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

Second series

Annuals and specials

Spin-offs and miniseries

Starting in May 2007, a Grimm Fairy Tales spin-off and limited series called Return to Wonderland debuted. Written by Raven Gregory, the series tells the tale of Alice Liddle, the heroine of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and her teenage daughter, Calie Liddle (an anagram of "Alice"). Alice is no longer the little girl who fell down the rabbit hole and discovered Wonderland. Now an adult, she once tried to commit suicide by slitting her wrists. Mentally disturbed and in a dreamlike state, her only link to reality is the disturbing white rabbit that she clings to. Calie, not wanting to deal with her mother's mental illness, is now a substance-abusing, alcoholic, promiscuous party girl. The series deals with the entire Liddle family, Alice's childhood, and Calie venturing into a darker and more frightening Wonderland than the one her mother knows. The characters in Return to Wonderland are the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, the Caterpillar, the Carpenter, the Walrus, Tweedledee, Tweedledum, the Cheshire Cat, the Jabberwocky, the March Hare, and the Cook. Tales From Wonderland, a three-part prequel to the Return to Wonderland series, was released in 2008, which included The Queen of Hearts, Alice, and The Mad Hatter, followed in June by #0 of Beyond Wonderland, the sequel to Return to Wonderland. The series returned for a third time in the summer of 2009 with another sequel Escape from Wonderland and Tales From Wonderland Series 2, which includes The Cheshire Cat, The Red Queen, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and The Mad Hatter #2. Zenescope released a 2009 Annual For Wonderland entitled "The House of Liddle", and continued the story of Calie in Beyond Wonderland, Escape From Wonderland, as well as an annual for 2010, 2011, and 2012. Zenescope began publishing an ongoing Wonderland series in 2012, which revolved around Calie and her teenage daughter Violet. It concluded after issue #50. Following the success of Wonderland comics, Zenescope started several other series related to the GFT universe. Among them are Neverland, Oz, Robyn Hood and multiple mini-series such as Godstorm, Bad Girls and Sleepy Hollow.

Spin-offs

Grimm Fairy Tales

Wonderland

Neverland

Robyn Hood

Oz

Van Helsing

Belle

Miniseries

Grimm Spotlight

Myths and Legends

Grimm Universe

Crossover

The Dream Eater Saga [12 issues] Unleashed [6 issues] Unleashed [miniseries]: Age of Darkness [multiple issues]

Other series

Collections and trade paperbacks

The contents of a Grimm Fairy Tales comic collection can be defined into three categories: there are those issues that are "officially" reprinted in the collection (these issues have their original covers included in the cover gallery section), there are (parts of) issues from another series (these are included to induce the reader to buy that series), and there are bonus stories (original stories that were made specifically for the collection).

Grimm Fairy Tales V1 (Sela) (2005-2016)

Grimm Fairy Tales V2 (Skye) (2016-)

Wonderland

Robyn Hood

Chronological order

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024