Influences Part 2: Castle Waiting

The most beautiful graphic novels I’ve ever seen are the hardback copies of Castle Waiting.  I’m a fan of old books, and they have that sort of elegance and beauty.  There’s a ribbon attached to the spine for your use as a bookmark.  The whole presentation is just really lovely.

That part is a more recent discovery for me though.  I got a paperback copy of volume one years ago and have read and reread it.  It’s also a lovely book, though without quite the same feel.  The black and white line art has clarity and expressiveness that I love.  If I can pinpoint one artist’s work and say “this is where I’m heading, this is the type of look I want to achieve,” it’s Linda Medley’s  Castle Waiting.

The story is a retelling of fairy tales, focusing on the characters in the background and around the edges of those stories.  Lives after the happy ending, for the people who didn’t run off to be happily ever after.  Castle Waiting is a refuge for our central character, Lady Jain, as she flees her home.

Castle Waiting is sweetly mundane.  Characters worry about fixing the fence so the goat doesn’t get out again and keeping water spirits from making a mess of the kitchen.  They have little problems and goals and triumphs.  They’re just like real people.  At the same time, we have plot lines with robbers and thieves, close calls and tricky situations.  It may not be the center of the fairy tale epic, but life at Castle Waiting is never dull.

Last summer as I was launching this website I was also devouring the graphic novel section at the local library.  My mom picked up one the books I’d checked out one day and read it as a break from her usual reading and told me she’d enjoyed it.  I hadn’t read it yet, so I moved it up on the list and finished it the next day.  It was ok, but not fantastic.  I insisted that if she was going to read graphic novels she was going to get to read good ones, and I went back to the library and brought back their Castle Waiting volume one hard copy in all of it’s beauty.  She agreed that it was indeed lovely.  It’s a book I would show to anyone who loves fairy tales but hasn’t been exposed to graphic novels, as it’s very accessible and generally just plain awesome.

If you’ll excuse me now, I’m going to go savor another chapter of Volume Two before bed.