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One of several "Factoid Books" that I've had for quite a few years. This is Jonathan Vankin's take on the tales collected by the Grimm brothers: illustrated by "Over 50 Top Comics Artists".

Definitely not the Disney versions. :p

Tuesday, September 28: headed east by media mail.

USPS tracking # 9549 0104 3302 1271 8654 57
ETA 10/19

Released for awaywithfairies' You're Such an Animal challenge (for ‘ō‘ō, an extinct Hawaiian honeyeater).

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Arrived safely in the RABCK package. Thanks!

I flipped through this one and it looks a bit dark for me, so I'm going to release it unread.

Sending in a box of books. I know you enjoy the graphic format and I thought there was a chance this one might appeal. Enjoy reading and/or releasing!

The box of RABCKs arrived safely on this blustery, cold day; many thanks! I've read other graphic-novel-format anthologies, but hadn't come across this one - looks good! (I *have* read other versions of the original Grimm stories, so the gruesomeness of these wasn't quite as much of a shock as it might have been {grin}.)

Since this is a graphic-novel version, with a number of different artists, the artistic style of some stories worked better for me than others. I was pleased to see some favorites of mine here, including Rick Geary, who illustrated "Puss in Boots," and Gahan Wilson, who did "Bearskin".

And I found some tales I hadn't read before, which was fun, including "Queen Bee," a rather typical "three princes compete to win a princess" story in which the youngest prince, considered a fool by his brothers, insists on showing mercy to the ants and ducks and bees that his brothers want to kill - and who is rewarded with the aid of those creatures in achieving his quest. (This is one of the happier-ending stories in the collection!)

"The Three Snake Leaves" is a more elaborate story, one I liked very much - oh, sure, it's dark too, with the foolish promises and betrayals and whatnot, but I enjoyed it.

And "Allerleirauh" (which, at least by that mouthful of a title, I'd never heard of before) has a sorta-kinda "Cinderella" plot, but with a very dark twist - one that twists even farther by the ending. [No wonder this one wasn't in the books I read as a kid!] I suspect this one inspired

One of the short-short entries - a single page - is "Poor Man in Heaven," pretty much a snarky joke that felt like something Oscar Wilde would have liked: a poor man dies, gets to the pearly gates, and has to wait while a rich man is welcomed into heaven with much fanfare. When it's the poor man's turn to go in, he gets no fanfare at all, and is angry about it, yelling at the angel that heaven is as unfair as Earth - but the angel points out that "poor people get into heaven every day, but we haven't had a rich man in a hundred years"!

And there's lots more, some funny/dark, some grotesque/dark, some dark/dark (and a few that aren't that dark, but they're in the minority). "Grimm" isn't the half of it! {grin}

[There's a TV Tropes page on the brothers Grimm and their works, with some interesting tidbits.]

I left this book on a bench at Salem Willows Park, near the shore; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

** Released for the 2023 Allergic to A challenge. **

** Released for the 2023 Keep Them Moving challenge. **