Nightmares and Fairy Tales

Nightmares And Fairy Tales (sometimes Nightmares & Fairy Tales) is an American comic book series written by Serena Valentino and published by Slave Labor Graphics. It has been illustrated by FSc, Crab Scrambly and Camilla d'Errico. Nightmares And Fairy Tales chronicles the life and adventures of Annabelle, a rag doll and the various women who have owned her throughout time. Eventually she is passed on to Gwen, a young girl who serves as the audience for her stories until the end of the series.

Twenty-three tradeback issues were collected in four graphic novels. They are:

Once Upon a Time

Beautiful Beasts

1140 Rue Royale

Dancing with the Ghosts of Whales

Tropes used in Nightmares and Fairy Tales include:

Abusive Parents: Gwen's parents physically and verbally abuse her. As did Cinderella's step-mother her and Belle's father. Luna's mother tried to kill her.
Alpha Bitch: Verona and her daughters.
Ax Crazy: Luna's mother when she kills her transformed werewolf mother and then tries to kill Luna herself.
Beat Still My Heart: Snow and eventually, the Queen.
Beauty Equals Goodness: Said explicitly about Snow.
Beauty to Beast: In "Beauty and the Beast," Rose.
Bedlam House: Morgan and Catherine are eventually sent there. Neither of them deserve it.
Beware the Nice Ones: Snow, Beatrice, Bunny.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Victoria.
Bittersweet Ending: Paige's story, Luna's story, Rebecca's story and Beauty's story.
Blondes Are Evil: Vivian, Bunny, Verona and her daughters.
Blue and Orange Morality: The Demon in Cinderella really doesn't understand "human beauty." Verona didn't plan for that.
Bob Haircut: Cinderella, Morgan and Paige.
Break the Cutie
Break the Haughty
Buried Alive: Madame Dephine Lalaurie aka Victoria.
Cheerful Child: Gwen, Bunny and Beauty.
Cinderella Circumstances: Guess.
Cool Old Lady: Beatrice.
Creepy Child: Bunny.
Creepy Doll: Annabelle laments being this.
Cute Ghost Girl: Beauty. Augustine's a Cute Ghost GUY.
Dark Is Not Evil: The monster living in Gwen's house. Also, Annabelle.
Darkskinned Blonde: Beatrice.
Dead All Along: Augustine and Beauty.
Deal with the Devil: Verona. It ends badly. Very badly.
Death by Childbirth: Lucas. Yup, a MAN. Also, Dominique's pregnant friend.
Downer Ending: Morgan's story, Dominique's story and Catherine's story.
Driven to Suicide: Beauty. She is rescued by her caretaker but she doesn't live much longer afterward.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Paige BSODs after founding out Augustine is dead and accidentally runs out into traffic.
Dysfunction Junction
Earn Your Happy Ending: Gwen's stories, Snow's story, Cinderella's story and Mea's story.
- Arguably Annabelle as well, since Gwen is the first girl who can actually hear her.
Eldritch Abomination: There's one in Snow White, Cinderella, the nunnery and arguably, Gwen's house.
- Humanoid Abomination: Bunny.
Hair Decorations
Evil Gloating: VIVIAN.
Evil Matriarch: Vivian, the Queen, Verona.
Fairy Godmother: Annabelle does this for Cinderella.
The Farmer and the Viper: Morgan and Dominique, Catherine and Vivian.
Fish People: The mermaid's family, excluding the other mermaids.
Fractured Fairy Tale: Notably:
- Snow White
- Cinderella
- Little Red Riding Hood
- Beauty and the Beast
- Sleeping Beauty
- The Little Mermaid
Friend to All Living Things: Snow, Gwen and Luna.
Genki Girl: Beauty.
Ghost Amnesia: Beauty's been dead for years and only really figures it out after Gwen and Bea show up.
Ghost Shipping: Augustine and Paige.
Green-Eyed Monster: Vivian. She kills herself and her daughter just to get back at Catherine. Justified, since Vivian is insane.
Green Thumb: Oberon, the Beast aka Rose.
Hair of Gold: Morgan, Gwen, Luna and Catherine.
Half-Human Hybrid: Lucas and the mermaid's daugther, a baby OCTOMAID.
Heroic BSOD: Morgan, Paige and Catherine.
Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Mea, who seems to be a foil to the mermaid and Lucas.
Hospital Hottie/Hello, Nurse!: Catherine.
If I Can't Have You: Arguably why Dominique puts Morgan in the loony bin. She doesn't quite believe Dominique when she tells Morgan she's a vampire. Morgan's friend's encourage her to dump Dominique. Dominique doesn't take this well.
Infant Immortality: Played straight with Gwen.The orphaned babies, the slave girl and Beauty, not at all.
- Averted hard with Betty who is drowned by the ghost of her mother. We then see her corpse washed up on shore the next day.
The Ingenue: Many. Belle, Catherine and Beatrice are the few who've owned Annabelle and weren't.
Invisible to Normals: Augustine. Paige freaks out when she realizes this.
I See Dead People: Gwen and Paige.
I Was Quite a Looker: Victoria.
Jerkass: Gwen's parents, Lucas and others.
Karmic Death: Sylas, the Queen, Gwen's parents, Luna's parents, Belle's father, Delphine Lalaurie and Lucas.
Karma Houdini: Dominique and Vivian.
Laser-Guided Karma: Assuming the villain doesn't get a Karma Houdini.
- In Snow White, Snow kills Sylas, the Hunter who cut out her heart and the Queen is captured by the Mirror Demon.
- In Cinderella, after Verona fools the palace guards into believing her last daughter is really Cinderella, they arrest the daughter and then Verona when she tries to bring the real thing. The other daughter is spirited away by the demon.
- Gwen's parents abuse her. The monsters in the walls kill them.
- Madame Victoria spent her youth torturing the slaves working in her house to death. When she returns, their ghosts kill her, with help from her niece.
- Lucas captures and rapes a mermaid. He dies from giving birth to their child.
Les Yay: Morgan and Dominique, Belle and Rose.
Light Is Not Good: The nuns, who are hinted to not be truly human.
Little Dead Riding Hood: Luna doesn't die but tragedy follows her nonetheless.
Magic Mirror
Magical Negro: Justified in 1140 Rue Royale. They ARE.
Mama Bear: Verona may not give two fishbones about Cinderella but there's nothing she won't do for her daughters. Also, the mermaid, but Lucas ends up using it against her.
- Also, Beatrice.
Meaningful Name: Usually in the Fractured Fairy Tale stories.
Mister Seahorse: An character ends up pregnant after messing with an otherworldly creature. When he complains about it, another character points out that it wouldn't have happened if he'd left the creature alone.
Mysterious Protector: The monsters in Gwen's house.
Naughty Nurse Outfit: Vivian accuses Catherine of being this with her husband. Catherine DOES eventually marry Vivian's widower but it was HIS idea.
Never Mess with Granny: Beatrice asks Annabelle to tell the monsters to kill Gwen's parents.
Nice Girl: Most of the protagonists.
Nice Hat: Paige.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Victoria knows EXACTLY why her house hates her.
Offing the Offspring: Luna's mother attempts this. Vivian succeeds.
The Ophelia: Vivian. Morgan and Catherine are ultimately made out to be like this.
Orphanage of Fear: The nunnery.
Our Monsters Are Different
- Our Fairies Are Different: Oberon, Wisteria and the acorn tree.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Augustine, Vivian, the slaves and Beauty. Eventually, Paige as well.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: The mermaid.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Dominique or so she claims. Implied to be what the nuns are feeding the babies from the orphanage to.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Luna, her boyfriend and her grandmother.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Snow becomes one when her heart is taken from her body. Supposedly, this is to show just how pure her heart is; it can even keep her alive for a short time even when it's removed from her body.
Perky Goth: Snow.
Promotion to Parent: Beatrice becomes Gwen's guardian after the death of her parents.
Rape as Drama: Belle, the mermaid.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Lucas pays dearly for this.
Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Snow.
Revenge: The ghost of Rue Royale want this. Snow also indulges.
- Best Served Cold
Sinister Minister: Nuns are recurring villains. Some retain a semblance of humanity and kindness but they always make every situation they're in worse.
Spirit Advisor: Annabelle is Gwen's.
Straight Edge Evil: The nuns and Belle's father.
Stuffed Into the Fridge: Morgan's friends. Vivian's daughter. Also, Dominique's friend from the orphanage.
Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Vivian.
Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Dominique and Belle.
Through the Eyes of Madness: Poor Morgan and Catherine.
Together in Death: Paige and Augustine finally get to dance together.
Tomato in the Mirror: Paige, Luna and Beauty.
Tragic Mistake: Morgan and Catherine fell in love with the wrong people.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Dominique.
The Vamp: Dominique.
The Watcher: Annabelle. This saddens her because it means she can't do much to help her owners.
Weirdness Magnet: Gwen.
Wicked Witch: Verona.
Would Hit a Girl: Sylas, the palace guards, Belle's father.
Would Hurt a Child: Gwen's parents, Luna's mother and Vivian.
You Can See Me?/You Can Talk: Annabelle is shocked that Gwen can hear her warnings. And pleased.