Merry Meerkat Marginalia

4 ½ Stars if I could. But since I can’t 4 stars. This was definitely one of the best volumes in awhile.



The first four issues are some history of Snow White and Rose Red. I particularly liked the drawings of the roses in the background. In the fourth issue Rose Red is finally pulled from her depression and resumes leadership of the Farm. The fifth story was sort of ify but the ending is really good.

6th issue in the volume was my favorite, would give just this issue 5 stars if I could. The black and white and Sepia tones were a nice change. Especially when they alternated with some of the bright colors. Mister Dark prepares to battle a young Frau Totenkinder. The father of Bigby gets confirmation of the existance of the ghost child of Snow White and Bigby,

7th issue is incredibly large and is divided into many issue. Frau Totenkinder and Mister Dark duel it out. Beauty goes into labor. I kind of wish they had spent more time with that. Frau Totenkinder defeats Mister Dark by trapping him in a gold statue which sits in front of a new castle supposed to be for the city fables. Baby girl born to Beauty and Beast. Mister Dark returns to life and “kills” Frau Totenkinder. She returns to life, youth and all but runs off with her boyfriend. There are a few little epilogues and in one of them, Beauty and Beasts baby reveals its true nature.

8th and 9th issues are small little “After the Duel” stories. 8, is a story with Thumbellena. Isse 9 is a funny story with the 3 blind mice. Both of these stories have incredibly art work (done by different people I believe).

The final story is a very text heavy story line of Pinnochio. Could have lived without it but what ever. And of course there is all sort of other little bits and pieces at the end, but I was a bit tired from getting through this volume so I didn’t go through them all.