My graphic novel for January is the first volume in the 'Castle Waiting' series by Linda Medley, an Eisner Award-winning author, which serves an unusual but highly topical purpose. In particular, it's the 2002 Olio Press edition of 'Volume One', which is named 'The Lucky Road' on the title page but not on the cover. I don't have the later and much larger 'Volume One', published by Fantagraphics Books, that seems to include the standalone prologue, 'The Curse of Brambly Hedge'.

Had I read that prologue, I'd have known that Castle Waiting used to be Sleeping Beauty's castle, but she's been gone for a long time before this story begins and she plays no part in proceedings. Now it's a sort of sanctuary run by a talking bird named Rackham, surely a nod to the famed fairy tale illustrator Arthur Rackham. It's a happy place, even though it's infested with poltersprites, a safe place whatever the need. As Rackham explains at one point, some people travelled there so they could live in safety while others came to die in safety.

As you might imagine, that setting warrants an ensemble cast but there aren't as many comings and goings as I would have expected. It also prompts a 'Canterbury Tales' type story, where there really isn't much of a plot, just a steady move forward by dealing with the realities of life as they present themselves, with side trips into the back stories of characters whenever Medley feels the need. Somewhat appropriately for such a tolerant work, nobody has to explain themselves, but if they feel the need to unburden, then they'll be received with sympathy.

We find our way to Castle Waiting in the company of Lady Jain, who begins the book escaping her home with a black eye and a thick lip. Months pass during her long ride and we quickly realise that she's pregnant. She gives birth after reaching the castle, letting slip to the people there that the baby's father is dead but her noble husband should not be notified of the baby's birth. And, while we're reading in black and white, the baby emerges green with a few non-human features. We're clearly supposed to contrast the human husband who acts beastly with the beastly lover who acts human, something only enhanced when we learn that she only married into nobility.

And, in case it wasn't obvious, tolerance is the point here. Everyone at Castle Waiting is tolerance personified and by the time this first volume wraps up, we feel a little safer in the knowledge that there are people out there who won't judge us for whoever and whatever we are, but welcome us regardless. There's also an early theme of redemption, especially in Bremen, through which Lady Jain must travel. There are gypsies shown in the traditionally negative light, stealing her horse to brand as their own, but they're given some redemptive aspects. There are thieves too who hone in on Lady Jain's gold, but end up helping her retrieve her horse. Karma serves them well.

I should note that Medley does indeed use the term "gypsies" here and at least initially plays into a negative stereotype, but that shouldn't stop you reading this book. The term may be often seen as a slur nowadays, the preferred descriptor being Romany, but there's some Romany blood in my family and, as far as I remember from my youth, when Rollo painted me a wooden wheelbarrow in the style of Romany caravans, he described himself as a gypsy. It fits for this fairy tale setting, one in which gypsies often played a part but Romany rarely did. The stereotypical thieving is a little bit more troubling, but it also plays into fairy tale tradition, as does the Romany's honour and word.

That said, I would guess that Medley might write that section a little differently today, because it springs not only from fairy tale tradition but from an abiding need to look at the characters whose stories weren't ever the focus. As Medley points out in her bio at the back, "I wanted to know if the faithful servant and the dairymaid lived happily ever after too." They certainly do in this story and so does everyone else who finds Castle Waiting. Rackham is a glorious character and a rich one, as we discover that he owns the hen who lays the golden eggs, but he's also selfless and embracing of all people. He's the primary character to whom we should look up and model ourselves on.

That he happens to be a talking bird who's friends with a talking horse and a bearded nun and the adulteress who shows up at Castle Waiting with us in tow shouldn't matter. Other friends include a couple we should recognise from fairy tales, though I only knew one of the two: Simple Simon is an agreeable chap who helps out there wherever he can and memorably introduces Lady Jain to the Library, asking her to teach him to read. The other is a take on Iron Heinrich, from the Frog Prince story, whom I'd entirely forgotten about. Both are different in their way and both find welcome in tolerance at Castle Waiting.

While tolerance is the clear point here, it's handled in a fascinating way. Everything here is rooted in fairy tale, centered on ladies and castles and champions, so many deceptively simple panels full of background details that flesh out this world Medley has created. It's never urban fantasy, with fairy tale coming to us. It remains somewhere else that we know from books and that's underlined by the ballsy double cliché that starts off page one: "Once upon a time... it was a dark and stormy night." Those lines position us exactly where we need to be, so originality can follow.

And that originality is mostly phrased in thoroughly contemporary details applied to old fashioned fairy tale. That begins with Lady Jain, of course, who escapes a modern evil to find safety at Castle Waiting, which is therefore a sanctuary for battered women, even if it isn't only that. There's such an abundance of translation possible that I'm not even going to delve any deeper. Pick this up and read for yourself and see what modern day parallels spring out for you. You'll surely see some that I did but you may well find some I didn't too.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, even without any real resolution given to anything. It's a new place full of fascinating people that I'm eager to get to know better, but I never felt the need to know them all now. There's always time. The only surprising aspect is that this isn't a particularly long series. If I counted correctly, this volume comprises seven chapters of what might currently only amount to nineteen. It feels like a couple of hundred would be welcome, but Medley is far from prolific. ~~ Hal C F Astell