Zenescope - Omnibusted #2: Grimm Fairy Tales TPB Volume 2
Article by Sean Wilkinson
Welcome backward, Ticketholders and Fairy Tale fans!
With the end of 2022 upon us, it seems like an appropriate time to get creatively retroactive. Now, there's nothing wrong with looking back (unless there's a vicious animal chasing you down), so long as you move forward. If the arts have taught us anything, it's that if you progress forward enough, what was old will eventually be new again. Case in point, my re-release of these old Grimm Fairy Tales comics reviews as part of the Zenescope - Omnibusted series. With the Volume One trade behind us, let's move forward in the past to Volume Two, where some of the cliffhangers from Volume One pay off rather quickly.
GFT #7: Snow White
This issue follows directly after the Legacy short story, with Sela visiting a sick girl named Stephanie, whose stepmother Terry is poisoning her as the means to a Munchausen by proxy scheme. Of course, Sela knows all about it and stops by to loan the book, recommending they both read Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
The story, as usual, is true to the original, but for a bloody twist that leaves Terry in a mental hospital, frightened that the dwarves are going to find her and eat her.
With the exception of the evil queen being named Talia and the stepmother being named Terry, and the obvious poisoning connection between frame and fairy tale, this is one of the more obtuse pairings. Part of this has to do with the rushed, lazy artwork that makes the fairy tale characters bear very little resemblance to their frame counterparts, so you have to just keep the mechanics of the book in mind as you read. Hell, the art is so bad that one of the psych ward attendants looks like the guy from Bob’s Burgers (see below-right).
However, future knowledge has me thinking about a few things that elevate this issue slightly above the sloppily produced filler episode that it is.
Much later, I will re-touch on the Wonderland spin-off, wherein a looking glass plays a large role. The fact that the queen says “looking glass, looking glass,” instead of the classic “mirror, mirror,” has me wondering (ha-ha) if the voice of the mirror might be someone--or something--from Wonderland. That the seven dwarves are shown to be able to appear in and pass through mirrors suggests that they might be creatures of Wonderland as well. That the mirror in Terry’s basement looks like the looking glass from the Wonderland series (which is also in a basement) suggests that Terry and Stephanie might be living in the House of Liddle (what that is, I’ll explain later), but I’d have to work out some timeline stuff to be certain. Oh, and you might be thinking, “how can it be the same mirror if it got smashed this issue?” Well, let’s just say that doesn’t matter. You'll find out what I mean when we get there.
If the Lyric Fits:
They say the sky is the limit
Well I guess it all depends on you
And your views (in this American dream)
Don't tell me that the sky is the limit
'Cause it ain't about what you can do
It's a who knows who
In this American dream
It makes for good song lyrics, and is a good mindset to have if one wishes to be successful, but there is something to be said about the unhealthy nature of obsession (I even addressed my own unhealthy handling of obsession in last week's Omnibusted). That's why we have idioms like "too much of a good thing," "all things in moderation," "don't fly too close to the sun," and "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." It's also why we have the following issue of Grimm Fairy Tales.
GFT #8: Jack and the Beanstalk
After Snow White, Zenescope gets back to the on-the-nose writing, but this time the art is even worse!
A drug dealer named Jim is trying to earn enough money to move his wife and child out of the bad neighborhood they’re living in, but he’s getting greedy and selling on a rival’s turf.
When Jim goes out to meet his supplier, he finds Sela waiting for him. What she did with the supplier, I shudder to think….
An unnamed girl is cheating on her wealthy, abusive husband with a younger man named Dan. The two plan to kill the husband and use his life insurance money to run away together, but another “accidental” encounter with Sela’s book has the girl changing her mind, too late, as it turns out.
This issue has a few firsts for the series. The usual plot mechanics are in place, but this is the first time the fairy tale has been drastically altered from the common telling to more closely resemble its framing scenario and accommodate GFT’s signature bloody twists. It also is the first time in the series where the focal character (unnamed girl/Goldilocks) dies in both segments of the issue.
It is, again, a mere filler episode in the grand scheme of the story, with the only common elements across the series thus far being Sela and the book. However, Sela’s final comment about consequences and not everyone getting or deserving a second chance can be taken as another expression of self-pity on her part. Though she is clearly a symbolic moral figure by this point, Sela has evidently made bad choices beyond her deal with Cindy, and she has regrets about the other people she could not save.
Chad (could be an older version of Chad from Red Riding Hood, but there’s nothing to confirm that idea beyond their slightly similar appearances) and his brother Neal are arguing about the latter being investigated for embezzling money from his company. There is an informant (referred to as a "rat" because there has to be a Pied Piper connection), and Neal has hired a hitman to eliminate him, but plans to cheat the hitman out of his payment as well.
When they are later discussing this at a bar, up walks Sela, who pisses off Neal by being psychic and dressing like a hooker. Perhaps a nod to the Chad connection, Sela refers to Neal as a “big, bad wolf.” It might be a coincidence, but given how Sela likes to be all mysterious and knowing with her more morally gray charges, I doubt it.
Sela leaves her book behind, opened to the Pied Piper tale, which Chad reads while Neal plays pool. In the story, Chad and Neal become Charles and Nathan, switching hair colors for some reason. It follows closely to both the common telling and the framework narrative, with the Piper being an analogue for Neal’s hitman. Chad/Charles attempts to be the voice of reason, but his brother’s stinginess comes at a high price.
This issue is the most connected thus far in Zenescope’s universe, beyond the probable link to Red Riding Hood. Early in the Piper fairy tale, Charles is reading Beauty and the Beast to his son George, which I will talk about at the beginning of the next volume. Before I get to that, though, the Pied Piper gets his own limited spin-off series. And before I get to that, here’s a look at the short story from Volume 2….
At some point in time, Sela fell in love with a man named Robert, who gifted her with a pocket watch at their first meeting.
Timepiece is the story of their romance, but there's more to it than a simple love story. It’s revealed that Sela is roughly three hundred years old, and that because she does not age--or at the very least, ages at a fractional rate to everyone else--there is a gender-swapped Superman/Lois Lane dynamic to their relationship. But instead of ignoring the mortal/immortal barrier like Superman did, Sela breaks it off with Robert, only to seek him out years later on his deathbed so she can see him one last time (and fulfill his dying wish to do the same).
Placing the pocket watch on his gravesite, Sela is approached by an as-yet-unnamed redhead who proceeds to give Sela the Sela treatment (as in, “you don’t know me, but I know all about you and I can help,” yada yada yada).
As it turns out, this mystery woman set up Sela’s relationship with Robert--even suggesting the timepiece gift, which was a subtle, salt-in-the-wound middle finger to Sela--to cause her as much emotional pain as possible and get Sela to turn evil (which now makes more sense out of the Cinderella issue).
I enjoyed Timepiece as an overall production, and as a well-crafted story specifically, but that redhead is copious shades of messed up.
Well I guess it all depends on you
And your views (in this American dream)
Don't tell me that the sky is the limit
'Cause it ain't about what you can do
It's a who knows who
In this American dream
-"Sky's the Limit"
Yelawolf, Love Story
It makes for good song lyrics, and is a good mindset to have if one wishes to be successful, but there is something to be said about the unhealthy nature of obsession (I even addressed my own unhealthy handling of obsession in last week's Omnibusted). That's why we have idioms like "too much of a good thing," "all things in moderation," "don't fly too close to the sun," and "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." It's also why we have the following issue of Grimm Fairy Tales.
GFT #8: Jack and the Beanstalk
A drug dealer named Jim is trying to earn enough money to move his wife and child out of the bad neighborhood they’re living in, but he’s getting greedy and selling on a rival’s turf.
When Jim goes out to meet his supplier, he finds Sela waiting for him. What she did with the supplier, I shudder to think….
Jim starts reading, and (see previous explanations of the book) becomes Jack, a poor farmer who trades his cow for beans and runs afoul of the giant (who looks vaguely like a fat, zombified version of the rival dealer) in a quest for beyond-ludicrous wealth. Jack’s wife, child, and home are crushed by the falling giant, and Jim snaps back to reality with a second chance at his disposal.
It’s another filler issue at this point in the series, but hints here and there at a bigger picture. Look at Sela’s closing remark, for instance: “Take it from someone who knows, Jim. There are things in life that are much more important than money. Things you can’t put a price on.”
In the scope of the issue, this could be interpreted as a reference to Jim’s family, and the peaceful life they could have if he quit dealing and learned to live on the money he has. In the larger scope (the Zene-scope, if you will), Sela could be referring to her own lost family. Deeper still, she could be talking about the soul. Maybe Paco (the rival dealer) or Manny (the supplier) are working for the Evil Agency, and had planned to either kill or recruit Jim if he had continued on the path he was on. And maybe Sela was expressing regrets about the deal she made with Cindy in a previous issue. Maybe on some level, Sela sees the book as her smack, her magic beans, her symbol of greed, and she regrets ever going into the old woman’s house to begin with.
It’s another filler issue at this point in the series, but hints here and there at a bigger picture. Look at Sela’s closing remark, for instance: “Take it from someone who knows, Jim. There are things in life that are much more important than money. Things you can’t put a price on.”
In the scope of the issue, this could be interpreted as a reference to Jim’s family, and the peaceful life they could have if he quit dealing and learned to live on the money he has. In the larger scope (the Zene-scope, if you will), Sela could be referring to her own lost family. Deeper still, she could be talking about the soul. Maybe Paco (the rival dealer) or Manny (the supplier) are working for the Evil Agency, and had planned to either kill or recruit Jim if he had continued on the path he was on. And maybe Sela was expressing regrets about the deal she made with Cindy in a previous issue. Maybe on some level, Sela sees the book as her smack, her magic beans, her symbol of greed, and she regrets ever going into the old woman’s house to begin with.
Speaking of going into someone's house uninvited, I'd like to transition into this next review FROM August 20, 2017 by wishing you a Happy Breaking and Entering Day!
Just kidding. There is no national Breaking and Entering Day. Why would there be? It's a crime. It'd be like celebrating national Armed Robbery Day or Double Homicide Day or O.J. Simpson Day. I'm repeating myself here, but you get the idea.
GFT #9: Goldilocks & the Three Bears
This issue has a few firsts for the series. The usual plot mechanics are in place, but this is the first time the fairy tale has been drastically altered from the common telling to more closely resemble its framing scenario and accommodate GFT’s signature bloody twists. It also is the first time in the series where the focal character (unnamed girl/Goldilocks) dies in both segments of the issue.
It is, again, a mere filler episode in the grand scheme of the story, with the only common elements across the series thus far being Sela and the book. However, Sela’s final comment about consequences and not everyone getting or deserving a second chance can be taken as another expression of self-pity on her part. Though she is clearly a symbolic moral figure by this point, Sela has evidently made bad choices beyond her deal with Cindy, and she has regrets about the other people she could not save.
I seem to "enjoy" discussing my faults a lot lately, from my obsessive over-burdening of self to my gambling and alcoholism. I guess I'll just have to add general self-deprecation to my list of faults to discuss at a later date.
Another fault of mine (one that has helped me not deal with all of the faults I notice in myself) is venting about the faults I notice in others. For the purposes of the following review, let's call them warts, and begin with what a stretch the premise of this issue of Grimm Fairy Tales is.
Lizette’s sense of deja vu is something that has come up in a few other issues with other characters, which when coupled with the mechanics of Sela’s book, hints at not just each character having a sense of having read their respective fairy tales before, but at the fairy tales actually being past lives for those characters.
In the fairy tale, Lizette becomes Calliope, a princess so vain that she has a giant portrait of herself over her own bed, next to which is a talking looking glass that tells her how beautiful she is (yes, another talking mirror). Her vanity is so severe that even though she looks like she does, she thinks she has to drink from a magic well to enhance her beauty.
Watching from the shadows are a scar-faced young man in the forest and a talking frog at the bottom of the well. The frog does Calliope a kindness, and conceited girl that she is, she chucks it out the palace window, where the scarred youth (who is the fairy tale incarnation of Neville) finds it lying in its own blood and returns it to the well.
The frog comes back in human form and takes revenge on Calliope.
Back in the framing scenario, Lizette fails to heed her lesson and suffers a similar fate. No blatant spoiler of what that fate is, but the issue is called The Frog King, and given Zenescope’s tendency to be punny with their character names, you can probably guess it easily for yourself.
Beyond the obvious shared looking glass reference between this issue, Snow White, and Wonderland, there is nothing of consequence to note. Fits nicely with the feel of Grimm Fairy Tales so far, but it’s still another filler episode, inside and out.
Another fault of mine (one that has helped me not deal with all of the faults I notice in myself) is venting about the faults I notice in others. For the purposes of the following review, let's call them warts, and begin with what a stretch the premise of this issue of Grimm Fairy Tales is.
GFT #10: The Frog King
Sela teaches biology now, because plat convenience! It’s frog-dissection day, and pretty girl Lizette is grossed out by both her dead frog and her lab partner Neville’s birthmark. Enter Sela, with a fairy tale about not judging a book by its cover--so to speak.
In the fairy tale, Lizette becomes Calliope, a princess so vain that she has a giant portrait of herself over her own bed, next to which is a talking looking glass that tells her how beautiful she is (yes, another talking mirror). Her vanity is so severe that even though she looks like she does, she thinks she has to drink from a magic well to enhance her beauty.
Watching from the shadows are a scar-faced young man in the forest and a talking frog at the bottom of the well. The frog does Calliope a kindness, and conceited girl that she is, she chucks it out the palace window, where the scarred youth (who is the fairy tale incarnation of Neville) finds it lying in its own blood and returns it to the well.
The frog comes back in human form and takes revenge on Calliope.
Back in the framing scenario, Lizette fails to heed her lesson and suffers a similar fate. No blatant spoiler of what that fate is, but the issue is called The Frog King, and given Zenescope’s tendency to be punny with their character names, you can probably guess it easily for yourself.
Beyond the obvious shared looking glass reference between this issue, Snow White, and Wonderland, there is nothing of consequence to note. Fits nicely with the feel of Grimm Fairy Tales so far, but it’s still another filler episode, inside and out.
I had to do some research (which is what I call typing the name of a fairy tale into Wikipedia and skimming the page that comes up) on the fairy tale to flesh out this next review, and discovered that the eponymous issue was not based on a Brothers' Grimm fairy tale, but instead on a French spoken-word fairy tale. But if Zenescope had stuck to selections of the series' namesake, the company would not still be alive and kicking these seventeen years later, and I wouldn't have all of this material to comment on. So on to the Grimm Fairy Tales spoilentary!
This is another fairy tale that I was unfamiliar with, but since reading this issue, I’ve seen shades of it in several horror movies, chiefly “Crimson Peak.”In the framework around Bluebeard, a woman named Debbie has hired a private investigator (with the last name of Pinkerton, because wild west history and Zenescope), who thinks Debbie’s husband is cheating on her at a storage facility. Debbie suspects her husband might also be planning to kill her, and airs her concerns to co-worker Sela, who has a fairy tale at the ready to ease her mind.
The original, partially inspired by French serial killer Gilles de Rais, is just as bloody as the GFT interpretation in its gory moments, but has the "happier" ending of the two and paints the Bluebeard character in a less sympathetic light.
In the GFT story, Debbie becomes Dasha, a peasant girl who is chosen by Bluebeard to be his bride. The bulk of the fairy tale is a “curiosity killed the cat” message that neither version of the woman are patient or trusting enough to heed.
The ending is too bloody hilarious (take both words literally) to spoil, so decide for yourselves if you want to open that door and see what lies beyond the facade. Killer, but still filler.
GFT #11: Bluebeard
The original, partially inspired by French serial killer Gilles de Rais, is just as bloody as the GFT interpretation in its gory moments, but has the "happier" ending of the two and paints the Bluebeard character in a less sympathetic light.
In the GFT story, Debbie becomes Dasha, a peasant girl who is chosen by Bluebeard to be his bride. The bulk of the fairy tale is a “curiosity killed the cat” message that neither version of the woman are patient or trusting enough to heed.
The ending is too bloody hilarious (take both words literally) to spoil, so decide for yourselves if you want to open that door and see what lies beyond the facade. Killer, but still filler.
ON August 23, 2017, I wrapped up Volume Two in a post titled GFT Retrospective #11: Symphony Of Destruction and Timeless Love. And if you know the lyrics to the Megadeth song, "Symphony of Destruction," you'll most likely understand why I chose to make the reference, given the issue up for review.
GFT #12: The Pied Piper
When they are later discussing this at a bar, up walks Sela, who pisses off Neal by being psychic and dressing like a hooker. Perhaps a nod to the Chad connection, Sela refers to Neal as a “big, bad wolf.” It might be a coincidence, but given how Sela likes to be all mysterious and knowing with her more morally gray charges, I doubt it.
Sela leaves her book behind, opened to the Pied Piper tale, which Chad reads while Neal plays pool. In the story, Chad and Neal become Charles and Nathan, switching hair colors for some reason. It follows closely to both the common telling and the framework narrative, with the Piper being an analogue for Neal’s hitman. Chad/Charles attempts to be the voice of reason, but his brother’s stinginess comes at a high price.
This issue is the most connected thus far in Zenescope’s universe, beyond the probable link to Red Riding Hood. Early in the Piper fairy tale, Charles is reading Beauty and the Beast to his son George, which I will talk about at the beginning of the next volume. Before I get to that, though, the Pied Piper gets his own limited spin-off series. And before I get to that, here’s a look at the short story from Volume 2….
GFT Short Story #2: Timepiece
Timepiece is the story of their romance, but there's more to it than a simple love story. It’s revealed that Sela is roughly three hundred years old, and that because she does not age--or at the very least, ages at a fractional rate to everyone else--there is a gender-swapped Superman/Lois Lane dynamic to their relationship. But instead of ignoring the mortal/immortal barrier like Superman did, Sela breaks it off with Robert, only to seek him out years later on his deathbed so she can see him one last time (and fulfill his dying wish to do the same).
Placing the pocket watch on his gravesite, Sela is approached by an as-yet-unnamed redhead who proceeds to give Sela the Sela treatment (as in, “you don’t know me, but I know all about you and I can help,” yada yada yada).
As it turns out, this mystery woman set up Sela’s relationship with Robert--even suggesting the timepiece gift, which was a subtle, salt-in-the-wound middle finger to Sela--to cause her as much emotional pain as possible and get Sela to turn evil (which now makes more sense out of the Cinderella issue).
I enjoyed Timepiece as an overall production, and as a well-crafted story specifically, but that redhead is copious shades of messed up.
If you enjoyed this look back, let me know in the comments, leave a like, and click me up some ad revenue. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so I'm taking the day off from Throwbacks to be helpful and thankful for family, because making food for total strangers is its own circle of Hell. Wait, maybe I should save that reference for a later Omnibusted collection? Nah. I've spent the last two weeks setting up the local deli for breakfast, only for numerous ungrateful pigs to complain that I don't have fried chicken and rolled tacos ready at eight in the morning. Guess I'll just fill the case with that on my next shift and see what happens.... Stay Tuned, and
Omnibuster,
Out.
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