Jill Thompson's Girl Comics #2 cover

Marvel Comics' Girl Comics is a series entirely written, drawn, edited, etc by female comics-creators. This has caused some controversy, as many claim that such a comic tends to marginalise rather than promote female comics creators.

Whilst I think the debate is interesting and certainly bares thinking about, I'd also like to draw your attention to the fab, Snow-White-themed cover for the upcoming second issue, by artist Jill Thompson.

Still, just because I'm largely keeping my thought to myself doesn't mean that you have to. Please feel free to let me know what you think of Girl Comics via the comments section.

Little Rachel Riding Hood

Rachel Nabors has a cute little Red Riding Hood-themed comic up at gURL comix. Personally, it reminds me very much of the Halloween scenes from Mean Girls ("I'm a mouse, d'uh!").

Eva Soulu's "Fairytale"

Eva Soula has got a very interesting take on the Little Red Riding Hood story that is partly available - along with some illustrations like the one above - at the website for her art group, 'LAMP'.

No Spider-Man or Avengers Fairy Tales trades, it seems

It's sad to see that, despite the fact that C.B. Cebulski's X-Men Fairy Tales comic book miniseries was released in trade paperback form, the follow-ups Spider-Man Fairy Tales and Avengers Fairy Tales will not, meaning that the casual comic book consumer - or those that simply don't have great access to comic shops - will likely not get to experience them. Still, I'd advise having a look out for these series in online stores if you're interested, as the concept is still a very good one that often yielded some quite interesting results. Also, the series often featured artists you're not likely to see doing work in mainstream American comics too often, so was frequently a visual treat as well.

Edited to add: Ok, I'm an idiot. Apparently Spider-Man Fairy Tales has indeed been released as a TPB and I just somehow missed it. Still, it looks like there's going be at least quite some delay before the Avengers edition comes out.

Oz Squad

Now, I haven't actually read Steve Ahlquist's Oz Squad, so I can't claim to give a fair appraisal of it, but from what I have read about it, I certainly seem to agree with Dave Campbell's comment that it seems "gratuitously irreverent," and I imagine that if I ever read it, I might come down on the side of critic and Oz fan Steve Teller, who called it "The most repellent published work with the name Oz in the title I have ever seen." From what I can tell, it seems to take the "add in some sex, death and swearing and that'll make it more 'mature'" attitude that ultimately of course only serves to make things far more puerile. But then again, it all seems to be done with a great deal of tongue-in-cheek humour, so at this stage, who am I to judge?

Still, if you're interested in learning more, Dave's post on the subject and this site about the comic might provide some decent starting points.

Fables: The Last Castle

Because everyone needs to be exposed to some James Jean every now and again, here's his cover to the Fables one-shot: The Last Castle. That's Red at the top (note: she's actually riding for once) and Boy Blue (with his horn, 'natch) at the bottom.

Jean actually recently announced that he's going to be leaving Fables soon, and I for one will be sad to see him go, as his work on the series has been phenomenal all the way through and even helped earned him six of his impressive seven Eisner awards.

Incidentally, Fables itself has picked up many more Eisners since the point that the above comic was published* and now has many more, including three (so far) in the "Best Serialised Story" category. I really cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone with an interest in either fairytales or just astonishingly well told serialised stories.

*Note to self: upload a decent text-less version of the above image when I find one.