blatantly obvious.  But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a story to hold it up.

The woman with the magic book is named Sela, and in this volume we learn about where her power and the book itself came from, and what they are meant for.  An old man comes to Sela and explains to her that the creator of all things created five realms of power: The Realm of Magic (where the book comes from), the Realm of Dreams, the Realm of Wonder and Imagination, the Realm of Virtue and Hope, and Earth, which serves as a gateway to the other four realms.  Wars raged in the lands of magic, but peace reigned on Earth where the creatures were all simple beings.  To maintain this peace, and a balance between the realms, only rulers were allowed to travel between realms.  However a great evil escaped and began to corrupt Earth, growing in power and plotting to rule over all realms.  Sela is the only human guardian, meant to guard the gate to the Realm of Magic, and guide those with a higher calling.

This time around, Sela teaches the lessons of loyalty over pride using the story of the little mouse who helps the large lion; the inevitability of human nature with the story of the scorpion who tricked the frog to help it across the water; tries to teach a spoiled rich girl about greed and desire with the goose and the golden egg; and gives a woman living in her own hell a chance at redemption.

There’s not a real clear progression from one chapter to the next.  There are connecting elements in some of them, sure, but the stories sort of seem randomly placed wherever.  That’s not really harmful on the whole, since many issues are meant to be semi-stand alone (meaning, one person with one fairy tale per issue, unless it’s a main plot issue).  There’s also quite a bit of “See issue #xx” scattered through the pages, directing you to character appearances or plot elements as far back as the first trade volume.  Even one I caught that references a future issue which…isn’t even out yet (I wonder if this is a typo?  Or maybe it’s meant to be a preview.).  The (really) short story at the end of the book, “The Collection,” seems to be setting up a story line, but doesn’t go anywhere on its own.

The back of the book hosts a cover gallery of the covers of each issue, including exclusive convention and publisher covers.  They’re all top quality covers, and could easily be pin-up posters.  Who says you can’t teach some traditional morals Brothers Grimm style with some T&A?

I, as a 26-year-old female who tends to prefer substance to style, am probably not the target audience for Grimm Fairy Tales.  But I like new, inventive, or twisted takes on old fairy tales, which you’ll be getting plenty of in this series.  And it’ll look gorgeous, too.  Look for this to come out along with Grimm Fairy Tales #44 this week.

Kris
kristin@comicattack.net
@girlg33k_Kris

Review copy provided by Zenescope Entertainment.