< comics/x >
ONCE UPON A TIME
edited by Tonia Walden
($4.50 ppd from Tonia Walden / PO Box 328 / Carina 4152 / Queensland, AUSTRALIA. Web:
http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~twalden/.
E-mail)
Review by Matt Dembicki
Once Upon a Time is a short collection of one- and two-page comics by about a dozen Aussie creators. It’s an experiment in deadline and collaboration. The pieces were completed in two weeks, with one week devoted to writing and the other week to drawing. The extra catch is that the scripts were swapped so everyone illustrated someone else’s story. It’s attractively packaged, with the cover illustration on glossy paper, making the drawings and colors extra sharp.
My favorites stories: "The Real Thing," by Nicola Tardew and Michael Connelly, which retells a couple of fairy tales (the original bawdy versions, before they were watered-down), and a collaboration between Aaron Burgess and Mister J on another twisted fairy tale called "Modern Fairy Tales for the MTV Generation," where Little Red Riding Hood and a woodcutter go on a murder spree.
Something else I liked: In the back of the book the editors listed Web pages where you can find out more about Australian small-press comics and their creators. Also, there’s a list of the contributors that includes short bios paired with thumbnail sketches of the stories they contributed to the book, so it’s easier to identify who did what (instead of flipping back and forth trying to match names and stories).
[ Link to this review ]
