This softcover TPB edition collects “Alice Ever After” #1-5.
Creative Team:
Writer: Dan Panosian
Illustrators:
Dan PanosiA too dark tale about Alice!
This softcover TPB edition collects “Alice Ever After” #1-5.
Creative Team:
Writer: Dan Panosian
Illustrators:
Dan Panosian (Wonderland scenes)
Giorgio Spalletta with Cyril Glerum (London scenes)
Colors: Fabiana Mascolo
Lettering: Jeff Eckleberry
CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER
I found out about this comic book miniseries too late, so instead of getting it in single issues, I got the TPB edition but luckily I was able to get the issue #1 with variant art by J. Scott Campbell.
This graphic novel is a sequel to the events of the original book where Alice is already a grown-up woman in her twenties (I believe). She is addicted to drugs (some pills and liquid heroine) that she employs to go back to Wonderland, and once she is back to a very dark and grimm reality you can find that several “real life” characters have their Wonderland counterparts. That’s not that inspired since this is like taking Wizard of Oz and the sequel film Back to Oz merging those mentioned elements to the story of Alice in Wonderland, even you can think about Bridge to Terabithia since here Wonderland isn’t real and the story have a very sad ending.
Alice is addicted to drugs but you’ll find out that she isn’t guitly by herself for her condition since there is a very dark family secret that Alice was unlucky to find out and now she is suffering because of that.
All that said, I enjoyed the development since it was quite creative how all those new elements were used to tell this extension of the story of Alice, however I didn’t like at all how the story ends (no, I won’t spoil it, but be warned).
Maybe the ending isn’t that sad taking in account the inner desires of Alice, but if the graphic novel would have a different closure, certainly I’d give it 5 stars without thinking, but since it wasn’t the case, I thought that the fairest thing to do was taking out a star, even I was considering to give it only 3 stars, but at the end I decided not to punish it that much since only the ending was what I didn't enjoy, the rest of the story is quite an interesting experience.
I want to mention (that I think it can be considered as part of my problems with the ending) that I don’t like that taking in account that the story have a lot of villains, not single one pays for their crimes, and I don’t find that fair, maybe real life isn’t fair but this isn’t a real life story, this is a book (actually a comic book) therefore I would like to see the criminals to be accountable for their sins and the victims to find justice.
Still, the comic book is quite well written and wonderfully illustrated, so if you’re fan of Wonderland stuff, you might find worthy to take a look to this graphic novel.
This is the annotated edition, collecting both novels in the Alice book series: “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”Curiouser and curiouser edition!
This is the annotated edition, collecting both novels in the Alice book series: “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice found There”.
WE’RE ALL MAD HERE
Begin at the beginning…
This was technically a re-reading since I’ve already read both novels previously, the key difference here was that this is an “annotated” edition, which includes a comprehensive section, at the end of each chapter, with tons of notes revealing “behind-the-scenes” detailing moments in the life of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), the “real” meaning of scenes, the “real” inspirations for several of the characters in both novels, historic meaning (in the Victorian England) of casual expressions that got outdated nowadays, studies in the metrics of the poems included in the novels, etc…
I don’t think…
Then you shouldn’t talk…
It was a curiouser and curiouser reading experience since this was my first “annotated edition” of any book, and I believe that if you want to engage into this sort of books, it’s advisable having read the regular version of the novel first, since reading all those annotations after each chapter, it’s a kinda of “braking” effect, since depending the chapter, you’ll invest almost the same time reading the explanations than the chapter itself, so you lose a great deal of the rhythm of your reading, therefore, if you haven’t read the story before, you may not enjoying as much as it was supposed to be.
It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.
Of course, almost all the information was made by scholars in the Lewis Carroll’s works, doing assumptions and best guesses, since the author was already gone when this annotated edition began to be conceived. Therefore, it’s a priceless access to get a better understanding of the novels at the era when they were published, BUT…
…sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
…you can’t fully take without a doubt the exposed explanations, since you can’t ask the author anymore to validate if their interpretations are truly accurate. So, as many things in life, it’s up to you if you wish to believe them.
I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.
And as those scholars mentioned at some momento of the annotations, that sometimes we are so obssessed to find a secret meaning behind any single quote, any single character, any single scene, etc… and while it’s evident that some quotes, characters and scenes have indeed a double significance, some of them are merely things needed to keep flowing the narrative, as simply as that, without any conspiration or secret plot,…
I’m not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours.
…so don’t get too deep into the annotations section and simply enjoy this wonderfully mad tale about a little girl who fell down into a rabbit’s hole and she kept finding curiouser and curiouser things, even through the looking-glass.
…and go on till you come to the end: then stop....more
This hardcover edition collects the entire graphic novel “Lost Girls”, preA very complicated review to make.
Warning: This book is for adults only.
This hardcover edition collects the entire graphic novel “Lost Girls”, presenting the three volumes, with its thirty chapters
Creative Team:
Writer: Alan Moore
Illustrator: Melinda Gebbie
Letterer: Todd Klein
WE’RE ALL MAD HERE
I’m Alice.
Oh, well. M-my name’s Wendy.
And I’m Dorothy. Y’know, ain’t it just perfect we should all be friends?
Alan Moore is the writer with more balls in the comic books’ business and the only comic book writer that can come out with such polemic book and not being attacked as a “dirty pornographer” but a “witty artist”.
Alan Moore, only Alan Moore.
Because after reading Lost Girls with all its greatness but also all its controversy, you can’t deny its artistic virtues.
There are chapters, such like, “The Mirror” & “Shaking and Waking”, that they are indeed crafty pieces of art, merging narrative with drawing. Also, the book has a faultless format with chapters where each is made of exactly 8 pages, with 10 chapters per volume, in 3 volumes. I always like symmetry in a work. And talking about the materials of the the book: hardcover, paper, size, inks, etc… I have to admit that it’s easily one of the most gorgeous books ever published, in the genre of comic books (no wonder why it’s $45, but the resulted presentation is worthy).
Lost Girls initially was serialized in the comic book Taboo (edited by Stephen R. Bissette (old friend of Moore since their days in Swamp Thing) and where, in that title, From Hell (also by Alan Moore) was serialized too. However, Lost Girls never was completed in Taboo and the collaborative team of Moore and Gebbie to finish Lost Girls was prolonged for 16 years (and resulted in the marriage of Moore and Gebbie, after he was left by his first wife and their mutual lover (yes, a complicated life). So, you can say that Lost Girls wasn’t just a work of sex, but also a work of love.
Lady Alice Fairchild (adult version of Alice in Wonderland’s Alice, in her 50s), Dorothy Gale (adult version of Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy, in her 20s) and Wendy Darling (adult version of Peter Pan’s Wendy, in her 30s) meet in a hotel at Austria, a year before World War I. The three women recognized themselves as soulmates, having experienced unusual experiences in their teenage years, so they open themselves with each other in these threesome, to know everything about them.
I think that my major complains about Lost Girls is its lack of point (beside the basic concept of portraiting classic children’s books’ characters from different tales, in their adult age, and interacting with each other) and its unnecesary lenght.
You know, I read that Watchmen supposed to be only 6 issues (I figured more centered in the investigation of Rorschach (my favorite character there)) but DC wanted a maxi-series, so Moore had to include the heroes’ origins to be to expand the work to 12 issues, and while, obviously Watchmen is a masterpiece, I think that it’s felt that it’s longer that initially intended.
And while Lost Girls may be possess its intended extension, I don’t think that it was needed so many chapters to point out such basic concept, since beyond that, the narrative hasn’t any other purpose, goal or (ironically) climax. In fact, there is a moment where this turned to be just uneventful chapters filled with sex scenes, unlike the initial chapters where you feel more ingenious interaction between the characters.
And, of course, the main reason of all the controversy about this graphic novel, is due that the three main characters tell their own sex experiences while they are still teenagers.
Everybody discover sex in his/her teenage years, but I guess that presenting that in such open way in an illustrated story, is one heck of fuzz. And playing Devil’s Advocate, I can’t blame those who may find awful those parts of the narrative, since after all, some of those scenes aren’t free of abhorrent acts that they are clearly legal offenses, and that's not good, not matter the reason, if there is any.
PIXIE DUST
Like shoes, we try our fantasies on, yes? Sometimes they are too big for us, sometimes we outgrow them; they become too small. Too confining. Or perhaps they wear out; become dull, familiar, merely comfortable.
I guess that while there are a lot of scholar studies analyzing the sexual allegories in classic children’s tales, one thing is reading about those hidden devices, in hypothetical scenarios; and quite other to have them in open way, without subterfuges, and with illustrations included.
We read the tales when we were kids, and when we grow up, we want to get back to those stories, and that’s why those re-tellings are so popular since you can read about your favorite characters but with an adult-oriented angle.
However, when the story turned to be too real, when the pixie dust is depleted, when the characters turned to be too adult, with needs too adult, well, no one can be blame if they feel that it was just a little too much.
We want to know what happened with the characters after their original books ended, when the characters got older, beyond the yellow-brick roads, but sometimes you aren’t prepared for what you may find there.
They are fiction characters for a reason. They aren’t real people. Characters are idealized, to the point to be put in pedestals. They became perfect in our minds. However, when fiction characters got too real, too human, they stopped to be characters and become people. And people aren’t perfect. You aren’t watching a reflection in a mirror anymore, but the true nature of people. So, you have to ask yourself if you really want to read about people or fiction characters.
That’s why fantasy is such appealing, while reality can be awful sometimes.
NOT KANSAS ANYMORE
War’s such a frightful perversion. It turns everything contrariwise.
Make love, not war.
If there is some way to simplify this massive work of Lost Girls, I think that’s that.
Maybe you find having promiscuous sex like something dirty or wrong, we aren’t here to judge anyone (that’s God’s job), but definitely having war is far, far worse.
And since this review has been quite challenging to write, I think that it’s better to leave it here.
I was able to get the 5 single issues of this storyline but I chose this edition to make a better overall review.
WHO IS REALLY WILWillow rules!
I was able to get the 5 single issues of this storyline but I chose this edition to make a better overall review.
WHO IS REALLY WILLOW ROSENBERG?
This is an adventure of Willow Rosenberg that it's part of the canonical "Season 9" in comic book format of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.
Willow Rosenberg is easily the most popular character from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, even more than the very Buffy Summers.
Not only because she was a brainy hacker, at the beginning of the TV series, or a powerful witch, later in advanced seasons, not even because it was one of the first TV characters making a surprising turn to be lesbian after many time being concepted as a heterosexual character.
All that helps, no question in that,...
...but it's because she is the one with the biggest heart.
And in this storyline, you will realize how big, the heart of Willow, is.
Willow, the Red
Rosenberg, the Enchantress
The Slayer´s Hex Mistress
Supreme Witch of Terra Firma
Certainly it's cool watching Willow flying in the air or walking in the water, but this story is more than just about power over magic.
It's about the magic in our hearts.
A WORLD WITHOUT MAGIC
In the climax of "Season 8" of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer canonical comic books, Buffy Summers had to take a drastic decision and the world was left without magic.
That could be seen like something no big deal if you are not a warlock or witch, but it's awesome how Willow starting to realize that magic is shown in more ways around the world than anyone thinks.
Magic wasn't just a tool for sorcerers and such...
...magic is an integral part of why human race deals each of their days.
People is recurring more to suicides. Artists are losing their inspiration. Rainbows have less colors...
...Hey, even Coca-Cola doesn't taste the same anymore!
So, Willow takes the Slayer's Scythe, the last bastion of magic in the world to break into some dimension with magic and finding a way to bring the magic again into our world.
IF THIS WONDERLAND, WHERE THE HECK IS THE HATTER AND THE CAT?
The title Wonderland can be deceiving, since it's not like Willow would go to Alice's Wonderland, but still, you get to meet the "original" caterpillar that claims was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll ;) 'Nuff to me!
While this seems to be a quest about magic...
...Willow will realize that it's a quest to know herself.
The art is nothing sensational but it's effective.
The story is well crafted.
Certainly a "must-have" for any Willow Rosenberg's fan.
I had huge expectations about this book seeing that it was so high rated (at least whenInsanely...disappointing
OFF WITH THEIR MENTAL SANITY!!!
I had huge expectations about this book seeing that it was so high rated (at least when I noticed it) and it crossovered the topics of Wonderland and Oz in real life context in an adult approach involving sex, drugs and murder.
What else can one ask?
And I have to admit that the reading experience was like a rollercoaster, since at some points I was sure that I will give it a full 5-star rating and at some other moments each lower possible rating and sometimes gets higher again and later it gets lower, you get the picture.
I really believed that the first chapter is like a test, to see if you really want to get further into the novel since it has very kinky sex situations, careless use of drugs and gruesome bloody violence but most of all, it isn't written in any elegant way but very directly and raw.
At that point I was believing that it was a poor choice of reading since it seemed to be a vulgar book without class. At that point you still get only Alice, so I want to read at least to the meeting with Dorothy that I guessed was the whole point of the book.
I was interested about the concept of two girls in a psychiatric ward believing that they are "Alice" from Wonderland and "Dorothy" from Oz. It was a thrilling idea.
Wonderland was always linked with the topic of madness, however, Oz not so much, however there cases like the movie "Return to Oz" that while it wasn't too good, it was still interesting and logic to think that Dorothy maybe seemed to be crazy if she started to tell about her adventures with talking scarecrows and flying monkeys.
There is a very good approach on this book that I think it was one of his strongest points of originality. However, it wasn't enough that premise to hold the book and to present a decent tale.
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE PSYCHIATRIC WARD
The two girls are in psychiatric evaluation due showing general abnormal behaviour, but not because they'd claimed to be "Alice" and "Dorothy".
So far it seems that in the reality of this book, nobody heard about the books of Alice in Wonderland or The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, since both made several comments that anybody could sum two-plus-two and reaching to the realization of how crazy they must be...
...but no, they are considered insane due showing rages of violence to others or to themselves, not because they claimed to be "Alice" and "Dorothy".
Dorothy always is trying to hunt tornadoes to reach a magic land that she called "Oz", but nobody seems to think that something is odd here since her full name is Dorothy Gale and indeed she has an Aunt Em and an Uncle Henry.
Best proof that in the universe of this story, nobody heard before of those both classic tales.
And while Alice & Dorothy are in the psychiatric ward is a pretty good reading, even some chapters with the doctor examining them are very well written in a truly smart way.
The personalities of Alice and Dorothy can be described using elements from their own books, since Dorothy is like the Cowardly Lion while Alice is like the Jabberwock.
Dorothy is childish (even since she is already an adult), sweet and shy.
Alice is insanely violent, unpredictable and totally wacko.
Alice and Dorothy made a quick bond, even taking in account that in this book, Dorothy is lesbian, and while Alice isn't lesbian per se, she didn't mind about it.
It's clear that she hasn't enjoying much the sex relationships with men so she is kinda open to the idea of accepting the feelings of Dorothy for her, also it's an easy way to manipulate her, to making her helping to escape from the hospital.
Until then, the book was quite engaging, but on the road the story took a wrong turn...
VIOLENCE, DRUGS AND SEX! OH, MY!
When they are on the road, there a lot of bloody violence, some lesbian moments and tiny bits of drug using.
I think that the story could be developed in a better way since while the narrative has good timing and logic, it's presented in a crude way without much imagination or elegance.
Even I felt quite odd some comments in the story about not "glorify violence", but more like odd, like hypocrisy since the book is clear that it's been sold like a story of "sex, drugs and violence".
So why trying to make such statements that they are totally out of place here?
Also, something that I didn't like is that Alice is way more like the main protagonist, while Dorothy is lowered to a role like a sidekick.
When you are reading about Batman & Robin, while there is an "&" in the title, you know that Robin is the sidekick of Batman. Batman is the lead hero and Robin is a companion.
However, since this was a "crossover" book, putting together two lead protagonists of their own books, when I read the title Alice & Dorothy, I was expecting a 50/50 of importance of both characters in the story.
It's that not only Dorothy is like a weakling sidekick without much utility in the story, but also, you don't get much of the elements and references of Oz, only some poor attempts here and there.
But instead you have heavily use of the recognizable elements of Wonderland.
So, I thought that why including Dorothy and the Oz world into this novel if the author seemed like uncomfortable with it or not knowing how to use it in a smart way into the plot?
At the end, it was a very good idea with a kinda standard development, with a too vulgar prose, and I honestly think it could be much better where it didn't explode its whole real potential as story.
Since I decided to read this book, I knew that it won't be any liEnjoyable enough, but it could be better
IN EVERY GENERATION THERE IS AN...ALICE?!
Since I decided to read this book, I knew that it won't be any literature wonder (pun intended) but I didn't regret my decision.
Indeed it wasn0t any reading masterpiece, but enjoyable enough.
It was a quick fun reading.
The story gave me just what I was expecting, a retelling of the classic Alice in Wonderland but with a vampire oriented angle.
I think that the author did a fair job merging the original storyline with the new vampire approach.
CURIOUSER AND BLOODIER
Something that I quite enjoyed is that here, the Cheshire Cat got a status way over the Caterpillar.
I don't hate the Caterpillar but I always liked better the Cheshire Cat.
And lately in various retellings like Zenescope's Wonderland and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, I felt that the Caterpillar was presented more powerful and/or wiser.
But here, in this retelling, the Cheshire Cat seems without a doubt with more experience than the Caterpillar.
However, I would expected a little more of character development on Alice, taking in account that she is definitely not the regular Alice that you may being acquainted. Oh, you get the whole picture of how was her life since she was younger (in the story she is 16 years old) and how her family has a long line of slayers.
In that, the author not only got elements from Alice in Wonderland as the core setting but also got elements from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer stating that Alice thinks that only women can be slayers.
Still, a little more to define a tridimentional character could be appreciated and not just being the basically expected result from merging "Wonderland's Alice" with "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer".
You will get some twists and surprises, especially on the climax of the plot. (Easy, no spoiler! Hehehe)
So, while it's not a spectacular book, if you are fan of "Wonderland" related stuff and/or vampire related stuff, well, this an acceptable option, after all, you only invest like 2 hours at most to read it.
I think that it's the first time that I don't rate with 5 stars aAlmost as good as the previous stories
WELCOME AGAIN TO THE BLOODY WONDERLAND!
I think that it's the first time that I don't rate with 5 stars a TPB of Raven Gregory of his work about "Zenescope's Wonderland".
Maybe the problem here is the intention of making the successful Wonderland storyline into an ongoing title.
Before, Zenescope managed as mini-series, so each mini-series as a focused goal to tell, all part of a great big mystery behind the Liddle family.
But, they closed the circle, but they face the trouble that the most succesful title of the publishing house was coming to an end.
BLOODIER AND BLOODIER
So, I guess that it wasn't a shock to know that a new series was on the market. Since I bought all the previous products related with Zenescope's Wonderland, I knew that I want to buy this too. It wasn't bad, it's just that when you read, you know that they want an ongoing title, and so, they are in no rush, they took their time to tell the stuff and you don't see any ending in the near future.
So, the impact of the writing lost its power, also, the concept of this new series is not so inventing, the old characters get back, even the ones that they supposed to be beaten and dead. There are new characters, but still, you don't much of something real different here of the stuff that you already see in the past mini-series. Also, I didn't like that they used a real fair artist for the first issue, and then they changed for some other artist with not-so bad work but way inferior to the one in the first issue.
Anyway, Zenescope is smart, since they know that if you are a fan of their Wonderland line, like me, we are keeping buying anything that they put in the market. So, resuming, the quality of the story here is inferior to the previous stories but still it's a fair addition to your collection if you are a fan of the general series.
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