The castle awaits

So I've just read Linda Medley's excellent fairy-tale-inspired graphic novel Castle Waiting, and I loved it-- it's full of very human characters doing their best to help each other and make the world a better place. If the castle itself is a safe sanctuary for fairy-tale misfits, then the book provides a similar harbour for the misfit mind. Also, the art is very, very good.

One of the things this book makes me wonder, however, is: how much of my response to it is a product of gender? I'm a firm believer that people shouldn't be expected to fit into boxes marked "male" and "female"; I think that differences between individuals are greater than differences between genders. Still, I wonder if I would feel as much at home in the world of Castle Waiting if I were male. Most of the characters are women; the subjects of the various chapters are things like witchcraft, pregnancy and baby-having, nuns, wives escaping from unworthy husbands, and ... well... feelings. All of which are seen by today's [intensely fucked-up] society as being essentially feminine matters.

I've heard that Medley's plan is to tell the backstory of everybody in the castle. (In the hardcover collection I've read, Sister Peaceful is the only one to get the full treatment.) If that's still the plan, it'll be interesting to see what happens when Medley gets to characters like Sir Chess and Iron Henry. Meanwhile, I'd be interested to hear from anyone else out there, of any gender, who likes Castle Waiting. I ask with some trepidation: is it the graphic-novel equivalent of a chickflick? What do you think?

The castle awaits

So I've just read Linda Medley's excellent fairy-tale-inspired graphic novel Castle Waiting, and I loved it-- it's full of very human characters doing their best to help each other and make the world a better place. If the castle itself is a safe sanctuary for fairy-tale misfits, then the book provides a similar harbour for the misfit mind. Also, the art is very, very good.

One of the things this book makes me wonder, however, is: how much of my response to it is a product of gender? I'm a firm believer that people shouldn't be expected to fit into boxes marked "male" and "female"; I think that differences between individuals are greater than differences between genders. Still, I wonder if I would feel as much at home in the world of Castle Waiting if I were male. Most of the characters are women; the subjects of the various chapters are things like witchcraft, pregnancy and baby-having, nuns, wives escaping from unworthy husbands, and ... well... feelings. All of which are seen by today's [intensely fucked-up] society as being essentially feminine matters.

I've heard that Medley's plan is to tell the backstory of everybody in the castle. (In the hardcover collection I've read, Sister Peaceful is the only one to get the full treatment.) If that's still the plan, it'll be interesting to see what happens when Medley gets to characters like Sir Chess and Iron Henry. Meanwhile, I'd be interested to hear from anyone else out there, of any gender, who likes Castle Waiting. I ask with some trepidation: is it the graphic-novel equivalent of a chickflick? What do you think?