Grimm Fairy Tales is a dark fantasy comic book series by Zenescope Entertainment that presents classic fairy tales, albeit with modern twists or expanded plots. It began publication in June 2005.
Summary Each issue of Grimm Fairy Tales has two parts: a frame story and a fairy tale. The frame story revolves around Dr. Sela Mathers, a professor of literature with the supernatural ability to help people to avoid bad life decisions by subjecting them to visions, in which they see themselves as the protagonists of allegorical fairy tales. As the series progresses, she struggles with the fact that several people ignore her lessons and ruin their lives anyway, and begins using her ability to dispense justice instead. Sela's nemesis is Belinda, who has the same ability as Sela but uses it for evil.
The other portion of the story is a twisted version of a classic fairy tale. The fairy tales are often violent and usually end in depressing ways, warning the readers to change their lives or suffer a similar (or sometimes worse) fate.
It is later revealed that Belinda is working for the Dark One, a Satan-like demon who is seeking to conquer not only Earth but four other worlds which the fairy tales come from. The worlds include Wonderland, Oz, Neverland, and Myst. The series gradually begins to revolve around Sela herself, as she discovers that she has become a major player in an ancient war between the Dark Horde, led by the Dark One and his allies, and the Guardians, leaders of the worlds the Dark One seeks to conquer. Already Wonderland and Neverland have fallen and are now ruled by the Dark One's allies, the monstrous Jabberwocky and the soul-devouring immortal Pan, respectively.
After Volume 15 concluded, a new Zenescope comic event, "The Age of Darkness", began. It spans in every comic related to the Grimm Fairy Tales series. There are major tie-ins and things especially related to major worlds in Grimm Fairy Tales. These worlds are Oz, Myst, Neverland, Wonderland, and Earth. The event happened in 2013–14 heading up to the 100th issue of Grimm Fairy Tales.
After the milestone issue, issues #101–125 are the "Arcane Acres" storyline.
Core series First series VolumeIssueTitleRelease dateStoryPencilsInksColors1#1Little Red Riding HoodJoe Tyler and Ralph TedescoJoe DoddJustin HolmanLisa LuberaA high school girl is conflicted about her boyfriend, who is frustrated with her reluctance to "go all the way" (i.e., have sex). After he leaves, she finds a book of fairy tales on her bed and falls asleep, dreaming that she is "Red", walking to her grandmother's house through the woods. She arrives to find her grandmother savagely mauled. Jacob, a woodcutter with tender feelings for her, appears and tells her to leave with him immediately. Believing him the killer, Red stabs him with a machete, but is then attacked by the werewolf that killed her grandmother. Before it can attack her, the wounded Jacob kills it with an axe. The wolf transforms back into Red's noble suitor, Samuel, who confesses that he let his carnal desire for her get the better of him.
The girl wakes up, resolved to break up with her over-amorous boyfriend. She believes that the story was a dream, but is shocked to see scratches on her face and fallen leaves on her bed.#2CinderellaA bookish young college girl is chased out of a sorority house by the derisive sisters. She wanders into Sela's mythology class, and dreams that she is the protagonist of Cinderella. After her wicked stepmother and stepsisters lock her in the dark cellar as punishment, she is visited by a female demon, who offers her everything she could wish for, in exchange for her soul. Cinderella goes to the Prince's ball and wins his heart, but has to return home before midnight, leaving her glass slipper behind. Hearing that the Prince is searching the land for his true love, Cinderella's family eagerly prepares to receive him, but her stepsisters are attacked by a flock of ravens outside their home. In terror, the stepmother runs inside and locks the door, trapping her daughters outside. She then falls into the cellar, and Cinderella locks her in to starve to death. The next morning, Cinderella meets the Prince, carefully steering his attention away from her stepsisters' desiccated corpses in the back yard, and avoiding inviting him inside the house where he might hear her stepmother's cries for help.
Reawakening, the coed tells Sela how much she enjoyed the lecture, and Sela tells her that everything she wants could be hers, "for the right price".#3Hansel and Gretel#4Rumpelstiltskin#5Sleeping Beauty#6The Robber BridegroomA college girl is outraged to find her boyfriend embracing her sister. The two women begin fighting in a deserted playground, before Sela appears with her book. In an extended dream, two sisters fall in love with the same dashing prince, but after he proposes to the younger sister, the elder lures her to a mountaintop and pushes her off a cliff. The older sister takes her place as the prince's fiancée. On their wedding night, she enters his castle and sits down to dinner, only to see that the "prince" and all his servants are cannibalistic ghouls, who devour her alive, declaring her just as tasty as her sister would have been.
Waking up, the sisters reconcile, agreeing that they are family and it would be foolish to let a man come between them.2#7Snow White#8Jack and the Beanstalk#9Goldilocks and the Three Bears#10The Frog King#11Bluebeard#12The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Issues #13–14: Beauty and the Beast Issue #15: The Three Little Pigs Issue #16: Little Miss Muffet Issue #17: The Juniper Tree Issue #18: Three Billy Goats Gruff Issue #19: Rapunzel Issue #20: The Boy Who Cried Wolf Issue #21: The Sorcerer's Apprentice Issue #22: The Snow Queen Issues #23–24: Snow White and Rose Red Issues #25–26: The Little Mermaid Issue #27: Three Blind Mice Issue #28: The Ugly Duckling Issue #29: King Midas Issue #30: Rip Van Winkle Issues #31–32: Pinocchio Issue #33: Three Snake Leaves Issue #34: Puss In Boots Issue #35: Dorian Gray Issue #36: The Ugly Duckling II Issue #37: Little Miss Muffet II Issue #38: The Lion and the Mouse Issue #39: The Scorpion and the Frog Issue #40: The Goose and the Golden Egg Issue #41: Dante's Inferno [Prelude] Issue #42: Baba Yaga Issue #43: The Last Unicorn Issue #44: The Devil's Brother Issue #45: Cinderella [Revisited] Issue #46: Godfather Death Issue #47: The Devil's Gambit Issue #48: The Good Witch Issue #49: Myst Issue #50: Hard Choices Issue #51: The Glass Coffin Issue #52: The Golden Stag Issue #53: The Fairy and the Dwarf Issue #54: The Grateful Beasts Issue #55: The Goblin Queen Issue #56: Death's Key Issue #57: Diamonds and Toads Issues #58–62: Mother Nature Issue #63: Dream Eater Saga IX Issue #64: Dream Eater Saga X Issue #65: Jack the Giant Killer Issue #66: The Gates of Limbo Issue #67: Lost Souls Issue #68: The Immortals Issue #69: The Arena Issue #70: A Drink and a Tale Issue #71: The Winter Witch Issue #72: Curse of the Winter Witch Issue #73: Ghost in the Myst Issue #74: Winter's End Issue #75: The Return Issues #76–81: The Lockdown Issue #82: The Seal Skin Issues #83–84: Jack Frost Issue #85: Unleashed II Issues #86–87: The Phoenix Issue #88: The Dark Queen Issues #89–90: Rapunzel Issue #91: Shadow of Doubt Issue #92: Breaking Point Issue #93: Song of the Sword Issue #94: Is it Safe? Issue #95: Koschei the Deathless Issue #96: Fire and Ice Issue #97: The Tooth Fairy Issue #98: Leaves of Grass Issue #99: The Coming Storm Issue #100: Darkness Falls Issue #101: New Again Issue #102: The Lamp Issue #103: Snow White and Rose Red [Revisited] Issues #104–105: Rise of the Water Nymphs Issue #106: The Prophecy Issues #107–108: Burn Your Life Down Issues #109–110: Beowulf Issue #111: The Mad Hatter Issue #112: Bloody Bones Issue #113: War Is Over Issue #114: Death Breath Issue #115: The Sword in the Stone Issues #116–117: Something Wicked Issue #118: Grimm Furry Tales Issue #119: What the Gemini Saw Issues #120–121: The Shadow Girl Issue #122: Worst Behavior Issue #123: Eighteen Forever Issue #124: Eighteen Forever [Conclusion] Issue #125: Oh, the Places...
Second series Issue #1: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing Issue #2: The Wrath of the Snow Queen Issue #3: The Last Genie Issue #4: The Princess and the Frog Issue #5: Neverland Pixies Issue #6: The Piper Issue #7: Snow White Issue #8: Gargoyles Issue #9: Genie of the Shadowlands Issue #10 Goldilocks Issue #11: Order of Tarot I Issue #12: Order of Tarot II Issue #13: Age of Camelot Issue #14: The Three Musketeers Issue #15: The Black Knight Issue #16: Sword of Camelot Issue #17: Troll Under the Bridge I Issue #18: Troll Under the Bridge II Issue #19: Knights of the Round Table Issue #20: Enter the Zodiac Issue #21: Knights of the Round Table II Issue #22: Lady of the Lake Issue #23: The Fall of Camelot Issue #24: Calm Before the Storm Issue #25: War of the Grail Issue #26: The Odyssey Issue #27: Maze Run Issue #28: Atlantis Issue #29: The Emerald City Issue #30: Land of Oz Issue #31: Skarabs Issue #32: Return to Neverland Issue #33: Tribes of Neverland Issue #34: War of Neverland Issue #35: Wonderland Issue #36: Swamp of Madness Issue #37: Journey's End Issue #38: The Dark Book Issue #39: What Lies Within Issue #40: Forest of Secrets Issue #41: Bearskin Issue #42: Baba Yaga Returns! Issue #43: A Girl and Her Shadow Issue #44: Children of Fortune Issue #45: The Handless Maiden Issue #46: Mother Hulda Issue #47: Nixie of Mill Pond Issue #48: An Echo of Wickedness Issue #49: False Hero Issue #50: A Dark Conclusion Issue #51: Fractured Universe Issue #52: Cyberpunk'd Issue #53: The Spider Beside Her Issue #54: Caught in the Web Issue #55: Beasts of the City! Issue #56: A Pit in the Soul! Issue #57: Teeth, Claws and Bullets! Issue #58: On Death's Doorstep Issue #59: Steam-Powered & Blood Fueled Issue #60: Gears Up at Sunrise Issue #61: Doom. Spells. Disaster! Issue #62: Regicide! Issue #63: Waking Horrors Issue #64: Deep Secrets! Issue #65: The Arcane Terror! Issue #66: Lurking Underneath Issue #67: Esoteric Beliefs Issue #68: The Awakening Issue #69: Starspawn Issue #70: Haunter of the Dark Issue #71: The Dark One Issue #72: Doom in the Darkness Issue #73: Beyond the Threshold of Dread Issue #74: Death on the Doorstep Issue #75: Grimm Fairy Tales 75 Issue #76: Death is Where It Begins Issue #77: Life as We Know It Issue #78: A Call to Arms Issue #79: Through Oblivione Issue #80: Congregation of the Dead
Annuals and specials 2007 Annuals Grimm Fairy Tales: 2007 Annual Story Time I Jack and Jill The Old Woman in a Shoe Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater Little Boy Blue Pinocchio Story Time II 2008 Annuals Grimm Fairy Tales: 2008 Annual The End of the Line Mary Mary Quite Contrary Humpty Dumpty Hush Little Baby 2009 Annuals Grimm Fairy Tales: 2009 Giant-Size Fear Not Grimm Fairy Tales: 2009 April Fools' Edition Red Riding Ho Hansel and Gretel II Electric Boogaloo Reeferstiltskin Jack and the Bromance Wonderland: 2009 Annual – The House of Liddle Grimm Fairy Tales: 2009 Halloween Edition The Monkey's Paw Grimm Fairy Tales: 2009 Holiday Edition The Nutcracker 2010 Annuals Grimm Fairy Tales: 2010 April Fools' Edition Piper Fluberblunton Goes to Town Drinking Beauty Golddigger and the Beast Snookie White and the Jersey Dwarves Grimm Fairy Tales: 2010 (Las Vegas) Annual Grimm Fairy Tales: 2010 Swimsuit Edition Grimm Fairy Tales: 2010 Halloween Edition Wonderland: 2010 Annual Grimm Fairy Tales: 2010 Holiday Edition Coming to Town Christmas Future The Pollyanna Coming to Town [conclusion] 2011 Annuals Wonderland: 2011 Annual Grimm Fairy Tales: 2011 Annual Sinbad Crossover #1 Grimm Fairy Tales: 2011 Giant-Size Sinbad Crossover #2