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Castle Waiting by Linda Medley
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“CASTLE WAITING tells the story of an isolated, abandoned castle, and the eccentric inhabitants who bring it back to life. A fable for modern times, CASTLE WAITING is a fairy tale that’s not about rescuing the princess, saving the kingdom, or fighting the ultimate war between Good and Evil–it’s about being a hero in your own home.”
–Author’s Website
When I reviewed Fables, I complained about not having enough good comics to read, so one of my readers came through for me and recommended Castle Waiting. And wow did it take me a long time to get a copy! This book does not seem to be widely distributed, and I finally got it at the library, but you really want to try to get the reprint edition, as that also contains a prelude comic about the origins of the castle. The reprint is also much longer than the original TPB that I found.
This book is a collection of tales that reads like a bunch of intertwined short stories. It’s hard to tell if later books have more of a “plot,” but it’s perfectly fine without an overarching story. We begin with the tale of Lady Jain leaving her home and follow her to Castle Waiting, where she hopes to find a safe haven to have her baby. There she meets an assortment of characters from “Beaky” (as the anthropomorphic horse knight likes to call him) the stork butler to Iron Henry the woodsman, who’s heart is held together by iron bands after the death of his son.
Unlike many traditional American comic books, Castle Waiting is a character-driven story with lots of heart. The stories circle around the ordinary lives of those who live there, showing that there is little difference between talking horse-men, storks, and humans.
Since this is also a comic book, we of course need to talk about the art. Now, personally, when it comes to American comics, I want full color. So I’m a little disappointed that the book has a black and white interior. You just don’t see B&W a lot these days, because it isn’t that much cheaper and readers are going to be expecting color interiors.
Action 3 – Action is relatively average. It’s there, but it isn’t really the point of the book.
Romance 1 – No real romance yet. A few possibilities, but this isn’t a romantic fairy tale, as of yet.
Characters 5 – Every character has personality and heart. Each has a unique back story, and the author draws from folk tales, fairy tales, and her own imagination to give us characters that aren’t just our familiar fairy tale characters by new names.
Overall 4 – I really liked this book, and I have high hopes for the rest of the series. I didn’t instantly fall in love with it, but it grew on me.
Extras:
If you want to get a feel for the art and style of the book, there is a sample chapter on the author’s website. The current comics have only recently started back up again, so you won’t be that far behind. You can find all the volume two issues on the Fantagraphics website.
More comics you might enjoy are Fables and Pretear. Fables takes all the various fairy tale characters and throws them into our world as refugees, fleeing the destruction of their own fable kingdoms. Pretear is the manga story of Snow White and her seven very hot protectors (obviously not dwarfs in this version).
Another couple of books you might like are Just Ella (Cinderella’s happily ever after isn’t so happy as she deals with learning to be a princess) and Once Upon A Marigold (a great mix of everyday fantasy/fairy tale and modern humor).
10+ So far, there are no real content problems. There is some abuse and discussions of the evils of the world (like selling babies), but nothing is graphic. Of course, this is an ongoing comic series, so there might be content issues down the line that I don’t know about yet.
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