A Tale of Two Travelers

I bought this book during Fieldmouse Press's annual catalog pre-sale. I got all the books, and I will be reviewing some of them here, stay tuned! First up is A Tale of Two Travelers, an adaptation of a tale from the Brothers Grimm. In this story, a tailor and a shoemaker meet up on the road to a big city, and they decide to travel together. They are a study in opposites, as the tailor is rather carefree, open, generous, and likes to leave things to chance. The shoemaker is reserved, severe, penurious, and likes to plan everything out in advance. The shoemaker gets easily annoyed by the tailor, and even attempts to leave him a few times. When they come to a point where the trip will take either two or seven days, the tailor does not take enough water to sustain him, and then the shoemaker strikes a dark bargain for his companion to survive.

I was not familiar with this story beforehand, and it is intriguing on its own, with weighty ethical and moral implications. But the narrative is incredibly enhanced by the deceptively simple artwork, which is sketchy, bold, and expert. The characters and backgrounds are rendered in remarkably economical ways that amplify the characters' personalities, the stakes of their situations, and the emotional drama. I loved reading this book, and it would be an excellent text to include in any unit or study of folktales or simply as a great diversion in its own right.

This book was written and drawn by Madita Schwenke, whose comics have mostly been published in German. If you go check out her website, you can see images from some of her other works, like Drifting and Wohnen und Wurmen. This book was translated into English by Natalye Childress, a writer and editor who trucks in comics.

A Tale of Two Travelers was published by Fieldmouse Press, and they offer preview pages and more information about it here.

Fairy Tale Comics: Classic Tales Told by Extraordinary Cartoonists

This book features an all star team of creators retelling an all star team of fairy tales from across the world. I felt it was a very impressive collection of well drawn and expertly told tales. It is hard to pick one story as my favorite, but if I had to narrow it down to two, I am very partial to Luke Pearson's version of the Japanese tale "The Boy Who Drew Cats"

and Joseph Lambert's retelling of a Br'er Rabbit tale "Rabbit Will Not Help."

Also, Graham Annable's wordless version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" had me laughing out loud.

Nevertheless, there is a wide range of excellent work contained in this book, told in very different styles and covering many kinds of stories, horrific, funny, sad, and adventurous. Among the other strong works in these pages are:

Gilbert Hernandez's bright retelling of "Hansel and Gretel"

His brother Jaime Hernandez giving us a spacy, wonderful "Snow White"

Comics veteran Ramona Fradon drawing the surreal and magical "The Prince and the Tortoise"

David Mazzucchelli's take on the creepy "Give Me the Shudders"

Craig Thompson sharing "Azzolino's Story Without End"

Raina Telgemeier's fun and feisty "Rapunzel"

Charise Mericle Harper's version of a strange English tale " The Small-Tooth Dog"

Gigi D.G.'s expressive version of "Little Red Riding Hood"

Brett Helquist's textured and impressionistic version of "Rumpelstiltskin"

And these are only some of the stories contained in this anthology! I did not think any one of them was a clunker, and what is more, there are endnotes that I found helpful when I ran into a story I did not know and wanted to learn more about. I also like the range of creators, and I am glad to have seen some relatively new folks mixed in with established ones I was very familiar with.

Editor Chris Duffy gathered all of these artists and stories, and he also wrote the adaptation to "The Prince and the Tortoise." A veteran in the field, he edited Nickolodeon Comics for 13 years, as well as the Bizarro Comics anthology for DC Comics and Spongebob Squarepants comics for Bongo Comics. For more about this book and how Duffy chose the stories and artists he did, check out this interview at Good Comics for Kids.

All of the reviews I have read thus far have been very positive. Publishers Weekly wrote, "Duffy has assembled a dazzling lineup of comics versions of more than a dozen fairy tales in this hilarious follow-up to Nursery Rhyme Comics." The librarians at Stacked were more measured but still called it "a great collection for young readers who may come to many of these stories with new eyes, never having read them anywhere else before." Michael May summed up the book nicely as "a fascinating look at modern culture through the lens of classic stories, but that’s what grown-ups are going to get out of it. For children, it’s simply an exciting, funny, beautifully drawn collection of unique versions of their favorite tales."

A preview and more are available here from the book's publisher First Second.

Thank you, Gina, for the review copy!