Thursday, July 26, 2007

Is This Gratuitous? Grimm Fairy Tales: Return To Wonderland #1 E-Bas Cover

My first response to the cover of Grimm Fairy Tales: Return to Wonderland is this: Good God, the chick has a g-string and garter belt on- I hope it isn't drafty in Wonderland. She might catch a cold!

My second is to wonder when Alice got so chesty. Nice rack, Babe. Then I get even more disturbed wondering if Alice has the same underpants theme going on behind her!

Last thought: Is Jenna Jameson in this comic book too? Hmmmm....

I haven't read Grimm Fairy Tales as it isn't a book my retailer stocks. Do any of you read it and do you know what the basic premise is? Does it have a Fables vibe or is it more Lost Girls? I am really curious.

Here is the skinny straight from Zenescope Entertainment's website:

"Years have passed since Alice's first fell down the rabbit hole. Now an adult with a family, Alice's mind has drifted away from the safe shores of sanity into a silent world of madness. A madness that will not be denied and a madness her daughter Calie will soon discover for herself. Witness a bold new dark vision of Wonderland from the twisted minds of Raven Gregory and Zenescope Entertainment. This #1 issue features 4 different covers by premiere cover artists Al Rio and Eric Basadula!"

As a Raven Gregory fan, this book has me curious. E-Bas didn't hold back much on the basic naughtiness so I am assuming the inside is the same?

Can anybody help me here? More importantly, is this gratuitous?

11 comments:

Elayne said...

The Grimm's books (of which this is a spinoff) are definitely guilty pleasures of mine, because the stories are told pretty straight even though the art is pretty gratuitous. The interiors are a little better than the covers, and I'm guessing Zenoscope believes nobody would buy the books if they were straight "modern takes on fairy tales," which of course is patently ridiculous given how that stuff sells elsewhere. I wish they'd have more confidence in their storytelling and not use the gratuitous stuff as a crutch.

Lisa said...

Each issue is a one-shot story based on a fairy tale. I've only read a couple, when they first started coming out, to make sure they weren't total porn - based on my initial observation that the covers are extremely gratuitous. At the Wizard con in Chicago last year they had gals dressed up like this handing out fliers for the comic.

Like Elayne says, the art inside isn't quite as bad - still some pretty short skirts and busty gals, but not as bad as those covers. The stories are fairly accurate summaries of the original tales, but I thought that the couple I read weren't great - like I said, they're short summaries and the stories take a back-seat to the art.

In my store the comic has mainly a following of guys who like pin-up art, and a couple of women who aren't typically bothered by this kind of art.

EVERY cover of this series is pretty gratuitous - and this one is no different.

Unknown said...

The original Grimm's Bros' stories were pretty gruesome and these comics capitalize on that. They are basically horror comics that are fairly faithful to the source material.

That cover is pretty ridiculous, but what bothers me more is that the world has another "mature" Alice in Wonderland story. But that's public domain for you.

RedheadFangirl said...

I'm with Elayne here, I used to buy all the Grimm's books for a while. Spoke with one of the cute writers at NYCC and told him that the interior art pushed the grat factor, and the covers were much. They had some booth babes then, but by Wizard Philly I didn't even approach the booth (it was swamped) because they/fans are getting too sleazy for me to feel good about...

Carl said...

Looks more like "Return To Woodyland" to me. I've never read any of the comics but of course the classic uncut stories. I've found that as time goes on, the modern folks have to 'sex' everything up or it's stodgy and boring apparently. H.P. Lovecraft movies have over-the-top gory and kinky sex which would have been more horrifying to the creator then his creations. And there's this bizarre kink in people today (well, mostly men I noticed) to have weirdness in things that originally were of innocence, punk or bizarre versions of The Wizard of Oz, Alice In Wonderland (yet again), the grown-up sometimes hard-core versions in Fables and so on. I find it all just a bit disturbing...

Heidi Meeley said...

Elayne, thank you so much for the heads up on this! I have been wondering about the Grimm books, as I have always enjoyed the tales being told. I would like to give the books a try, but have been getting scared off by some of the covers. :-) This helps me want to go buy the book rather then not give it a chance because I think it is T&A laden. Thank you!

Heidi Meeley said...

Lisa, thank you as well for the heads up! I am so glad to hear about this from you and Elayne. I trust your opinions on this implicitely.

The tales being told sound fascinating, but I wasn't sure. I will have to pick up a few issues online and give them a try.

Too bad about the covers, as it seems that the book is trying to appeal to more then one market segment.

Heidi Meeley said...

Rob, I appreciate the insight. I was wondering if this was the sanitized version or the original, which is quite a bit more unsettling. Not always happy endings there, so it is good to know this.

Thank you!

Heidi Meeley said...

Redlib- thank you for another opinion I trust. I am going to see if I can hunt an issue or two down. :-)

Heidi Meeley said...

Carl, your opinion is always valuable to me, so thank you for the point towards gratuitous as well.

I am calling it: the cover is most certainly gratuitous. It is a shame as it sounds like the material is quite interesting, and I hate to think that it is preventing readers from checking it out. What a shame.

Raven Gregory said...

Return to Wonderland is definitely R Rated in nature while the Grim Fairy Tales on going series is more PG-13 oriented. Also, zenescope did publish a variant cover (HAUNTED by Al Rio) that had no cheesecake factor so that people from both sides of the fence had a cover to choose from.

Hope you gals and guys will give the book a shot as I'm sure it'll surprise you in the direction we're taking the story.

Thanks.