ANOTHER

Andrew Wheeler and Paulina Ganucheau’s “Another Castle” # begins with a blast of fairy tale sweetness: a castle, a medieval-inspired font for its narration, birds singing outside in bucolic sunshine. Ganucheau’s linework and pastel candy colors deliberately scream “Disney Princess,” while her scrupulous attention to background details like Princess Misty’s jewelry makes the settings rich. Ganucheau’s successful visual mimicry gives the opening sequence and the resulting skewering of a bird more sharpness and sting. Unfortunately, the parody or satirical element ends with the first scene. The rest of “Another Castle” #1 contains standard fairy tale and fantasy elements like a spyglass, a wicked witch and a dragon, but Wheelers’ usage of genre tropes becomes less thoughtful. The heroine, Princess Mistry, is a specimen belonging to the category of Reluctant or Rebellious Princesses, plentiful throughout 20th and 21st century literature, film and comics. There are several even within th

If you’ve never seen an original newspaper broadsheet comic, “Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream” might take you by surprise. Measuring at 16×21″, Locust Moon Press’ tribute anthology to Winsor McCay’s signature creation is massive — we’re talking large enough that most bookshelves can’t even fit it on its side. In the end, though, that’s a good thing; the virtual who’s-who-in-comics list of creators have risen to the occasion here, with a Kickstarter-funded massive book that is genuinely worth the price of admission. With 125 artists alone, it’s near impossible to talk about every contribution to this book. And honestly, that’s not the way it should be read. Open it to a random spot and read a few pages, then put it down. Maybe start from front to back, or back to front, but set yourself a limit on how many you’ll read in a row. Part of what makes the best pieces in “Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream” work is when they’ve channeled McCay’s inventive page layouts, ones that take full ad