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Fractured Fables by Various
Fractured Fables takes familiar fairy tales and nursery rhymes and turns them on their ear!Like NO fairy tale book you've ever read before!
Mass Market Paperback
First published July 27, 2010
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315 people want to read
About the author
Jim Valentino
266 books24 followersJim Valentino is an American writer, penciler, editor and publisher of comic books. He is a co-founder of Image Comics and served as the company's publisher from 1999-2004. Jim created such diverse series as normalman, A Touch of Silver, Vignettes and ShadowHawk. He also wrote and drew Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel Comcs.
He currently heads his own imprint at Image called Shadowline which publishes Rat Queens, Faster Than Light, Jimmie Robinson, Ted McKeever and more.
He currently heads his own imprint at Image called Shadowline which publishes Rat Queens, Faster Than Light, Jimmie Robinson, Ted McKeever and more.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
December 21, 2014
3.5 stars
Introduction:
Now, I am a major fairy tale and folktale enthusiast, so whenever I see any form of fairy tales and folktales in books (whether it is through graphic novels or a retelling of the fairy tale), I just have to pick up those series! So, imagine my surprise when I had just picked up a new graphic novel that twists your favorite fairy tales and fables called “Fractured Fables” (think of the “Fractured Fairy Tales” segment from the “Rocky and Bullwinkle” cartoons) into more modern day interpretations of your favorite fairy tales!
What is this story about?
This collection has over thirty fairy tales and fables that are being retold in a more modern day twist and is being written by several well-known comic book writers such as Bryan Talbot, Doug TenNapel, Jill Thompson, Peter David, Nick Spencer and Laini Taylor. Some of the stories featured in this collection are:
The Secret Princess Society
Written by Marie Cruz
Illustrated by Whilce Portacio
Mimi had a little sister named Meg who would constantly follow her everywhere and do everything that her big sister was doing, which would sometimes annoy Mimi. One day however, when Meg started enrolling in a new dance class and made some new friends, she ended up joining a mysterious club called the “Secret Princess Society.” This club requires for the girls to go into a dark forest and meet up with some strange guests who they would dance with all throughout the night. Mimi then discovers that something is wrong with this mysterious place and she tries to save her little sister Meg from whatever forces are controlling her sister and her friends!
This is the House that Jack Built
Written by Neil Kleid
Illustrated by Fernando Pinto
The story starts off with a man named Jack building a house when two boys, who lived with him, started throwing their toys out of the window. Then things get much more chaotic later on when a bunch of neighbors, their kids and some high school students ended up crashing into Jack’s house and started partying at Jack’s house!
Can Jack get rid of these unwelcome guests?
Pie Eating Contest (Tortoise and the Hare)
Written by Joshua Williamson
Illustrated by Vicente Navarrete
In this more unusual spin on the classic fable “The Tortoise and the Hare,” the tortoise and the hare get involved in a pie eating contest and even though the Hare was able to eat more than the Tortoise, well…. Let us just say that eating too much pie does a number on your stomach!
What I loved about this story:
The writing: As a graphic novel that has a huge collection of different stories, this collection has various writers that all came together to write their own twists on famous fairy tales and fables and man, was this graphic novel one wild ride! There were a couple of stories in this collection that really made me smile and laugh at the hilarious nature of these stories and my favorite stories in this collection would have to be “Spanking Robots (Pinocchio),” which is written by Laini Taylor along with artwork by Jim Di Bartolo, “Cinderella,” which is written by Nick Spencer along with artwork by Rodin Esquejo and “The Real Princess (The Princess and the Pea),” which is written by Alexander Grecian along with artwork by Christian Ward. These stories were my favorites because they put an interesting twist to the classic fairy tales, especially “Cinderella” and “The Real Princess” and I really enjoyed how these twists just made the stories even more interesting!
The artwork: As with many graphic novels that has a collection of stories, there were some artworks in this collection that I really enjoyed. My favorite artwork in this graphic novel came from the works of Christian Ward and Rodin Esquejo, as they were gorgeous to look at and they were probably the most realistic artwork in this collection, since the majority of the artwork in this graphic novel had a cartoony vibe.
What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:
The reason why I gave this graphic novel a three and a half star rating was because even though there were some good stories in this collection, most of the stories I had read were just average to me and not that interesting at all. I was a bit irritated at the fact that most of these stories would end so abruptly without a good conclusion to the situations that the characters are in and it just made it difficult for me to really get into the stories. Now, I understand that because there are various writers writing a different story, the stories would have to be shortened in some kind of way to make room for all the stories, but still, I would have liked it better if some of the stories have some kind of closure that would satisfy me.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, “Fractured Fables” may have some hilarious and creative stories that twist our favorite classic fairy tales, but there were too many average stories in this collection that kind of downplayed my interest for the stories in this graphic novel.
Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog
June 28, 2024
A 2010 graphic novel anthology of folk and fairy tale reimaginings, as well as songs, nursery rhymes and for some reason also Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, and older middle grade onwards as a (in my humble opinion) suitable age group regarding the presented themes, contents and accompanying artwork, Fractured Fables showcases thirty retellings and as typical and as to be expected from the "fractured" of the book title with an eye for the humorous and for the absurd (thirty authors and thirty illustrators, with Fractured Fables also showing brief biographies of the contributors, but sadly and annoyingly, including no primary and secondary sources whatsoever, no titles of the originals, and which I for one do very much consider folklorically problematic at best and actually also rather academically dishonest, and yes, that said lack of source acknowledgment automatically means a full one star deduction from any rating for Fractured Fables I might want to consider).
Now the general combination of text and images for Fractured Fables works decently enough, and with this I mean that the full colour illustrations successfully mirror the presented retellings and vice versa (and that I also have not found artwork in Fractured Fables which has aesthetically creeped me out or majorly bothered me, although none of the thirty illustration styles I would in any way label as visually being all that much to my personal tastes either). However and this is a pretty major and unfortunate however, with regard to textual contents and thematics, with regard to the actual retellings presented in Fractured Fables, sorry, but Fractured Fables is (at least for me personally) a pretty huge so-called hit and miss collection, with only a very select few of the retold texts encountered in Fractured Fables feeling and reading as imaginative and that vast majority is for and to me personally massively blah and also majorly artificially humorous (and no, I really cannot stand artificial feeling and sounding humour, never have, never will).
Therefore, while I do like how in the retelling of Cincerella in Fractured Fables, Cinderella is annoyed and drives her fairy god mother away because she desires a different dress, different shoes and a stretch limo instead of that pumpkin carriage and how the Little Mermaid keeps forgetting to ask for human legs and thus is always ending up with different types of animal appendages, well and yes indeed, almost all of the other featured retellings in Fractured Fables just do not at all do it for me so to speak and often just leave me groaning, such as for example how in Snoring Beauty no one dares to get near to the castle because of the princess' loud and obnoxious snoring and that all of the song and nursery rhyme retellings in Fractured Fables in my opinion rely way too heavily on lame and annoyingly dragging punning, leaving a general two star rating for Fractured Fables as I have definitely not enjoyed enough of the presented text and pictures combinations to consider a higher rating (and yes, unfortunately then lowered to but one star, since the above mentioned absence of sources in Fractured Fables indeed is something that totally makes me academically and intellectually livid and is as such also inexcusable).
And just to say that while the humour of Fractured Fables might well work and be fun, might well be entertaining for some readers, it certainly has for the most part not worked for ME by any stretch of my imagination (and that my one star rating is also not meant to be nasty but is simply my personal reading reaction towards Fractured Fables).
Now the general combination of text and images for Fractured Fables works decently enough, and with this I mean that the full colour illustrations successfully mirror the presented retellings and vice versa (and that I also have not found artwork in Fractured Fables which has aesthetically creeped me out or majorly bothered me, although none of the thirty illustration styles I would in any way label as visually being all that much to my personal tastes either). However and this is a pretty major and unfortunate however, with regard to textual contents and thematics, with regard to the actual retellings presented in Fractured Fables, sorry, but Fractured Fables is (at least for me personally) a pretty huge so-called hit and miss collection, with only a very select few of the retold texts encountered in Fractured Fables feeling and reading as imaginative and that vast majority is for and to me personally massively blah and also majorly artificially humorous (and no, I really cannot stand artificial feeling and sounding humour, never have, never will).
Therefore, while I do like how in the retelling of Cincerella in Fractured Fables, Cinderella is annoyed and drives her fairy god mother away because she desires a different dress, different shoes and a stretch limo instead of that pumpkin carriage and how the Little Mermaid keeps forgetting to ask for human legs and thus is always ending up with different types of animal appendages, well and yes indeed, almost all of the other featured retellings in Fractured Fables just do not at all do it for me so to speak and often just leave me groaning, such as for example how in Snoring Beauty no one dares to get near to the castle because of the princess' loud and obnoxious snoring and that all of the song and nursery rhyme retellings in Fractured Fables in my opinion rely way too heavily on lame and annoyingly dragging punning, leaving a general two star rating for Fractured Fables as I have definitely not enjoyed enough of the presented text and pictures combinations to consider a higher rating (and yes, unfortunately then lowered to but one star, since the above mentioned absence of sources in Fractured Fables indeed is something that totally makes me academically and intellectually livid and is as such also inexcusable).
And just to say that while the humour of Fractured Fables might well work and be fun, might well be entertaining for some readers, it certainly has for the most part not worked for ME by any stretch of my imagination (and that my one star rating is also not meant to be nasty but is simply my personal reading reaction towards Fractured Fables).
January 10, 2011
Some were fun, some were lame. The art varied from fantastic to uninspired. Still, it was interesting to flip through and several of the stories offered were quite imaginative retellings of traditional tales. I think I would have liked to see a few longer tales (the Alice story that opened did a great job of introducing Naraghi's version of Alice and the Cheshire Cat, but I wanted to see more. It felt like a prologue.) Grecian's The Real Princess was gorgeous (art by Christian Ward) but disjointed. I loved Esquejo's interpretation of Cinderella, which I found very reminiscent of the Fables series, in art and storytelling.
February 6, 2017
This review is based on the Princess and the Pea fractured fairytale within this book. It is written as a graphic novel, and veers from the original Hans Christian Anderson story, but the ending is bizarre and the short story lacks flow and character development. The illustrations add a sense of doom to the story that I don't think fits the tale, as I believe this is meant to be funny. Not my favorite version of the Princess and the Pea.
Fractured Fairytale
Fractured Fairytale
May 1, 2014
There are 30 illustrated tales. I gave 3.5 stars; increased to 4 just to even out the overall number of stars.
Definitely for children though I doubt the badly bound book would survive even one reading with a child or someone who wasn't very careful.
The Silly Statue (Alice in Wonderland) by Dara Naraghi, ills by Grant Bond- The Cheshire Cat entertains Alice at the expense of the Queen of Hearts. The Art is very fun! - 3 stars
Fee Fi Fo Fum by Ben Templesmith - a different retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk. Funny! - 4 stars
Little Red Riding Hood by Bryan Talbot, ills Camille d'Errico - Excellent art! Great story, very different. - 5 stars
The Toad Prince by Terry Moore - mostly text, with non-Terry-Moore like art. Very enjoyable! - 5 stars
Mary Had a Little Spam by Kristen K Simon, illus Jim Valentin- Very good, both story and art. - 3 stars
Row Row Rowby Shannon Wheeler - The old song illustrated .. funny twist at the end. - 4 stars
The Secret Princess Society by Marie Cruz, ills Whilco Portacio - Art couldn't be better! Mostly text. - 4 stars
Trouble at the North Pole (Santa Claus) by Shane White. Interesting take on Global Warming. Story and art both good. - 4 stars
Rumplestiltskinby Doug Tennapel - disgusting, but funny! - 4 stars
There Was an Old Giant... by Bill Alger - what to do with an old giant's boot. - 3 stars
On Top of Old Spaghetti by Bill Morrison - The old song gets new life. - 3 stars
Starlight, Starbright by Phil Hester, illus. Mike Laughead - 3 stars
Little Miss Muffet by Royden Lepp- funny, cute art! - 4 stars
The House that Jack Built by Neil Kleid and Fernando Pinto - excellent adaptation of the old poem. - 5 stars
The Fox and the Cat by Nikki Dy-Liacco and Mary Ann Licudine - This one is darling! - 5 stars
Pippi Van Wrinkles by Len Strazowski and illus. Paul Fricke - 3 stars
The Real Princess by Aleander Grecian, illus, Christina Ward - A retelling of the Princess and the Pea. Excellent art! - 5 stars
Pie Eating Contest (The Tortoise and the Hare) by Joshua Williamson and Vicente Navarette - Perfect for kids. - 4 stars
The Strange Feastby Jill Thompson - Very, very strange, and not in a good way. - 1 star
Three Blind Mice by Scott Morse - Funny story! - 3 stars
The People vs Hansel and Gretelby Jeremy Scott - court drama - 3 stars
Snoring Beauty by Kristen Simon, ills. Seth Damoose. - Again, funny but the Poor Princess! - 3 stars
The Little Mermaid by Peter David, illus. Juan Ferreyra - the Underwater World is depicted in a realistic manner unusual for comics. The little mermaid and the Sea Witch make a slightly different deal, even the gods get into the bad joke! - 4 stars
The Ugly Duckling by Brian Haberlin - gets hatched twice? Confusing. - 1 star
Spanking Robots Laini Taylor, illus. Jim Di Bartolo - love the art. Metal instead of wood, Wingnut, when he becomes a Real Boy, is quite the handful. - 3 stars
The Little Matchstick Girl by Joel Valentino - she runs into trouble with the law. Weird ending. - 2 stars
Raponsel by Derek McCulloch, illus. Anthony Peruzzo - Rapunzel is spelled 2 different ways for a reason. Dumb. - 1 star
Troll Bridge (Three Billy Goats Gruff) by Larry Marder - Kinda funny. - 3 stars
Hey Diddle Diddle by Ted McKeever - love the art. Very different! - 5 stars
Cinderella by Nick Spencer, illus. Rodin Esquejo - Good art, pretty darned good in spots! There's some disagreement with the Fairy Godmothers about 'fashion'. - 4 stars
Definitely for children though I doubt the badly bound book would survive even one reading with a child or someone who wasn't very careful.
The Silly Statue (Alice in Wonderland) by Dara Naraghi, ills by Grant Bond- The Cheshire Cat entertains Alice at the expense of the Queen of Hearts. The Art is very fun! - 3 stars
Fee Fi Fo Fum by Ben Templesmith - a different retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk. Funny! - 4 stars
Little Red Riding Hood by Bryan Talbot, ills Camille d'Errico - Excellent art! Great story, very different. - 5 stars
The Toad Prince by Terry Moore - mostly text, with non-Terry-Moore like art. Very enjoyable! - 5 stars
Mary Had a Little Spam by Kristen K Simon, illus Jim Valentin- Very good, both story and art. - 3 stars
Row Row Rowby Shannon Wheeler - The old song illustrated .. funny twist at the end. - 4 stars
The Secret Princess Society by Marie Cruz, ills Whilco Portacio - Art couldn't be better! Mostly text. - 4 stars
Trouble at the North Pole (Santa Claus) by Shane White. Interesting take on Global Warming. Story and art both good. - 4 stars
Rumplestiltskinby Doug Tennapel - disgusting, but funny! - 4 stars
There Was an Old Giant... by Bill Alger - what to do with an old giant's boot. - 3 stars
On Top of Old Spaghetti by Bill Morrison - The old song gets new life. - 3 stars
Starlight, Starbright by Phil Hester, illus. Mike Laughead - 3 stars
Little Miss Muffet by Royden Lepp- funny, cute art! - 4 stars
The House that Jack Built by Neil Kleid and Fernando Pinto - excellent adaptation of the old poem. - 5 stars
The Fox and the Cat by Nikki Dy-Liacco and Mary Ann Licudine - This one is darling! - 5 stars
Pippi Van Wrinkles by Len Strazowski and illus. Paul Fricke - 3 stars
The Real Princess by Aleander Grecian, illus, Christina Ward - A retelling of the Princess and the Pea. Excellent art! - 5 stars
Pie Eating Contest (The Tortoise and the Hare) by Joshua Williamson and Vicente Navarette - Perfect for kids. - 4 stars
The Strange Feastby Jill Thompson - Very, very strange, and not in a good way. - 1 star
Three Blind Mice by Scott Morse - Funny story! - 3 stars
The People vs Hansel and Gretelby Jeremy Scott - court drama - 3 stars
Snoring Beauty by Kristen Simon, ills. Seth Damoose. - Again, funny but the Poor Princess! - 3 stars
The Little Mermaid by Peter David, illus. Juan Ferreyra - the Underwater World is depicted in a realistic manner unusual for comics. The little mermaid and the Sea Witch make a slightly different deal, even the gods get into the bad joke! - 4 stars
The Ugly Duckling by Brian Haberlin - gets hatched twice? Confusing. - 1 star
Spanking Robots Laini Taylor, illus. Jim Di Bartolo - love the art. Metal instead of wood, Wingnut, when he becomes a Real Boy, is quite the handful. - 3 stars
The Little Matchstick Girl by Joel Valentino - she runs into trouble with the law. Weird ending. - 2 stars
Raponsel by Derek McCulloch, illus. Anthony Peruzzo - Rapunzel is spelled 2 different ways for a reason. Dumb. - 1 star
Troll Bridge (Three Billy Goats Gruff) by Larry Marder - Kinda funny. - 3 stars
Hey Diddle Diddle by Ted McKeever - love the art. Very different! - 5 stars
Cinderella by Nick Spencer, illus. Rodin Esquejo - Good art, pretty darned good in spots! There's some disagreement with the Fairy Godmothers about 'fashion'. - 4 stars
December 13, 2011
Book talk: You may have heard of Mary Had a Little Lamb and The Frog Prince, but have you heard the story of Mary Had a Little Spam and The Toad Prince? Check out this comic collection for new twists on your favorite stories.
Rocks my socks: This book was a mixed bag. I really enjoyed Marie Cruz's The Secret Princess Society. Overall I'd say I liked about half. There were some interesting twists and the artwork had a nice variety.
Rocks in my socks: I'm not sure who this collection is aimed at. It seems to be marketed for the children but some of the jokes are aimed at a more adult audience. There's nothing really inappropriate but I'm just not sure younger children will get the punchline of the little mermaid retelling where she turns into beer foam or in "a bad word that no nice girl should ever say unless she catches her husband making a fool of himself with a tart half his age." Many of them are just uninspired retellings with predictable twists. Some I felt like I was missing the joke because I was unfamiliar with the artist's work. One, "Trouble at the North Pole" by Shane White was about global warming and not based off any fairy tale or nursery rhyme I know. It just confused an already confusing issue and without any context I had no idea what its point was.
Every book its reader: I'd give it to someone looking for twists on fairy tales or a humorous comic book in grades 4+
Read more of my reviews at http://auldschoollibrarian.blogspot.com/
Rocks my socks: This book was a mixed bag. I really enjoyed Marie Cruz's The Secret Princess Society. Overall I'd say I liked about half. There were some interesting twists and the artwork had a nice variety.
Rocks in my socks: I'm not sure who this collection is aimed at. It seems to be marketed for the children but some of the jokes are aimed at a more adult audience. There's nothing really inappropriate but I'm just not sure younger children will get the punchline of the little mermaid retelling where she turns into beer foam or in "a bad word that no nice girl should ever say unless she catches her husband making a fool of himself with a tart half his age." Many of them are just uninspired retellings with predictable twists. Some I felt like I was missing the joke because I was unfamiliar with the artist's work. One, "Trouble at the North Pole" by Shane White was about global warming and not based off any fairy tale or nursery rhyme I know. It just confused an already confusing issue and without any context I had no idea what its point was.
Every book its reader: I'd give it to someone looking for twists on fairy tales or a humorous comic book in grades 4+
Read more of my reviews at http://auldschoollibrarian.blogspot.com/
October 5, 2023
This was like no retelling I've ever read before. Mostly because of the wide range of stories.
These stories were everything from weird and evil with line-drawings and no plot or ending whatsoever, to cute, and funny twists on fairy tales and nursery rhymes.
Too many of the stories felt fractured and pointless. Many of these stories also felt too dark for young readers, and too childish for older readers.
So, yes, this is like NO fairy tale book you've ever read before!, as the snippet claims. In this case, though, I don't consider that to be a compliment of the book, nor a recommendation of it.
Content:
Romance: A few pictures of girls with nothing but their hair minimally covering their bodies. In one story the prince's true love is a cow, who he then marries. The little mermaid says she she forgot to specify which gender she wanted, so we see her with big hairy legs and her hair covering the top. Modern day Cinderella critiques her outfit and compares it to different celebrities.
Violence: Eating of various characters.
Religion: One character prays to the gods, and is answered. A man makes a wish on a star, and the blue fairy grants it. Santa is shown on TV, pleading for kids to prevent global warming so the elves can properly package their xmas presents.
These stories were everything from weird and evil with line-drawings and no plot or ending whatsoever, to cute, and funny twists on fairy tales and nursery rhymes.
Too many of the stories felt fractured and pointless. Many of these stories also felt too dark for young readers, and too childish for older readers.
So, yes, this is like NO fairy tale book you've ever read before!, as the snippet claims. In this case, though, I don't consider that to be a compliment of the book, nor a recommendation of it.
Content:
Romance: A few pictures of girls with nothing but their hair minimally covering their bodies. In one story the prince's true love is a cow, who he then marries. The little mermaid says she she forgot to specify which gender she wanted, so we see her with big hairy legs and her hair covering the top. Modern day Cinderella critiques her outfit and compares it to different celebrities.
Violence: Eating of various characters.
Religion: One character prays to the gods, and is answered. A man makes a wish on a star, and the blue fairy grants it. Santa is shown on TV, pleading for kids to prevent global warming so the elves can properly package their xmas presents.
March 8, 2013
I didn't enjoy this story as much as I thought I would. The stories are a bit hit and miss. But I gave it 4 stars for the stories I liked, rather than giving it three for the overall book. Normally I wouldn't do that, but I guess I think that the stories I enjoyed were worth reading the stories I didn't. I don't know if that makes sense.
But the shining star of the book? I found another story by Laini Taylor! Drawn by her husband Jim Di Bartolo. It was worth it just to find out she's written more than I originally thought. And their Pinocchio story is pretty cute.
But the shining star of the book? I found another story by Laini Taylor! Drawn by her husband Jim Di Bartolo. It was worth it just to find out she's written more than I originally thought. And their Pinocchio story is pretty cute.
April 24, 2012
Every once in a while, in my quest for interesting comics, I inadvertently stumble on completely run-of-the-mill comic trash. This is one of those comics.
A bunch of comic artists got together, ripped off the Fractured Fairy Tales idea from Rocky and Bullwinkle, didn’t put much thought into their creations, and came up with this compilation of boring, banal crap. This collection seems to be unable to decide what age it’s aimed at. Some of the themes are more mature, but the writing seems to be aimed at 8 year olds. Feels like somebody in this project took it and forced it to be a children’s collection.
Avoid, avoid, avoid.
August 25, 2017
*Book source ~ Library
30 fairy tale retellings, nursery rhymes, and folk tales in graphic novel form. With 30 stories you get a wide range of quality in regards to story and artwork.
Out of them all I think The Little Mermaid, Raponsel, and Cinderella are the funniest with Little Red Riding Hood and Rumplestiltskin following close behind. The rest range from so-so to ugh.
30 fairy tale retellings, nursery rhymes, and folk tales in graphic novel form. With 30 stories you get a wide range of quality in regards to story and artwork.
Out of them all I think The Little Mermaid, Raponsel, and Cinderella are the funniest with Little Red Riding Hood and Rumplestiltskin following close behind. The rest range from so-so to ugh.
December 14, 2017
The mix of stories was interesting, all the art work was great, however I only enjoyed a couple of stories out of the collection.
September 9, 2019
Some of these stories were kinda funny and some of the art was pretty good. Altogether it kinda read like a bunch of dad jokes.
December 8, 2021
Most people are very familiar with the classic fairy tales. So much so, that they can grow a little stale after having been read many times. In this comic, five of those tales are reimaged into another form. In “Little Red Riding Hood,” the wolf does his typical chase of the girl only to encounter her grandmother, a martial arts instructor. Needless to say, the wolf howling at the end.
The next one is a modification of “Rumplestiltskin,” where he does his thing in making gold, from straw. The little imp asks for the woman’s newborn son, but when he arrives he finds the mother so stupid that he self-destructs in frustration. My favorite is a takeoff on “Rapunzel” called “Raponsel.” It is a case of mistaken identity that involves some very silly misunderstandings, including the fundamental mispronunciation of a name. The last is a wordless cartoon version of “Hey Diddle Diddle” that takes place in front of some storefronts.
Enjoyable for the twisted, yet humorous way some classics are bent, this is a quick, fun read.
The next one is a modification of “Rumplestiltskin,” where he does his thing in making gold, from straw. The little imp asks for the woman’s newborn son, but when he arrives he finds the mother so stupid that he self-destructs in frustration. My favorite is a takeoff on “Rapunzel” called “Raponsel.” It is a case of mistaken identity that involves some very silly misunderstandings, including the fundamental mispronunciation of a name. The last is a wordless cartoon version of “Hey Diddle Diddle” that takes place in front of some storefronts.
Enjoyable for the twisted, yet humorous way some classics are bent, this is a quick, fun read.
August 15, 2019
There are thirty fables-mostly of which are very loosely adapted- that range from terrible to wonderful. All kinds of creators that Jim Valentino published in his SilverShadow lines of sub Image material -that may be cool for kids- with some industry studs mixed in for enough ethos to get the likes of me to read it.
July 25, 2019
Mildly amusing, and not *quite* for kids.
September 3, 2023
Some of the drawing styles gave me a headache lol ಥ_ಥ
May 1, 2016
Fractured Fables takes familiar Fairy tales and Nursery Rhymes...and turns them on their ear!
That is about the best synopsis you can have for this book.
50 different graphic artists contribute their own take on the different fables and fairy tales, some are serious and some are complete parodies.
Not all of the stories appealed to me, but none were overly long and there was enough variety and ones that did that a few misses were fine.
The physical quality of this book is excellent. The cover is nice and sturdy and the paper is nice and thick, both with a glossy finish and it includes a red ribbon book mark.
That is about the best synopsis you can have for this book.
50 different graphic artists contribute their own take on the different fables and fairy tales, some are serious and some are complete parodies.
Not all of the stories appealed to me, but none were overly long and there was enough variety and ones that did that a few misses were fine.
The physical quality of this book is excellent. The cover is nice and sturdy and the paper is nice and thick, both with a glossy finish and it includes a red ribbon book mark.
March 11, 2011
A group of, over all, not very impressive retellings or adaptations of fables/fairy tales. The only thing most of the stories have going for them is that they're short and in color.
Cinderella drives her fairy god mother away when she says she wants a different dress and shoes and a stretch limo instead of the pumpkin, the little mermaid asks for legs but forgets to specify human legs and so she keeps going back to the sea witch to make her change the type of legs, sleeping beauty snores so loudly that no one ever gets anywhere near the castle...and so on.
Cinderella drives her fairy god mother away when she says she wants a different dress and shoes and a stretch limo instead of the pumpkin, the little mermaid asks for legs but forgets to specify human legs and so she keeps going back to the sea witch to make her change the type of legs, sleeping beauty snores so loudly that no one ever gets anywhere near the castle...and so on.
November 20, 2011
This book physically is very nice and attractive. The stories are all short; they aren't necessarily all the fairy tales in their full detail. Some of the story "adaptations" were good/funny, some I found just stupid, and some started out good and the ending had me going "really??". There's a mix of art. Some of it's cartoonish, some Japanamation/Manga style, and some is high quality illustration. Overall I thought the book was okay. I grabbed it at the library not knowing what it really was, but it had caught my eye. I don't regret reading it, but probably never will again.
May 16, 2012
I would describe the content of this book as merely cute. It is a collection of fairytales re-told in new ways. Some were quite excellent and several were quite bad or boring. The same for the art, although generally it was a high quality. I did not like some of the contrasts between one art style and the next, however. I'm not sure what better transition could have been made, though, given the variety of authors and art styles.
August 8, 2013
A hit and miss collection of twists on fairy tales you know. Some are quite imaginative, others are blah. It would be a good source to use when trying to present the variations on a theme to let the children see that they are many ways to present the tale - including a graphic novel approach. A short item like this would be very encouraging to a young artist so that they might make an attempt to do the same.
January 15, 2011
Clever, sophisticated re-tellings of traditional fairy tales and nursery rhymes written and drawn by an all-star cast of comic book creators. I especially liked Star Light, Star Bright with a human child holding his martian toy looking out at the night sky ending with the martian child holding his astronaut toy.
October 31, 2011
The stories are short, colorful, funny, sometimes a little rude... catnip for the middle grade. The binding on this hardcover graphic novel is strong, which is good, because it's going to get a lot of exercise.
Full review on Pink Me: http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/201...
Full review on Pink Me: http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/201...
May 17, 2012
I just wasn't particularly enthused by this book. I expected humor or wickedness, and it may be in there, but not in a very well done way. Each story is done by a different artist, which I loved- but so many of them just... stunk. A few were amusing, but at the end I felt like I had been robbed of a couple hours of time and more than a few brain cells.
February 11, 2015
Some of these were okay, but most were just a waste of time. I always enjoy a compilation of different graphic styles but the stories just weren't interesting. These are supposed to be 'fractured' fables with a new spin or twist ending except they mostly end up exactly where you thought they would. Most go for the obvious and none of these were really memorable.
October 5, 2016
Read most of it, and was initially excited to pick it up because image comics had a hand in it, and I've always loved different renditions of folk/fairytales. I love image - they aren't afraid to take risks, and they turn out many of my favorite comics, but this compilation wasn't my cup of tea. Some were good, but some were weird (not in a good way).
October 14, 2011
I actually really enjoyed this...some of the tales are definitely better than others, but there is nothing inappropriate and the variety of artwork and styles is refreshing. It would probably be enjoyed most by tween readers.
January 8, 2012
Most of these fractured stories were pretty entertaining, but a few were completely ridiculous or made no sense. An overall worthwhile title with a few standout entries. Recommended for middle-graders or young teens.
July 20, 2016
While, for the most part, all the art was beautiful, the stories and writing were somewhat lacking. A few were very good (such as Trouble At The North Pole, Starlight Starbright, Little Miss Muffet, The Fox and the Cat, and Hey Diddle, Diddle), some were okay, and the rest were uninteresting.
May 3, 2012
This hilarious collection of quick fairy tale parodies makes for a quick and enjoyable read. Almost all the versions made me laugh, or at least smile. Which is quite a feat in an anthology, where I am accustomed to more variance in quality.
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