Kel McDonald

An impressive anthology, no clunkers across 24 stand-alone stories offering a wide variety in tone, illustration style, and overall aesthetic. The stories also approach their narratives in a diverse manner, ranging from fantastic to scientific, from somber to almost twee. I enjoyed reading each one, and the quality convinced me to seek out other Iron Circus anthologies. Of particular interest are the Cautionary Fables & Fairytales series, and two thematic anthologies: one on horror (The show more Sleep of Reason) and another perhaps on faerie weird (Tim'rous Beastie).

Some recurring themes became evident across unrelated chapters, seemingly written without knowledge of one another: memory (on the part of the living, and also that of the dead); ways of moving on after the death of a loved one; teasing out the choices wound up in death, however minor or unrecognised these choices might seem.

Favourite contributions: "Ghost Friend" (heartwarming characters); "Inanna's Descent to the Underworld" (mythological); "What Eats Us" and "Peat, Bone, Oak" (grossly informative).

I almost missed the clever spot colour on the cover, until turning out the light after a reading session in bed and the art transformed before my eyes. show less

To paraphrase: god, I hope you’re ready for a book about DEATH!

Despite the heavy subject matter, I often found myself smiling and laughing as an assortment of three dozen comic creators walk us through their visions of death and dying, grief and mourning, life and the afterlife in mostly fictional stories.

Standouts include "Inanna's Descent to the Underworld" by Ahueonao, an adaptation of Mesopotamian mythology, and "Funeral in Foam" by Casey Gilly and Raina Telgemeier, a delightfully show more macabre reminiscence that turns the spreading of cremains into a celebration of life and love. The rest of the stories actually keep to a fairly high standard too, with only one or two clunkers in the bunch.

The diversity of characters and creators seems pretty good, with a lot of female and LGBTQ+ representation. show less

Dark and twisted takes on dark and twisted fairy tales, with all the cold-blooded murder, decapitation, and cruel fates that would upset tots but should please horror-loving teens and adults.

FOR REFERENCE

Originally published in 2012 as as "Cautionary Fables and Fairy-Tales: Europe Edition." Reprinted in 2020 as "The Nixie of the Mill-Pond and Other European Stories."

Contents:
• Jack and the Beanstalk (England) / Mary Cagle
• The Singing Bone (Germany) / K. C. Green
• Puss in Boots show more (Italy) / Kate Ashwin
• Tatterhood (Norway) / Adapted by Shaggy Shanahan [a/k/a Steven Shanahan] and drawn by Katie Shanahan
• Rapunzel (Germany) / Ovens [a/k/a Lin Visel]
• Kid Brother (Russia) / Carla Speed McNeil
• The Nixie of the Mill Pond (Germany) / Kory Bing
• Bisclavret (France) / Story by Marie De France, Art by Kel McDonald
• Hamelin's Piper (Germany) / Jose Pimienta
• About the Artists
• Extras show less

There are some real stand-out entries in this anthology of short stories that mix traditional adaptations of Hawaiian and Filipino folktales with some more contemporary or artistic approaches. There are some clunkers in the bunch that clunk really, really hard too, but I enjoyed it overall.

My biggest problems with the book are editorial ones. First, I think it would have been better to group the stories by region so the reader could start to get a feel for the area and how the folktales are show more connected. Instead, they mostly alternated Philippines after Hawaii after Philippines throughout, and didn't even mark the region on the individual stories so I had to constantly flip back to the table of contents to verify where the tale originated. Second, despite the cover claiming this work covers Oceania, all but one story was labeled either Hawaii or Philippines, and that story is labeled Fiji in the table of contents though the story itself says it is set in Tahiti, and I ain't an expert, but I'm pretty sure Fiji and Tahiti are not the same thing. And despite New Zealand being mentioned on the back cover, none of the stories I saw seemed to be set there. Third, one of the main points of this work is to give English readers exposure to these cultures, but two of the stories are presented untranslated -- one presented like an activity to work out yourself with what appears to be a very incomplete translation key, and which, based on the goofy and unappealing art of the story, I had little motivation to follow through on. Finally, the printing in my copy wasn't squared up properly, cutting off the bottom half of all the page numbers and some of the footnotes.

There is some good stuff here, but I wish more care had been given to it. show less