Ever After?

http://www.jpgmag.com/stories/11918 has a rather interesting photo set that grabs Disney Princesses (and for some strange reason - Little Red Riding Hood) and sticks them in scenes of 'challanges facing modern women'.

While I really like the concept I think I do tend to feel that the princess could have been matched to the issue a little better in some cases (however the cosmetic surgery Beauty/Belle is obvious indicator that this doesn't apply to every image) - for example while I think it's clever that the 'eaten' little Red Riding Hood is now suffering an eating disorder I would have liked to have seen something a little more rubbing against the grain of the more common theme of the tale.

While Disney has populated the 'princess syndrome' we can't exactly pretend that they are wholey responsible for the masses of girls waiting for a dashing prince to come in and save the day - indeed it seems as if the collective history of humanity has done this and as with everything else it shows up brightest in the tales we tell our children.

So what do we do?

Tell different tales? Adapt the old ones? I'm not a huge fan of modernising fairytales simply for the sake of moral rights - convincing kids that the world is totally free of unreasonable expectations is perhaps not the best thing, but instead discussing the history of the tale, or mixing it up with more empowering stories. It would be a shame to totally ditch Cinderella just because she is portrayed with a perfect prince who swept her off her feet - she has such interesting history behind her.

P.S. Apologies for not posting this past few weeks - Illness and death (not my own death though) prevented me.

~Roslyn

A Very Good Place To Start.....

img from Flickr -Muffin9101985

Two girls, one story.

I'll start with the easy introduction:

The Artist in this venture is Natalie Jaworski - a comic and cartoon lover from birth (or very nearly) Natalie's work is something of a full platter from a buffet table of eastern and western, old and modern techniques and styles.
Natalie has had me smiling since we met (in the art wing of the high school - naturally) with her drawings that oozed personality and emotion, and even after all her fancy-smancy training with the bees-knees she hasn't lost her love of what she does.


Then there's me, Roslyn - the Writer. I grew up on Folktales and Mythology and as far as I remember spent every waking moment either up a tree or exploring wrecked ships and lonely beaches.
Not much has changed - though over the years the shelves have grown bigger and more bowed with the weight of my books on legends and fairytales (I will be in serious danger if they ever collapse...I may even break my glasses or snag my lace top!)
I'm terribly well known for my mary-janes and spur-of-the-moment nonsensical false histories or urban legend-esque tales.
And I don't mind at all. After all without my reputation for such I'd not get involved in lovely oppertunities like this project.


The project is deceptively simple on the page, three words in fact - "Modern Fantasy Comic"...but the modern fantasy has such a terrible reputation these days (with exceptions of course)...
Trite storylines, romantic disgustingly perfect characters, pretty and helpful fairies, ugly dumb monsters with no reason or motivation....it's ingrained in our Disneyised memory. "Creepy" goth/skater girls in black with chips on their shoulders that are about as 'different' as beige paint.

We aim to mischief this.

We have the whole deal - vampires, mosters, Faeries (and Fairies...), magicians - but all in a way you've not seen before.

So stay close and we'll give you a window into the world we're creating under your nose - along with commentary and tidbits on modern fantasy, comics and other topics of interest.


~Roslyn