Weekly Kitty Fix

Sleeping Beauties
Fairy "Tail" Kittens
Hansel & Gretel

Fables Volume 8: Wolves by Bill Willingham

Spoiler alert for those who haven’t read the previous volumes of Bill Willingham’s Fables series.

Fables Volume 8: Wolves continues with Mowgli’s search for Bigby and we find out what Prince Charming has in store for the wolf once Mowgli finds him. Meanwhile, Snow is trying to control her changeling children and their Grandfather, the North wind, decides it is time to blow from the farm. Not a lot of side storied in this book, mainly just follows Mowgli’s search for Bigby and the mission they need to wolf to accomplish. There is an additional bonus story at the end of Cinderella undercover antics, which includes playing an ear doctor to a giant and changing into a mouse.

Fables 7: Arabian Nights (And Days) by Bill Willingham

In Fables 7: Arabian Nights (And Days), Fabletown realizes they need to make alliances with the unconquered Arabian Fables in order to maintain and protect their community in the mundane world. However diplomatic relations are not only strained by cultural differences, but also by a genie in a bottle.

Meanwhile we are also told a story about a forbidden love between a wooden soldier and his nurse and what they must give up to be together.

Hansel

Hansel has been in his forever home now for almost a month. We hope eventually he will be able to relax and settle in to his new environment.

Hellboy 7: The Troll Witch and Others by Mike Mignola

Hellboy 7: The Troll Witch and Others by Mike Mignola is again based on several myths and folktales. The first story has Hellboy confronting a Penanggalan, a Malaysian folklore version of the vampire. The Hydra and the Lion was created with his daughter whose favorite creature at the time from Disney’s Hercules was the serpent water beast, Hydra. An interesting modern day twist on the legend of Hercules that even leaves Hellboy scratching his head. The Troll Witch is based off a Norwegian folktale about two sisters but with a slightly different ending than the original tale.

The Vampire of Prague was based on a puppet Mike Mignola and Guillermo de Toro fell in love with when scouting out locations for Blade II. Attached to the puppet was a booklet telling about the legend of the gambler ghost of Prague. Mike Mignola said for the most part he stayed faithful to the gambler legend but took the liberty of also turning him into a vampire since supposedly there are few vampires that haunt Prague. Interestingly, P. Craig Russell illustrated this story.

The last story Makoma, that he stumbled upon in an Andrew Lang Fairy Book, is a tale told by a mummy in the New Your City Explorer’s Club. Mike Mignola also does not illustrate this one but instead by Richard Corben.

Also included in this addition are the stories, Dr. Carp’s Experiment and The Ghoul. Then in the back is a small preview of all three artists’ sketchbooks, Mike Mignola, P. Craig Russell and Richard Corben.

Having to share...

Husband may be right again, we need two beds...

Gretel's New Basket

Our little girl turned 5 months yesterday and is not so little anymore. She had out grown the round wicker basket that I keep on my desk for my writing companions. When my husband and I were out this last weekend I looked for a bigger replacement and found a nice square one that I thought would work nicely, but in the aisle my husband spotted a bin of small dog beds that he thought she would much more prefer. Since we had a coupon % off our purchase we got both. I hate to admit it, but I believe he may have been right...

I LOVE my new basket - thank you Daddy!!!

Hellboy 6: Strange Places by Mike Mignola

I am a latecomer to graphic novels but I am totally enjoying Hellboy. I love how he weaves old folktales and mythology throughout the stories building them up to a great crescendo and then a somewhat sarcastic Hellboy kicks butt. In Hellboy Volume 6: Strange Places, the first story, The Third Wish, is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. Hellboy travels to Africa and after listening to stories of a tribesman, hears voices summoning him to the ocean. Needless to say, the mermaids in this story would not win any auditions with Disney.

The second story, The Island, was inspired by the Sargasso Sea stories by William Hope Hodgson. According to the author notes at the beginning of the story, Mike Mignola started this story a couple of times but ran out of gas. He goes on to say he created Hellboy in 1993 and had been keeping a lot of his secrets, but then along comes the movie and up pops the Ogdru Jahad waggling their tentacles all over the big screen. He figured if we were going to see them, might as well not only see the real version but their origin in The Island.

This time at the end in addition to a peak inside his sketchbook is the first 8 pages of the first version of The Island. Quite different than the final story that was published in 2005.

Weekly Kitty Fix

Hansel & Gretel

Fables Volume 6: Homelands by Bill Willingham

Spoiler alert for those who haven’t read the previous volumes of Bill Willingham’s Fables series.

In this volume, we follow Boy Blue’s journey back to the Homelands where he seeks revenge for the death of his best friend, Pinnochio, and the imprisonment of his long lost love, Little Red Riding Hood. Through the use of a magic cloak not only does Boy Blue find out the true identity of the Adversary and the story behind his empire. Meanwhile back at Fabletown they welcome the Jungle Boy’s, Mowgli, return. We also find out that Prince Charming enjoys throwing a few twists and turns into the plot line.

A bonus in this volume is a 2-part story of Jack Horner’s movie adventures in Hollywood.

A Fairy “Tail” of Kittens

Well, it actually started more out like a Grimm’s fairy "tail", but I am foreseeing a happy ending (I hope).

Here is the back-story on this “tail.” On the day we lost our beloved Trixi, I saw a red tabby in the neighbor’s driveway, which struck me odd because I had never seen this cat before, in fact, we never see cats roaming loose in our neighborhood. Then the following day my husband was out doing yard work, turned around and there was the same cat standing in front of him. They stared at each other for a few moments then the cat turned and wandered off. We have never seen it since.

My husband took that as a sign that our next cat should be a red tabby. I have had cats through out my life, but never a red tabby or a male. Of course being blessed with a calico for the last 19 years, I grew very partial to that particular short-hair domestic. That is why when we went to the Buddy Center last April (just to look) and happened upon a little calico kitten, it only took a second for her to wrap us around her little 2 month-old paw and we were hers.

However, my husband was still convinced the red tabby was a sign and after all, since our little calico was named Gretel, she needed a Hansel. Unfortunately, I am not sure Gretel got the word. After being an only kitty for 2 months and the center of our universe, I really think she felt that Gretel could be a solo cat act.

Needless to say, things were quite chaotic with Hansel’s homecoming from the Buddy Center. At first it was the cat fights followed by one dejected little calico that was no longer getting all the attention because of the new little red rat. Oh, and let me tell you, a dejected calico can totally break your heart.

To try to make this long “tail” a little shorter, we now seem to co-exist a little better. Hansel LOVES his big sister and has to go and do everything she does. Gretel still not so much on the new brother, but I am hoping she will eventually forgive us. Mom here is run ragged now trying to appease two kittens vs. one.

Any hoo, I guess he is off probation and a keeper, so here is Hansel....and Gretel.

The Sandman Volume 10: The Wake by Neil Gaiman

At the end of The Sandman Vol 10: The Wake, Neil Gaiman writes that he has always been bad at goodbyes, but I thought he did an excellent job in this last volume of Sandman by doing what he does best, telling stories. This was not at all how I thought the series would end, you would have thought by now I would have known that Mr. Gaiman would not do the obvious or even the next couple of obvious. Instead he ends with four unique stories of a surreal wake, an undying friendship, a Chinese sage travel through the dessert with a kitten, and William Shakespeare’s final obligation to The Sandman. Intriguing tales with the wonderful imagery of Michael Zulli, Jon J Muth, and Charles Vess (who also illustrated the Blueberry Girl). I procrastinated reading this last volume in the series because I did not want it to end, but I guess I was being silly, as I will never stop having dreams.

P.S. Don’t worry, nothing happens to the kitten.

Weekly Kitty Dose

Free Ice-cream cone printable gift tags

I was trying to be more systematic with my blog entries and post my latest book read on Friday’s. Well this is Friday and as you will quickly notice, this is not a book post. Last week was the culprit, because I can blame the week vs. yours truly, right? It was one of those weeks where a million of this and that’s cropped up and thus even though I had the entry all ready to post on Friday, it did not get input until Tuesday. I am hoping to get back on track by next week, which trust me, that will be a pretty big feat.

Meanwhile, I discovered that All Us All the Time site has added free ice-cream cone gift tags to their printable gift tag page. And really, shouldn’t all Friday’s be filled with free cute stuff?

More Curious Curse

The Edible Raven Blog has posted another sneak peak of The Curious Curse that will appear in the magazine's debut issue....love the Hotel Rue.

Stories Told in Stone: Cemetery Iconology A Manual for Genealogy Research by Gaylord Cooper

My sister and I got this book for our Mother for Mother’s Day. I am not a big non-fiction reader but since my sister and I have starting cemetery walking, I decided to give it a quick read before putting it in the gift bag. My sister and I are more in to the art and history of cemeteries and needless to say, per its title, this book is geared towards those researching their genealogy. However it still has some sections that I found very interesting. One was a listing of the major epidemics/pandemics by year and region. Another was gravestone symbols and their interpretations. I also found interesting the chapter on how to properly do stone rubbings as well as gravestone weathering and repair. BUT the author emphasized several times in these sections to check with the cemetery management before doing any restoration or taking a rubbing to ensure it is allowed.

For those into genealogy, the book also contains genealogy-related terms, relationship charts, family group sheets, and cemetery worksheets. My only complaint would be the size of the book at 11” x 8”. Since it is a field guide to use when visiting cemeteries, I think a smaller travel size would have been more convenient to carry around. Or perhaps I just need a bigger bag.

Sleeping Gretel

Such a little angel...when she is sleeping.

The Curious Curse - Sneak Peak

The Edible Raven Blog has a sneak peek of one of my stories, The Curious Curse, they will be publishing in their debut issue. LOVING the illustration by Pamela McCarville! If you have time and are curious please go and take a look.

Fables Volume 5: The Mean Seasons by Bill Willingham

**Spoiler alert for those who haven’t read Bill Willingham’s Fables Volume 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers.The 5th volume of Fables, The Mean Seasons, starts out with a story of Cinderella entrapping a Fable who is collaborating with the Adversary, but exactly whom is she working for? The Cinderella story is followed by a couple of other short stories about Bigby Wolf’s secret mission during World War II. Then on to the main event where we pick up after Fabletown survives its attack from the Adversary’s wooden soldiers. Snow White has resigned as deputy mayor and has moved out to The Farm to raise her children since they do not pass as humans. Boy Blue has disappeared and is believed to have gone back to the homelands to search for his long lost love, Little Red Riding Hood. Angered over the fact that Snow has taken his children to The Farm where he is not allowed, Sheriff Bigby Wolf also resigns from his posts and leaves Fabletown. Needless to say, the civil administrative offices are in chaos and the Mayor is not exactly the toast of the town. The recent unresolved murders in the Fable community are not helping make his job any easier. Meanwhile up at The Farm, Snow White received a perplexing letter about her sextuplets from Witch Totenkinder. It is not until the children’s grandfather arrives does Snow realize the grave nature of the witch’s message.

Can’t wait to start on Volume 6.

Sister Weekend

Had a whirlwind weekend with the sis. On Saturday we were planning on beginning the day at the Paris Flea Market but did not get the early start that we had initially planned thus had to pass that one by. They have the flea market the first Saturday of every month May through October at Aspen Grove, we are hoping the timing works out that we can still catch it before it ends.

Jerry’s Artarama ended up being our first stop of the day for sketching materials. Okay actually Starbucks drive-thru was our first stop, and then it was on to Jerry’s. After that we hit the garage sale at Meininger’s Art Supply Store. Besides more sketching materials, my sister picked up a very cool purple and black candle with spiders and cobwebs, as one does at an art store. Lunchtime! So off to our favorite cereal and cupcake shop, The Shoppe. Which, we found out they are now open on Sunday’s for brunch which includes a waffle bar AND you can get frosting on your waffles, if that isn’t reason enough to get out of bed, I don’t know what is.

After a fortifying bowl of cereal, we headed off for the Sketch Crawl at City Park. To make things more interesting I took several wrong turns heading us in all directions except towards the park. Once we finally arrived, an hour late, we found us a nice shady spot. My sister sketched a building while I finished up Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Volume 10: The Wake. Next we headed home via Tokyo Joes for an evening of playing with Gretel.

The following morning we went to our new favorite Comic/Coffee shop, Enchanted Grounds, where we sipped lattes, brainstormed on library sketches, and of course, looked at comics. Then we headed off to Parkerfest to take in the festivities in old town Parker, including the farmers market and live music from the best blues band in Denver, Roadhouse Joe. Unfortunately the day was cut short due to inclement weather (i.e., a tornado), thus it was back home for more playing with Gretel.

I took my camera with me as I was going to take lots and lots of pictures to have a visual documentation of our weekend, instead, these were the only photos I ended up taking:

Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman

Okay I now have a new favorite book by Neil Gaiman. I absolutely adore Crazy Hair! It is an amusing rhyming tale about all that goes on up in his crazy hair.





In my hair Gorillas leap,
Tigers stalk,
And ground sloths sleep.
Prides of lions
Make their lair
Somewhere
in my crazy hair.

The artwork of Dave McKean is just as fun. I love his hairy illustrations. They are tangled with lots of vivid nuances. In other words, great eye candy.

And though I am not one to usually place a dare...
I would challenge him on who has the craziest hair.

Fables Volume 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers by Bill Willingham

Bill Willingham’s Fables Volume 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers starts off with a flash back to the Fables' last stand in their home world against the Adversary forces. Boy Blue makes it on board the last ship to smuggle Fables through the gateway into our world (the Mundane), but his newly found love, Little Red Riding Hood, does not and is presumed dead. That is why centuries later, the surviving Fables are elated when Little Red Riding Hood shows up on their doorstep after escaping through the gate between the lost Fable homelands and ours. All but her old nemesis, Bigby Wolf, who does not think her story, smells quite right. Meanwhile there are three other new visitors in town that appear to be relation to Pinocchio, but it doesn’t appear they want a friendly family reunion. Then just to add a little more tension and excitement (like any more was needed), the womanizing cad, Prince Charming, starts up a campaign to become the new mayor of Fabletown.

I am a slow reader but made it through the 240 pages in a couple of days because I needed to know what was going to happen next. As always, James Jean cover art through out the book is amazing. A couple of warnings. I know I always say this one, but feels it bears repeating, do NOT get overly attached to any of the Fables. Second this one ends in a total cliffhanger, so have Volume 5 at the ready.

Weekly Gretel

Edible Raven - The Curious Curse

I know it probably seems like lately all I have been doing is playing with our new kitten, Gretel. Well that would be pretty accurate, but before our new little fur ball arrived, I did complete a story which is going to be published in the debut issue of the Edible Raven magazine. The story, The Curious Curse, is heavily influenced by my love of Edward Gorey. It is a short little ditty about a curse, a town, and a Finn written in rhyme.

I noticed today that the illustrator and graphic artist, Pamela McCarville, has posted the cover of the magazine on her blog, Stealing Shadows...LOVE IT!!!!! If you like to take a look yourself, you can view it here, http://stealingshadows.blogspot.com/2009/05/edible-raven.html.

Hellboy 5: Conqueror Worm by Mike Mignola

In Hellboy 5: Conqueror Worm, Hellboy and his colleague Roger the Homunculus, who we were introduced to in Hellboy 3’s Almost Colossus, are sent to investigate the ruins of a castle in Austria where Nazis conducted scientific experiments under the direction of our favorite mad scientist, that crazy head in a glass jar, Herman Von Klempt. Their experiments included launching a space capsule that in the future will land back on earth with an evil spirit from the stars that will put an end to mankind as we know it. Well, as you may have already guessed, that future is now. Hellboy and Roger must battle undead Nazis and Von Klempt’s Frankenstein Ape (#10) to intercept the capsule and destroy its single passenger before it destroys them. Will they make it in time? Who is the lobster costumed-adventurer that comes to their aide? Why did B.P.R.D. plant a bomb in Roger? Is this Hellboy’s final mission? Did Mike Mignola manage to weave Poe’s poem Ligeia through out the story? Okay I will answer that last one. Yes, yes he did!

P.S. The gallery at the back of the book shows where Mike Mignola got some of his ideas for the illustrations including how he based the torture harness control box on a parking meter outside his apartment.