Erstwhile Comics

I recently learned about Erstwhile, an independently published comic book series. The writers and artists are Gina Biggs, Louisa Roy and Elle Skinner, all members of Strawberry Comics. Biggs is best known for her Red String series of graphic novels which also uses some myth and fairy tale elements. Erstwhile is a side project all three create out of love for the old fairy tales.

Here's a quote from the website:

Fairy tales have captured our hearts for generations, appealing to our taste for adventure, horror, and romance. Erstwhile brings you the often overlooked gems in the collections of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; tales that despite their quality are often ignored or unknown.

The latest issue of Erstwhile retells All Fur (a Donkeyskin variant). I've included the cover image above and one page below.


Apparently these women share my taste in the lesser known tales because they have also previously published Maid Maleen, a tale I have annotated on SurLaLune, and The Farmer's Clever Daughter, one of my top choices to annotate if I ever add another tale to SurLaLune. (Or I would add a collection of clever women tales and variants. Love those...)



They've also published a collection of Short Tales, pictured below. The comic includes three tales: The Bird, the Mouse, and the Sausage; The Old Man and his Grandson; and The Little Shroud.


The Erstwhile website also offers images of a few other tales, not published, but available for our public consumption: A Tale with a Riddle, The Wolf & the Man, and Choosing a Bride.

You can see more page images of all the comics on the website, too.

I've not seen these in person and I'm not affiliated with them. Just call me a fan sharing the news. The comics are available through their website at this time. I have to say these things for the FCC regs and will soon be adding a disclaimer on the page somewhere.