GFT Retrospective #90: The Dream Eater Saga #10 (Grimm Fairy Tales #64)

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

Retrospective Dreamer,

and Ticketmaster.

I feel like I missed all of the "important" March "holidays" this year, Ticketholders.

I didn't play any Nintendo games on Mar10 Day, I didn't make or eat any pie on March 14 (which is totally irrational of me), and I didn't do anything drunken, Catholic, or Irish (but I repeat myself) on St. Patrick's Day. I guess I did fall victim to the Ides Of March earlier in the month when my store's poultry supplier went out of business without telling anyone the same week we had to cater a huge fried chicken order, I almost got thrown under the bus for it for no reason, and got my hours cut. And I did make that 311 joke in my Dexter: Original Sin review (go read it when you're done here). But that's nowhere near as positive or satisfying as fueling a day of retro gaming with some corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, beer, whiskey, and pie. Apparently, there's more Black Clover coming, though, so I have something to look forward to thinking is just okay for next St. Patrick's Day's Anime Spotlight.

But today is New Comic Book Day, and I'm reminded of something that will have more of an impact on Zenescope going forward than a simple milestone issue, or even The Dream Eater Saga as a whole. So please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, leave a comment at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read so I can afford a decent mentor, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.

I've decided to take the "Grimm" out of the call to action going forward because it sounds too negative despite being an appropriate pun. If you have any ideas for a replacement pun, let me know in the comments because I plan on doing this until I die or I run out of comics to talk about.

The Dream Eater Saga #9

Grimm Fairy Tales #63

First, as I've been doing lately, let's give credit to the cover artists. The one shown here is by Marat Mychaels (GFT #62) with Falk (Dream Eater Saga "Prologue"/"Prelude") on colors. Mychaels has done a ton of cover work for Zenescope, and it's all up to this standard of drama and detail, though based on the beautiful interiors from the "Prologue," I'd say much of the style here is defined by Falk's line-defying coloring.
B-Cover boss Ale Garza contributes another dynamic, stylish variant, this time with Ivan Nunes providing a brighter, simpler, more cartoonish palette than I'm used to seeing from Garza's work so far. Sanju Nivangune, Garza's usual go-to colorist, is instead working on a publisher exclusive by Mike DeBalfo (whom, I've established previously, really likes drawing Sela and Belinda posing with vehicles).

The hyper-detailed, hyper-expressive style of the interior art this issue is one you might recognize from the "Mother Nature" arc of Grimm Fairy Tales, as Carlos Granda (issues #59 to #61) handles the penciling here, as well, with Guillermo Gustavo Ucha on color duty for his only Zenescope credit (that I could find).

As for that big moment I mentioned above, Sela and Belinda begin the issue in a bar (letting the reader know that Zenescope hasn't lost their Wonderland cred by upending expectations of continuity with a fake reality made of paper, so it's meta, too) where that common thread we've been teased with since "Rumpelstiltzkin" finally comes to light between the long-time rivals: Sela's stolen daughter and Belinda’s stolen son.

Unfortunately, their banter about Prince Erik in this...scene, I guess?; comic books don't really have scenes, but I review so much video content that that's what I'm calling it...but anyway, all I could think about while Sela and Belinda were talking about Erik ("my true love," "the one thing I remembered," etc.) was how Zenescope did Vanilla Ice dirty. His death from old age notwithstanding, Robert "Rip" Van Winkle was the company's first go at a romantic subplot for Sela back in "Timepiece," and the most emotionally impactful one. So to blatantly retcon his importance and force the most shallow, trite, fairy tale relationship possible to suddenly be the basis of Sela's entire character motivation for no less than four Volumes of story (and for their legacy to inform the franchise into the modern day) still lands wrong for me. Sela could have had a child with Robert instead of Erik. The abduction at birth could have still happened as normal. Sela could have been motivated on her journey through Myst to connect instead with Robert's spirit in the afterlife to learn their daughter's whereabouts, rather than restoring a man she's obsessed with who won't have any future bearing on the plot. Erik is not necessary. So why does he exist?

The problematic reminders of early Zenescope don't stop here, though, as what follows is a "Little Miss Muffet"/"Rip Van Winkle"-esque origin story (this time, for the entire Grimm Universe) as told by The Innocent (the girl in a white robe who's been watching everyone since "Once Upon A Time"). It's your basic, "something fought nothing until they killed each other in a massive explosion of energy and personified cosmic constants" (Love, Hate, Innocence, Corruption, and The Maker) "came into existence and made the Realms Of Power and the Nexus, but the creation was flawed so the gods left mortal matters in mortal hands and hoped they wouldn't destroy each other...but gave them a way to fix everything by destroying each other if they got too fixated on destroying each other" creation myth that complicates matters the simpler it gets. The origin of the Council Of the Realms is given a double-spread, complete with Shang getting undeservedly glazed ("the best of them all"), Thane being referred to as the Warlord Of Oz (a title that will become important much later), Blake being referred to as the White Knight of Wonderland (further complicating Wonderland's convoluted continuity and elastic sense of time), and the Shaman of Neverland going unnamed even though we've seen that Hakan held the title as early as Baba Yaga's childhood.

I appreciate the Innocent's mention that the Dream Eater is more than a failsafe mechanism and could evolve into a greater threat than those it was made to destroy (calling back to the end of the Salem's Daughter One-Shot when Pan managed to influence it slightly), but once the major exposition is over with, she becomes the worst part of the issue (it's biggest issue, if you will), exhibiting some of Shang's awful "mentor" qualities ("you will know what to do when the time is right") and conveniently handing both women everything they need to succeed with seemingly no strings attached before she vanishes without pleasantry or ceremony.

Sela gets what looks like a cross between a lantern and a small birdcage (the thing she will use "when the time is right").

Belinda gets a spiky necklace that will make the Dark One "more docile" to use him as bait for the Dream Eater. But for it to work properly, Belinda has to free her own soul of the darkness that has defined her life...so the Innocent just tells her that Orcus and the Dark One took her son (which is what she would have eventually learned from Baba Yaga) and that he is still alive (but not where he is, because the best way to help someone purify their mind and soul of uncertainty and rage is to make the person even more furious at the focus of their rage and leave them stewing on unanswered questions and my biting sarcasm).

But although the means were convenient and made an absolute deficit of sense, at least it led to Sela and Belinda genuinely bonding and agreeing to work together to find their lost children...which will happen much, much, much later.

As the saying goes (with some liberties taken), the journey of a million pages begins with a single step, and their first step will be on that old sulfur-brick road paved with good intentions and handbaskets. So Stay Tuned as Sela and Belinda travel to the Inferno for next week's One-Shot review.

And while I finish rinsing the metaphor guts out of my blender, please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, leave a comment at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read so I can afford a decent mentor, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.

Ticketmaster,

Out.