Readers who’ve encountered different versions of the same fairy tale know that part of the fun of reading new stories isn’t just about hearing the same tale over and over again, but also seeing how different storytellers reinterpret the familiar tales – sometimes creating stories almost as original as the versions that inspired them.
The following reviews look at how storytellers have crafted new graphic novel versions of the Jack and the Beanstalk story and Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland books.
Calamity Jack
American tall tales meet the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales in Calamity Jack, the much-anticipated sequel to Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale’s graphic novel Rapunzel’s Revenge, a Western revamp of the Rapunzel story.
All his life, Jack’s been a schemer chasing after the big score – much to the despair of his hardworking baker mother. But when his plan to rob a crooked businessman giant with the help of a magic bean accidentally ends in the death of a giant and the destruction of his mother’s bakery, Jack winds up hopping on a train headed out west.
Fortunately Jack's escape leads him to Rapunzel, an idealistic young heroine who uses her abnormally long braids as whips and lassos. With Rapunzel’s help, Jack uses his scheming mind to help others – and discovers the goose he stole from the giant really can lay golden eggs.
Eager to settle old debts, Jack returns home with Rapunzel and his new wealth. But home is not as Jack remembers it. Enormous ant people rampage through the city, making the citizens give control of the city to the giants in exchange for protection. Jack’s mother has been taken by the giants to work as a slave in their floating penthouse. And Jack himself is still considered Public Enemy #1 for killing a giant.
With the help of Rapunzel, eccentric inventor Freddie, and Jack’s old partner-in-crime, the Tinkerbell-like pixie Prudence, Jack must learn the truth behind the ant people and free his city from the giants’ tyranny – assuming the giants don’t grind his bones into bread first!
A brilliant follow-up to Rapunzel’s Revenge, Calamity Jack proves there’s no such thing as an old idea for gifted storytellers. While it's fun to see revamped versions of fairy tale characters, Jack and Rapunzel also have unique personalities of their own that make them more than imitations of their predecessors. Jack in particular is not the amoral boy most people know, but a street-smart Native American who constantly wrestles with his conscience and feelings for Rapunzel, making him much more interesting and three-dimensional.
Coupled with some excellent art by Nathan Hale, whose style evokes elements of both fanciful picture books and high-action comics, Calamity Jack continues to break new ground in the fairytale genre and adds to the Hales' growing tapestry of fractured fairy tales.
Wonderland
Presented as a quasi-sequel to Lewis Carroll’s classic story, comic book writer Tommy Kovac and artist Sonny Liew give a new adventure in Wonderland that focuses on Mary Ann – the housemaid the White Rabbit mistakes Alice for – as she wanders through the messy aftermath of Alice’s misadventures.
When the Queen of Hearts stains Mary Ann’s apron with a tart, the neat-freak girl goes nuts and clobbers the Queen. Now the chase is on as Mary Ann and the White Rabbit race through Wonderland to escape not only the Queen but also the fearsome Jabberwocky who wants to eat them.
Along the way, Mary Ann meets familiar faces like the Mad Hatter and March Hare, as well as Alice in Wonderland characters mentioned but never seen in Lewis Caroll’s book – like the treacle well sisters from the Doormouse’s tale. But when Mary Ann finds the Queen of Heart’s deposed sister the Queen of Spades and helps free her, she starts a chain of events that just might put Mary Ann on Wonderland’s throne – if the wily Cheshire Cat doesn’t beat her there first.
A nonstop madcap ride, Wonderland is nonsensical storytelling at its best, thanks not only to Kovac’s script but also to Liew’s dreamlike artwork. Fans of the Disney Alice in Wonderland movie will find that character designs of the Cheshire Cat and Queen of Hearts are similar to the Disney Cheshire Cat and Queen (possibly since the book was published through Disney Press). Even so, Liew manages to instill both characters with a hyperactive wackiness that surpasses even their Disney movie counterparts.
Don’t expect to find Alice anywhere in this story though – this dream belongs completely to the weird and wonderful residents of Wonderland.
Find more fractured fairy tales and great fantasy books for kids at My Fair Godmother and Ozma of Oz.
Hale, Shannon, Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale. Calamity Jack. New York: Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children’s Books. 2010. ISBN: 9781599903736
Kovac, Tommy and Sonny Liew. Wonderland. New York: Disney Press/Disney Book Group., 2008. ISBN: 978-142310451-3
Michael Jung - Michael Jung is a professional writer, children’s literature specialist, and online book dealer whose articles, reviews, interviews, ...
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