Grimm Fairy Tales

A comic book series by Zenescope. Each issue is a frame story in which someone with a problem meets one of two women, Sela or her evil nemesis Belinda. They will be given a book containing an "original" fairy tale, much darker in tone than traditional fairy tales, that mirrors their situation. In the end, one of three things will happen: the person will see the error of their ways and change, the person will fail to see the error of their ways and fall victim to some unfortunate circumstances, or they will fail to see the error of their ways and supernatural forces from the story will act directly to punish them. The series is typically very over-the-top, although this does not stop it from being entertaining by any means.

The series has led to a number of spin-offs, including The Wonderland Trilogy and Neverland which drop the Frame story format and focus on one of the five worlds which make up the series 'verse, The Piper; a four issue long treatment of the Pied Piper, and Inferno, which continues the story of the Dante sisters. Besides connections in their own continuity, the series has also crossed over with 1001 Arabian Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad, and is currently heavily involved in The Dream Eater Saga Crisis Crossover.

Tropes used in Grimm Fairy Tales include:

• An Aesop
• Animorphism
• Anthology Comic
• Asshole Victim: More than a few, but the three jerks in the 'Three Little Pigs' win top honors for this one.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: More so when Belinda is involved. A good portion of the people she 'helps' ends this way, most notably seen in 'The Ugly Duckling' and of course, the 'The Monkey's Paw'.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Both used and subverted. Most people in the comic are attractive anyway.
• Bittersweet Ending: The final issue of Escape From Wonderland begins with three possible endings. The first a Happily Ever After ending in which Calie manages to Save the Villain. The second a Kill'Em All Downer Ending in which Johnny wins. The third appears to be a Bittersweet Ending, until a sudden Cruel Twist Ending. But Calie manages to think of a fourth option which leads to a true ending which, while still bittersweet, is at least hopeful.
• Body Horror: The entire Wonderland storyline seems to LOVE this one, it's usually the end result of what the new 'resident' becomes...or at the VERY least, a newbie has to go through it just to become a new resident of Wonderland.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Belinda, as well as Timmy for a short time. Belinda is starting to change her ways as of issue 60.
• Death by Childbirth: Snow White's mother.
• Downer Ending: In many stories, but most notably done in Blue Beard After going in a room and seeing what can be be described as High Octane Nightmare Fuel, Blue Beard confronts her and she ends up stabbing him. Before he dies, it turns out that all we wanted was a trusting wife and had no intention of hurting her: she saw what she wanted to in the room. and the Piped Piper, which ends up being a double whammy since it's done not only in the story, but in the story within a story as well: In the fairy tale, the piper not only runs off with the children, but upon returning them after finally getting the rest of his payment, he turns them all into mutant rats as a punishment to the entire town, which sucked since only the brothers (and even at that, just the one) had short changed him. And to the guy that was reading the story: he isn't able to convince his brother not to short change the hitman or simply call the hit off...so the guy ends up kidnapping his son and seems more than willing to kill him. It ends with the father on the phone with him while he gets a box with his brother's cut off ears and his son's jersey, with the hitman telling him to get the money together because his son was calling for his mother...
• Eldritch Abomination: The Jabberwocky, while punchable, appears to be this. One of his other names is even R'lyeh. While most of his creations are traditional Wonderland characters, those he unleashes on the Earth in the end drop the pretense entirely. Not to mention his massive tentacled lair, which leaves Calie incapable of even describing it.
• Enfant Terrible: Belinda tries to turn Timmy into one he's responsible for a few deaths, but ultimately redeemed. And then of course there's Pinocchio.
• Evil Matriarch
• Evil Redhead: Belinda
• Fan Disservice: In Grimm Fairy Tales presents: Return to Wonderland Callie is seen laying on a table, naked and covered with food in all the right places. Then we get to see the Mad Hatter leering over her and looks rather...disgusting...and obviously about to rape her. It's only made worse by the fact that 1.) they show his tongue which looks just as disgusting as he does, if not worse and 2.)oh, did I forget to mention that this is suppose to be her UNCLE?
• Fan Service: Every cover includes a scantily-clad woman.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Mercy fights a gang of assassins this way in issue #41.
• Grimmification: The entire point.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: Oh yes.
• Fridge Horror: Done a few times, but most notably in The Robber Bridegroom when you realize that Misha, the younger sister in the story was doomed no matter what happened: she ended up getting killed by her jealous, older sister Tendra by being pushed off a cliff but had it not happened, then she would have gotten eaten alive by the so called prince (and his followers) that was trying to wisk her off in the first place. (The fate that befell her sister since she ended up marrying the prince instead.), and Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, when you realize Babe (never really given a real name but her boyfriend calls her that) or 'Goldie Locks' ever stood a chance of surviving, considering that all the time she could have spent stopping the murder, was spent reading the book to learn her moral--and that she never would have gotten the nerve to stop the murder plan had she NOT READ THE STORY and learned her moral! By the time she gets there, it's too late and she ends up getting killed by the three bears, just like Goldie Locks.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The Demon was originally one of the weakest beings of his homeworld, before learning just how strong human worship can be.
• Hot Mom: Almost all of the main female characters are mothers. Alice gave birth to Calie, Calie has a girl who is kidnapped which leads the events in Escape from Wonderland, major villain Belinda had a baby who was sacrificed by her father-in-law and this led to Belinda's completely turning evil, main heroine Sela had a baby that she is only now remembering, and Wendy from Neverland is the biological aunt and adoptive mother to John and Michael.
• It Got Worse: The Wonderland Series, most notably in Beyond Wonderland.
• Kiss of Death: Sleeping Beauty
• Mistaken for Murderer: Blue Beard and the Wild Boy from 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'.
• Oh Crap: Quite a few victims in both the main story and fairy tales give this face.
• Remix Comic: The April Fools comics, which are 90% taken from other stories, but given parody dialogue. Generally they include at least one original page per story however, frequently as a big finale.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Used in a few stories, but most notably in 'The Three Snake-Leaves'. In 'The Piper' snakes are outright referred to as "Not of God".
• Satan Is Good: Not necessarily good per say, but loyal to God and seeking redemption. She simply does her job watching over the vilest of souls. The stories crossed Satan with The Demon who fits the reputation more then well enough.
• Save the Villain: Calie is very intent on doing this in the final issue of Escape From Wonderland. There is a possible ending shown in which she succeeds, as well as one in which she abandons it and just kills him. She eventually decides to Take a Third Option and returns him to human form. Unfortunately his mind is too far gone to save, but at the very least it robs him of the Healing Factor that previously made him unkillable.
• Space Whale Aesop: Several, particularly when magical forces directly intervene to punish the guilty, notably done in 'The Three Little Pigs'.
• Stock Aesops / Family-Unfriendly Aesop: While the way of going about it is certainly never "family friendly," the majority of aesops are. However, there are a fair number of stories that seem to glorify revenge.
• What Is This Thing You Call Love?: It's stated at the end of the Queen of Hearts one-shot that The Jabberwocky cannot understand love. So he twists it into something more manageable.
• Wicked Stepmother
• Your Soul Is Mine: Used in a few stories; including 'Cinderella', 'Puss In Boots', and heavily in 'The Piper'. Belinda, and in one case Sela, also occasionally partakes in this.