Castle Waiting

And for today I picked up one of my own graphic novels that I haven't read in a while, an old favourite Castle Waiting volume 1 with words and pictures by Linda Medley. This particular collection was published in 2006 by Fantagraphics Books. This beautiful volume is one of those really immersive reads with not only lovely art and typography but also a ribbon bookmark - which is always a plus I'm ready for.

Looking into Linda Medley, I would like to point out that while I do have some critiques for this particular volume that no one should take this as a personal attack on Medley herself. They are an extremely talented artist and writer who has enough shit to deal with as it is. Besides Castle Waiting, Linda Medley has been a contributing artist on Doom Patrol, Darkstars, the Batman and Robin Adventures, Deathblow, Justice League America, Family Man, Who's who in teh DC Universe, Green Lantern, Justice League Europe Annual, Stormwatch, The Books of Magic, Team Youngblood, Gen 13, Adventures of Superman Annual, Wonder Woman, Supreme, Youngblod Striekfile, The Dreaming, Wild C.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams, Batman: Shadows of the Bat Annual, Fables, Prophet, Dark Claw, The DC COmics Encyclopeida, The Ray, The Big Book of Death, The Big Book of Weirdos, Batman & Superman Adventures: World's Finest, The Big Book of Urban Legends, Underworld Unleashed: Batman- Devil's Asylum, TV Comics, Endless Gallery, Mister Miracle, The Kindred, The Big Book of Thugs, The Sandman Presents: Taller Tales, Batman: Mr Freeze, Batman: Four of a Kind, Green Lantern: Batpism of Fire, A Fall of Stardust, The Secret Loves of Geek Girls, and Dignifying Science among other titles.

Flipping over to the back of the book, Fantagraphics describes Castle Waiting thusly: Castle Waiting graphic novel tells the story of an isolated, abandoned castle, and the eccentric inhabitants who bring it back to life. A fable for modern times, Castle Waiting is a fairy tale that's not about rescuing the princess, saving the kingdom, or fighting the ultimate war between Good and Evil, but about being a hero in your own home. The opening story, "The Brambly Hedge," tells the origin of the castle itself, which is abandoned by its princess in a comic twist on "Sleeping Beauty" when she rides off into the sunset with her Prince Charming. The castle becomes a refuge for misfits, outcasts, and others seeking sanctuary, playing host to a lively and colorful cast of characters that inhabits the subsequent stories, including a talking anthropomorphic horse, a mysteriously pregnant Lady on the run, and a bearded nun. Talk about spoilers lol!

Looking through the goodreads reviews I see a couple of people referring to Castle Waiting as too slow, so I would definitely not recommend this to people who need none-stop action. But it's certainly not the kind of story that just sits around either. No one story ever works for everyone, but overall this is an extremely popular series. I feel like it might have been nice to have a few more asides that were a bit on the shorter side but that's just a minor critique and we certainly get more as the series continues.

Despite the fact that this is generally, and largely correctly, touted as a feminist re purposing/retelling of many classic tropes, viewing this work from a more intersectional perspective is where most of my criticism become manifest. To start with, while it's fine enough to reference some parts of folklore, referring to the Roma as Gypsies and actually leaning into the trope that they steal horses and babies is pretty bad. Thankfully there are better "Gypsy" characters further into the volume, but it still felt like they were being treated more as fairy tale tropes rather then an actual group of people who continued to be persecuted this this very day. Kind of like how some people still use really racists "indian" caricatures. I was also made equally uncomfortable by the representation of the orientalist Calif.

Besides this major criticism, I was a bit uncomfortable about the way that the bearded nuns were presented as some felt like they could have been read as trans-men rather then cis women with beards. Looking into Medley's presence online it does not, however, seem that she is an active TERF so it seems like it is likely just an ambiguous situation that could be TERF but can also just be more inclusive of female identified people having facial hair. As a female identified person with plenty of body hair I certainly can't argue with that. If you haven't checked out the wikipedia page for Saint Wilgefortis I would certainly recommend it.

Going on to my least important critique, I guess the number of heterosexual couples who fall in love was getting a bit tiresome. Obviously such things are the stuff of fairy tales, and it really wasn't that many, but couldn't we have set a more decisive toe outside the heteronormativety of it all.

Beyond centering female identified characters in the story, class is one of the places where Medley's inclusiveness shines brightly. Everyone in Castle Waiting is equal and serfs are set free. Bad bosses and husbands get their butts kicked. It's a fun time.

Bye y'all, keep reading and resist fascism