Recent Classic Fairy Tale Re-Imagining Awesome

Retelling classic stories is a practice as old as the stories themselves. Classic myths and fairy tales, being an oral tradition, were told and retold with minor changes and such for millennia before writing was invented. However, mostly, these retellings were aesthetically similar since, you know, everything was a period piece back then. Not until relatively recently did bizarre reimaginings occur. Reimaginings, is that a word? Well, it is now.

The most popular reimagining setting is in outer space, because space is cool. Somewhere behind that is the western. Which is where we're going with today's little patch of ridiculously awesome, Rapunzel's Revenge, by Shannon and Dean Hale and drawn by Nathan Hale (no relation). In case the title doesn't clue you in, it's a retelling of the classic story about Rapunzel, the girl in the tower with magically long hair. Only it's set in the wild west.

And is awesome.

The story begins with much needed backstory, letting us know about Rapunzel and what the stakes are.

So, first off, Rapunzel is adventurous:

And a little awkward.

She lives in a remarkable villa surrounded by people older than her. The villa is owned by the woman she thinks is her mother, Gothal.

Anyone who doesn't think she's OBVIOUSLY EVIL needs to get their head examined.

So, Rapunzel lives in the villa and makes her own entertainment.

Her childhood is fairly unremarkable, aside from being the only child living at the villa. In fact, other than that, the only truly noteworthy thing about her were her dreams.

Or rather, one recurring dream.

Naturally, Gothal brushes Rapunzel's concerns about the dream off.

Because she's EVIL.

And Rapunzel figures she probably would have spent her whole life on the villa . . .

That's an important page, so I'm leaving it as is.

So almost all of the important bits are laid down, we've got a couple questions ("What's with the dream?" and "What's on the other side of the wall?" for instance). And naturally, narratives don't set up such questions without providing answers.

On Rapunzel's twelfth birthday, she decides to see what's beyond the wall.

While the art is perhaps not always to everyone's taste, occasionally something like the above panel happens. Rarely has environmental devastation been so beautifully presented.

Rapunzel isn't satisfied with just seeing, though, and crosses to the other side of the wall. Almost immediately, she spots a familiar face.

Rapunzel keeps asking questions, but Mason says she'll have to ask her mother, then sends her to the nearby well to get a drink before heading back to the villa. There, she meets a worker. Coincidentally, not just any worker.

Ah . . . uh . . .

Oh, dear.

So she's torn away from her mother again. Don't look at me like that! I told you Gothel was EVIL!

She's brought before Gothel and they have a little tiff.

One of the many delights about this story is the narration.

Okay, so she's taken away to . . .

However, this isn't like a garden, and there's wild animals (a cougar attacks them but the guy defeats it). In any case, Rapunzel narrates that it's not the sort of place she'd like to take an afternoon stroll.

And then they reach it.

The tower, or in this case, the "creepy tree." Since there's no ladder or stairs of lift, it can only be reached through magic--or, as in the original fairy tale, magically long hair.

And there she remained for four years.

Over the course of which, she makes several observations.

Once a year, Gothel tries to convince Rapunzel to quit her "rebellious ways" and join Gothel again.

Rapunzel tries the obvious stuff.

But Gothel always sees through the facade and leaves her in the tree for another year. Alone.

And she would have to find ways to amuse herself.

She gets to be pretty good with her l-hair-iet. (Ow, that was terrible.)

Also, she hits on the idea of using her hair as a rope for her to climb down. Unfortunately, in this version of the tale, her hair never grows long enough to reach the ground. Oh, well.

Gothel visits Rapunzel once again on her 16th birthday (Rapunzel's birthday, not Gothel's. Gothel is presumably much older than 16). Things . . . don't go so well as past times.

And that's that. Apparently Gothel's growth magic starts drying up. No more free forest grub. Even the hole in the tree starts closing. But Rapunzel's hair has grown preposterously long in the last 4 years, and there's this tree outside that's grown taller by the week . . .

So, remember I said the forest was wild? Yeah, a giant boar comes snuffling over to investigate this strange, wet thing.

But then his bigger, ornerier brother (or cousin or whatever) splashes over and takes Rapunzel on a rather wild ride.

And she gets tossed in the air. Oof.

It manages to work out in her favor, though:

She's immediately all set to ride that giant boar back to Gothel's and free her mother and possibly more, but--

Hmm . . .

Heh. So, yeah, that's the last we'll see of him. This isn't really a "fairy tale prince" sort of fairy tale. Especially considering the kind of prince who actually appeared in the original Rapunzel fairy tale (hint: this guy is pretty much EXACTLY like that prince. No, really. No, really-really).

And thus ends the first chapter of Rapunzel's Revenge. If you're enjoying it, but thinking "Well, this is just kind of a clever retelling of the fairy tale with some a little wild west backdrop and more modern sensibility, but it's not that awesome," we haven't even gotten to the real meat of the comic. This comic is so wonderful, so grand, I'm splitting up the posting of it into multiple posts. It deserves it (and also I'm trying something new to see if maybe this will be less taxing on me, and I'm sick and a little lazy this week).

So tune in next week for more Rapunzel's Revenge!

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; easily my favorite retelling of a fairy tale.