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.

False Nothings' photography

False nothings is a photographer/model who frequently uses some sweet fairytale imagery, such as in the above Snow White piece.

Graeme Balchin's paintings

Graeme Balchin is an Australian painter with a fairly impressive portfolio. His work includes lots of fairytale imagery and themes, but the above two pieces in particular caught my eye.

Hansel Sandwiches commercials

In this series of adverts for Hansel biscuit/cookie sandwiches, the message seems to be that the product is tasty enough to tempt these familiar fairytale characters away from the established narratives and help them avoid their traditional trials (the exception being the Sleeping Beauty commercial, where the product instead enables the expected ending; true love is overrated compared to chocolate snacks, it seems).

SpectalFairy's Crimson Fables

SpectralFairy is apparently working on a novel entitled Lacrime Nere. In the midst of writing it, though, they've also taken the time to illustrate some of the characters from the novel using archetypes from fairytale fiction such as Bluebeard, Peter Pan, or indeed Little Red Riding Hood/The Company of Wolves as in the above picture (entitled "I never knew a wolf could cry" after a quotation from said film). These images are all done in a simply gorgeous gothic lineart style using only black & white and shades of red, which all works incredibly well to summon a certain sinister but also sensual mood.

SpectralFairy has also done a Snow White piece which is technically unrelated but still shares many of the elements of the above works.

The Snow White Project

This mash-up/parody by BlackoutDOTcom nicely plays upon some of the common imagery between many fairytales and modern horror films, in particular the common trope of being lost in the woods.

[Warning: strong language]

Fairytales in Dominoes: Snow White

Dominodayfreak's "Fairytales in Dominoes" is pretty much exactly what it sounds like and it really is fairly spectacular.

Felixxkatt's Snow White Queen

Felix Eddy (aka Felixxkatt) is the artist behind some frankly wonderful fairytale-esque works, including the wonderful picture above which incorporates elements of "a winter goddess, a white witch, a snow queen and a version of snow white and a little bit of the Swan Princess."

P.S.

Eddy also has a Little Red Riding Hood piece too.

Dina Goldstein's "Fallen Princesses"

Photographer Dina Goldstein has an excellent series of photos available to view at JPG Magazine. Her Fallen Princesses series juxtaposes Disneyfied fairytales with modern, real-world issues facing women, such as war, disease and body issues.

Dark Princesses: Snow White

Doing a little more research into Alabaster, I came across the work of artist ClaireBeauchamp, via the blog of Alabaster co-creator Emily Short. Claire has done a fair few fairytale/Disney-related pieces, but the one that most stands out to me, especially in the wake of Alabaster, is her Dark Snow White, featured above. I'd also recommend checking out other works by Short, too.

Alabaster

Now to revisit a genre I don't see often enough on here: interactive fiction. Alabaster is a wonderful piece of IF that places you in the position of the hunter in the tale of Snow White. Like certain other narrative-driven fairytale games before it, Alabaster exploits that fact that there are many different paths that one could take from a story's simple starting point, and there are many endings to discover. Additionally, Alabaster also brings in influences from a wide range of myths and folklore that extend beyond Snow White, including tales of witchcraft, vampires and even apocryphal Judeo-Christian myth (a little hint of Gregory Maguire's Mirror Mirror there, perhaps).

Have fun discovering some weird and wonderful secrets in this really very creepy take on an already rather unsettling tale.