Fractured Fables Free Comic Book Day Edition

This was a 2010 FCBD offering that I missed last year but picked up this year.

Title: Fractured Fables Free Comic Book Day Edition
Date: 2010
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Bryan Talbot, Doug TenNapel, Alexander Grecian, Derek McColloch, Ted McKeever
Artist: Camilla d'Errico, Doug TenNapel, Christian Ward, Anthony Peruzzo, Ted McKeever
Letterer: Ed Brisson, Doug TenNapel, Alexander Grecian, Anthony Peruzzo
Colorist: Edison Yan
Cover: Michael Allred, Laura Allred, Tim Daniel, Jim Valentino
Editor: Jim Valentino, Kristen K. Simon

This is a collection of "fractured" fairy tales and fairy tale variants. There are five stories in this sampler. I found it a bit of a mixed bag.

The opening "Red Riding Hood" was pretty run-of-the-mill, although the ending punch line was visually cute.

Doug TenNapel's take on Rumplestiltskin was juvenile and not all that funny.

Things got better with Alexander Grecian's "The Real Princess", a mash-up of different tales including Jack and the Beanstalk and the Princess and the Pea. Christian Ward's painted artwork was beautiful, but the ending came out of left field. It wasn't a terrible way to end the story, it just wasn't completely satisfying.

Raponsel was funnier than the first two stories, but had the same problem of fumbling around with some not-quite-good jokes before it got going.

The best piece in the book was the final one, a very clever wordless interpretation of the Mother Goose rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle adapted by Ted McKeever.

With the rich history and symbolism of faerie tales, I feel like this could have been a lot better.

Rating: 6.5/10