Literary Inspiration Claims Another

First came ABC's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Then came Vertigo's Fables. Now, Image appears to be making its own bid for a series populated by already established literary figures with its upcoming release Lullaby.

Featuring internationally loved literary characters such as Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Jim Hawkins (Treasure Island), Pinocchio, the Pied Piper and Red Riding Hood, LULLABY is a foray into the imaginative world of children's literature with a distinctively fresh style that's exciting for all ages. The story focuses on these beloved characters as they join forces to stop a dark magic warping their world and discover who is behind the evil scheme. The identity of the mystery villain is sure to stir much speculation as the book heads toward its conclusion.

I'll bite my skeptical tongue before making any presumptions about the unreleased title; but the premise I enjoyed most about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was the tightly interwoven framework of Victorian society scenarios that made both mini-series work so well. Kevin O'Neill also did a brilliant job of imitating conventional illustration styles of the period. I gave Fables a shot, and though the stories are interesting, I never felt that the characters were written as true to their textual origins as they should have been. This new Image proposal seems even another step down to me, as it's going to be combining fairy tale figures with more modern children's book heroes--and all so they can band together as a superhero team in a very contemporary art style.

If you're going to do some kind of pastiche piece in tribute to an era or stated genre, you should take the concept on from every angle of the work. And that's my 2 cents.