This one is going out to all the “Beauty and the Beast” fans
out there and I know there are more than a few.
Fairy tales are often known for their brevity. They’re longer than fables, but often much
shorter than your average short story.
Now, most of the fairy tale comics I’ve shown you thus far have been
anthologies or mash-ups of different tales.
However, there are certain tales that can be made to work in a longer
format, provided that the writer or artist is able to add a certain amount of
richness and depth to the story themselves.
“Beauty and the Beast” is one of the stories that can do this remarkably
well.
The earliest literary version of “Le Belle et le Bete” was written by a woman named Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. As was the
tradition of the time, the work was lengthy and included many baroque, opulent
descriptions. Later, this story was
retold in an abridged form by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. As near as anyone can tell, it’s from this
abridged form that the story found its way into the folk tradition (whether
Villeneuve got the story itself or just the motifs from folk sources is not
known). From there, it found its way to
the Auvergne region of France where Henri Pourrat recorded it as “Lovely Rose”
and also to Germany where the Grimms found it as “The Summer and Winter Garden”
(it was included in the first edition but was later removed for not being German
enough). I’ve even encountered a version
from the Scoharie hills of Upstate New York entitled “The Rosy Story”. That’s just kind of the tip of the iceberg
however, when you consider all the media adaptations. It was made into a much-lauded film by French
director Jean Cocteau. It was also transformed
into a soap opera for CBS starring Ron Pearlman and Linda Hamilton (later to be
remade as a teen drama on the CW). Also,
it was made into a very popular animated movie by Disney that opened the
floodgates for all sorts of different adaptations, including a Broadway
show. Again, still just the tip of the
iceberg (I don’t think I even have space to list all the YA novels based on
this story).
However, I’m not writing this to focus on “Beauty and the
Beast” in general. I’m writing this to
focus on a webcomic version of the story by online cartoonist Megan Kearney. Megan Kearney’s Beauty and the Beast is
basically a black-and-white webcomic retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” with a
few tweaks. The story starts off with
Beauty and her sisters Virtue and Temperence awaiting the return of their
father and Virtue’s husband Claude on a snowy night. When they do return, Beauty’s father is in a
bad way, unconscious from some ordeal.
They also find with him all sorts of gifts that they had asked from him,
including a single rose. The interesting
thing about the gifts is that it’s pretty clear that they asked for them all in
jest. However, the father, wishing to
please his daughters, took them seriously.
This does a good deal to change the dynamic between Beauty and her
sisters from the usual version, which depicts them as vain and greedy.
Anyway, the basic plot of the story is the same as the one
everyone knows, so I probably shouldn’t dwell much on that. It is how
the story is told that makes the most difference. Kearney, in her way, takes a page from
Villeneuve. However, while Madame
Villeneuve engaged in verbal description to add to her tale, Kearney uses the
visual medium she’s working in to show us the opulence of everything around
Beauty. Kearney’s art style is simple
yet has detail where it counts. In some
parts, I find it reminiscent of the work of Jeff Smith (best known for his
comic series Bone).
 |
| Reprinted with permission from Megan Kearney |
Also, as Madame Villeneuve did, much is made of both Beauty’s
and Beast’s histories. However, instead of exposition, Kearney gives us mere hints and
glimpses that keep the reader curious.
You’re never quite sure what the whole story is, but you know a little
bit more every time.
 |
| Reprinted with permission from Megan Kearney |
However, I’d say that perhaps the greatest strength is in how
she depicts the emotions and relationship between Beauty and her Beast. Beauty herself is smart and brave, yet has
her vulnerable moments. The Beast, in
general, is not altogether beastly. He’s
usually depicted as a lonely, gentle soul.
However, he does have a more animalistic side which he strives to hide
from Beauty.
 |
| Reprinted with permission from Megan Kearney |
 |
| Reprinted with permission from Megan Kearney |
It’s a slow, gradual
process as these two warm up to each other.
Yet, even after some time, it’s not without its complications. One of the best scenes is one where Beauty
reveals how conflicted she is over actually befriending Beast because despite
it all, she can’t forget that she’s still technically his prisoner.
 |
| Reprinted with permission from Megan Kearney |
Megan Kearney seems to have realized something that even the
animation powerhouse Disney did not.
When written well, there really is no need for a villain in this
story. At least, there is no need for
one in the present-day portions of the story.
One could argue villainous intent for some of the figures in the
mysterious glimpses of the past. There
is no swaggering Gaston figure waiting to cut the Beast down and take Beauty
for himself. There aren’t any greedy
boyfriends like in Cocteau’s version that want to steal from the Beast’s
treasure trove. She even goes one
further and removes the more unsavory aspects of Beauty’s sisters, replacing
greed with simply a misunderstood joke. In
the end, it’s the situation itself that provides enough conflict to carry the
story thus far.
I’ll leave a link to the archive of the series right
HERE. This is potentially one of the
best fairy tale webcomics around and it manages to do it by bringing unexpected
nuance and emotion out of just one story.
I’d also like to close this one out by saying “thank you” to Ms. Megan
Kearney herself who I contacted and let me use the wonderful images from her
webcomic to illustrate this post.
To all the “Beauty and the Beast” fans: you’re welcome. :D
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