France Month: Le Petit Chaperon rouge par Jean Claverie

Le Petit Chaperon rouge par Jean Claverie is a fun take on Little Red Riding Hood. I'll let the illustrations speak for themselves. This is in at least a second edition so it has been a popular interpretation. Claverie is also a popular illustrator. I really would love to see the entire book...

France Month: Le Petit Chaperon rouge illustrated by Maud Riemann

Le Petit Chaperon rouge illustrated by Maud Riemann has some unexpected images for Little Red Riding Hood, offering unusual scenes and colors, especially the abundance of blue instead of green and an elusive red.

France Month: Le Petit Chaperon Rouge by Marion Duval (Auteur), Agnès Lestrade (de) (Auteur)

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge by Marion Duval (Auteur), Agnès Lestrade (de) (Auteur) is today's book from France, a Little Red Riding Hood. This is another book in the series, La Forêt des contes, from Milans Editions. I've featured Cendrillon and Goldilocks from it on the last two Fridays. Again, the same author but another illustrator is here.

You know what I like best about these? Body image. Yep. Not what you expected me to say, but I found LRRH's figure to be refreshingly not too slim. She looks  like a child, imagine that. A young one, at that. And, funnily enough, the wolf looks underfed and thus hungry. I would love to see more of the illustrations for this one just to study the choices the illustrator made.

Book description:

Il était une fois une petite fille qu’on appelait le petit chaperon rouge. Un jour, sa maman lui dit : « Va voir comment se porte ta mère-grand. Porte-lui une galette et ce petit pot de beurre ». Pour aller voir sa grand-mère, le petit chaperon rouge doit traverser la forêt. Et dans la forêt il y a… le loup…

Dust City by Robert Paul Weston

 

Dust City by Robert Paul Weston was released in September 2010 but I only recently became aware of it. This one uses the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood in an unusual way. The hardcover copy is bargain priced right now, too, for less than the paperback or ebook. This one definitely appeal to those looking for gritty fairy tale inspired books.

This is another case in which you get to play pick your favorite cover, the hardcover on the left or the paperback on the right? I pick the paperback myself. It's less generic and conveys the story a little better.

Book description:

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

His son, that's who.

Ever since his father's arrest for the murder of Little Red Riding Hood, teen wolf Henry Whelp has kept a low profile in a Home for Wayward Wolves . . . until a murder at the Home leads Henry to believe his father may have been framed.

Now, with the help of his kleptomaniac roommate, Jack, and a daring she-wolf named Fiona, Henry will have to venture deep into the heart of Dust City: a rundown, gritty metropolis where fairydust is craved by everyone-and controlled by a dangerous mob of Water Nixies and their crime boss leader, Skinner.

Can Henry solve the mystery of his family's sinister past? Or, like his father before him, is he destined for life as a big bad wolf?

France Month: Le petit chaperon rouge ou la petite fille aux habits de fer blanc

Le petit chaperon rouge ou la petite fille aux habits de fer blanc by Jean-Jacques Fdida (Auteur), Jean-Louis Lejonc (Illustrations)  Here is a Little Red Riding Hiding promoted as a version that predates Perrault. The details are not in the description, but the illustrations are certainly provocative.

I found some of the extra images I borrowed here at this blog.

Book description:

Quel chemin vas-tu prendre ? Le chemin des aiguilles ou le chemin des épingles ? L’éternelle histoire d’une fille à la croisée des chemins… Loin des versions édulcorées diffusées depuis Perrault, voici un petit chaperon rouge authentique et savoureux. Les motifs disparus au fil du temps, le cannibalisme et l'art de la sédutcion, sont réintroduits par l'auteur, désireux de réstituer la force du conte d'avant Perrault. Dans une langue savoureuse et musicale, empruntant au vieux français, on relit cette histoire de toujours avec un plaisir mêlé d'étonnment. Une édition inédite et raffinée, sublimée par les images mystérieuses de Régis Lejonc. Avec une préface de Bernadette Bricout.

ABC's Once Upon a Time Returns Tonight

It's January 8th and the midseason hiatus for ABC's Upon a Time ends tonight. Above is a clip of the first 8 minutes of the new episode which has been blitzing in the media coverage along with many, many spoilers. Spoilers that ultimately say we are going to learn more about the characters in upcoming episodes. (I am really tempted to type "Duh" here, but would that be aging myself as well as too snarky? Excuse me, I've been sick for two weeks with three ailments and I am snarky right now!)

I debated sharing some of the articles, but I decided not to. They are everywhere on the web and some of them may even be true. For now, I intend to keep watching the show, enjoying the ride along the way. Overall, I am enjoying when the writers use the non-Disney versions of characters which seems to give them all more depth.

However, I obviously couldn't resist the tantalizing images that have also been creeping up everywhere for some future episodes. See what I mean though about the characters? Aren't Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel much more compelling than the Halloweenish Cinderella we were treated to a few months ago? That costume was horrible...

And I can't praise ABC highly enough for really backing this show. The publicity is fierce. The marathon of episodes last weekend was a rarity on the big networks and even the support materials are growing, yes, in the name of marketing and commerce, but that is what it's all about anyway. If we get to be entertained along the way, it's a solid product.

(Forgive the snarkiness. Don't doubt I will be watching OUAT tonight or tomorrow at the latest. I admit Downton Abbey 2 may take precedence since I have a date to watch that with family tonight.)

Book: Fractured Fables from Image Comics

 

I never wrote about this Fractured Fables (Hardcover), first because I came to it late, second because I am not at all well-versed in current comic books,* and lastly because I didn't look past the cover when I saw it, which to me, hate me if you want, looked very generic, like cheap fairy tale books at the dollar store. Nothing wrong with that, but not my usual interest or what I assume to be yours.

Then recently I stumbled across some sample pages from the book and I can fully admit I was wrong. I should know well enough by now to not judge a comic book by its cover, but at least I didn't suffer for my prejudgment forever. In other words, there is some great stuff within this innocuous looking cover. In fact, I learned that two of the pieces inside were nominated for Will Eisner Awards: Best Short Story Nominations--"Cinderella," by Nick Spencer and Rodin Esquejo & "Little Red Riding Hood," by Bryan Talbot and Camilla d'Errico.

So like a diligent SurLaLune keeper, I have ordered my own hardcover copy to investigate further. It hadn't arrived when I wrote this, but I am not worried. I know I will like it. It's has enough pretty and I respond well to pretty. A paperback edition is due out in late January, so you can wait for that if you are interested. I wanted a hardcover myself.

From the publisher:

Some of the comic book industries best and brightest use their talents to welcome the next generation of comic book readers with the kid-friendly anthology, Fractured Fables! Featuring an introduction by Bill Willingham (FABLES), this all-new, humorous take on our most beloved fairy tales boasts a cover by Madman Atomic Comics creators Mike & Laura Allred and all-new stories by award-winning creators including Jill Thompson, Bryan Talbot, Peter David, Ben Templesmith, Scott Morse, Doug TenNapel, Laini Taylor, Ted McKeever, Terry Moore, Bill Morrison, Larry Marder, Jim Valentino, Phil Hester, and New Yorker artist Shannon Wheeler, among others.

From an article, Comic book review: 'Fractured Fables' by Joseph Szadkowski:

Here are just a few of my favorites:

■ "Little Red Riding Hood" is updated by writer Bryan Talbot and finds the brightly dressed child on a direct path to the Big Bad Wolf's stomach until she displays some surprising skills. Painter Camilla d'Errico brings a bit of an anime influence to the action and makes me exclaim when viewing Red, "My, what gigantic blue eyes you have."

■ Doug TenNapel's "Rumpelstiltskin" turns the classic into a "Ren and Stimpy" episode. He dementedly uses a grotesque art style that chaotically blends with the sophomoric hijinks of a magic little man who can turn hay into gold, a grumpy king and a dumber-than-a-post future queen.

■ The adventure of "The Little Mermaid" turns much more ominous in the hands of comics scribe extraordinaire Peter David as her quest to live happily ever after with a human prince becomes a puzzling problem in podiatry. Artist Ron Ferrara offers ample arch support for the mermaid's issues.

■ Writer Nick Spencer's "Cinderella" satisfies through a fable more about the frustrations of an unhip fairy godmother than the abused princess while artist Rodin Esquejo's beautiful and Disneyesque art style puts the story near the top of my favorites.

■ "Rip Van Winkle" meets Len Strazewski's imagination and we enjoy a story about a conceited girl named Pipi Van Wrinkles who gets loaded on cherry cordials and learns her fate as an adult. The slapstick shenanigans throughout come to life thanks to the pop-art and retro-Archie-Comics-like stylings of Paul Fricke.

*Except for my few years of avid Superman collecting and reading in the mid 90s, so I am not completely ignorant of how the industry works. I had a large collection that was stolen when we moved to California although I had quit collecting at that point. But I gave up for good then. It was just too depressing. I was also raised around a brother who was a Marvel fan, so I've spent some time in comic book shops and it is my favorite set on Big Bang Theory.