Paper Doll Veronika update

 

Paper Doll Veronika has updated; Chapter 18 of Part III, "To inspire and nurture", is complete!

The update starts here.

The chapter begins here.

The part begins here.

The story begins here.

Warning for parents: Contains violence that may be upsetting/disturbing given the sudden shift from a mood of fun. More on this below the cut.

It updates on Fridays on my site, Sundays on Arktoons, Mondays on Substack, and Tuesdays & Thursdays on Deviantart. (Substack and Deviantart are at much earlier points in the comic). I recommend using bookmarking or the "Save your place" gadget on my site, even once you catch up, because the site starts at the beginning and updates are several pages.

Veronika Bosch, who's never left her father's estate, has to go on a journey when envious animals kick her out. Half collage, half puppetry, a fairy tale adventure made with hand-drawn paper dolls.

Support the comic and get special bonuses here!

For after you've read it: I feel I must defend the decision to have the mermaids mutilate and eat bits of people, because it's something that might have really upset me if I read it as a little girl. As a child, I absolutely loved mermaids.

This is not at all intended as a spiteful deconstruction as is so common these days: "Haha, the thing you like is really mean and ugly!" Not at all. Rather, it's a recognition of the nature of this sort of being in original legends. Similar to fairies, mermaids are beautiful, but perilous. This was hinted at in Pierre's earlier statement. He wasn't quite telling the truth but he wasn't wholly wrong either.

Fairy tales in our culture have their original forms which were dark but also heroic, beauteous, and hopeful. Then there were sanitized, dumbed-down versions such as Disney movies and several children's books. Then there were deconstructions such as Into the Woods, inverting the heroic into the venal and drenching everything in nihilism (and usually also feminism). The cynical deconstruction wouldn't have caught on if not for the illusionary sanitizations.

With Paper Doll Veronika, I'm not deconstructing fairy tale reality, I'm returning to it. I hope that it bears good fruit for the reader.