"Fractured Fables," graphic novel (Image Comics, $29.99) — This full-color, hardcover anthology will entrance readers looking for a twisted take on some of the world's beloved children's stories and songs.

Fractured Fables from Image Comics

The 160-page book allows some of comics' brightest stars to take artistic license with classics such as "Three Blind Mice" and "Pinocchio."

Thirty multi-page tales, mainly in the sequential-art format (with a couple of illustrated stories tossed in), feature the talents of such distinguished creators as Mike and Laura Allred (Madman), Whilce Portacio (Uncanny X-Men), Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man), Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) and Terry Moore (Stranger in Paradise).

Most all of the stories deliver either through colorful and eclectic art or the skewered prose that elicits a laugh, or least a smile.

Here are just a few of my favorites:

• "Little Red Riding Hood" is updated by writer Bryan Talbot and finds the brightly dressed child on a direct path to the Big Bad Wolf's stomach  until she displays some surprising skills. Painter Camilla d'Errico brings a bit of an anime influence to the action and makes me exclaim when viewing Red, "My, what gigantic blue eyes you have."
• Doug TenNapel's "Rumpelstiltskin" turns the classic into a "Ren and Stimpy" episode. He dementedly uses a grotesque art style that chaotically blends with the sophomoric hijinks of a magic little man who can turn hay into gold, a grumpy king and a dumber-than-a-post future queen.
• The adventure of "The Little Mermaid" turns much more ominous in the hands of comics scribe extraordinaire Peter David as her quest to live happily ever after with a human prince becomes a puzzling problem in podiatry. Artist Ron Ferrara offers ample arch support for the mermaid's issues.
• Writer Nick Spencer's "Cinderella" satisfies through a fable more about the frustrations of an unhip fairy godmother than the abused princess while artist Rodin Esquejo's beautiful and Disneyesque art style puts the story near the top of my favorites.
• "Rip Van Winkle" meets Len Strazewski's imagination and we enjoy a story about a conceited girl named Pipi Van Wrinkles who gets loaded on cherry cordials and learns her fate as an adult. The slapstick shenanigans throughout come to life thanks to the pop-art and retro-Archie-Comics-like stylings of Paul Fricke.

The beautifully produced "Fractured Fables," published by Jim Valentino's normally very kid-friendly Silverline Books imprint, skews more to the teen and older crowd, but I would let little brother take a peek at the silliness.

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