88 CASTLE WAITING
stand-alone title to test the market (Guilbert). Th e Curse of Brambly Hedge heralds the
individual issues of Castle Waiting, which continue the story of the famous castle and its
inhabitants left behind once the former sleeping princess moves out of the castle (and
story) to her new kingdom.
Characters in the graphic novel and series include both animals and humans, inter-
acting without concern. Th e Curse of Brambly Hedge begins in a peaceful kingdom where
there is unhappiness because the queen wishes for a child and follows the traditional
pattern of the Brothers Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty. Chapter Th ree begins a century later.
Th e right prince arrives, manages the hedge, and kisses the princess awake. She leaves
the castle and the people without a word and the people just stand there open-mouthed
(for four panels). Th e scene switches to some of the same faces, visibly aged, who are
telling this tale to Mr. Adjunct, who has come to govern the castle. His name is Rack-
ham and he is a stork, based on the illustrator Arthur Rackham, who often depicted
himself as a stork (de Vos 318). Th e continuing story of the inhabitants of the castle,
including Rackham and Lady Jain (who is seeking refuge with her unborn child), is told
in subsequent issues published in starts and stops since the second edition of Th e Curse
of Brambly Hedge.
In 1999, Medley published a hiatus issue explaining her rationale for suspending
publication after the fi rst seven issues, providing information on the overall structure
of the saga. She explains that the story is told in four major story arcs with Th e Curse of
the Brambly Hedge providing a prologue to the remaining stories surrounding the major
characters of the castle and focusing on Jain and Pindar, her child. Th ere is a 30-year
span from Jain’s arrival at the castle to the planned epilogue which would unite all of
the back stories. Th e graphic novel Castle Waiting: Th e Lucky Road, published by Jeff
Smith’s Cartoon Books, collects issues #1–7 published by Olio without the additional
material provided in the “Stewpot” addendums provided by Medley and Klein.
Castle Waiting also returned for four individual issues published by Cartoon Books.
Th is partial story arc, “Solicitine,” is picked up again by Medley under Olio in the next
three issues before returning to the main story line in the remaining two issues of this
run. Th ere was much criticism in reviews for Medley’s story of the bearded nun and
Medley herself was displeased; it was presented out of context because of her new rela-
tionship with Cartoon Books who “wanted a whole new storyline to start the series with
a number one so they wanted me to wedge it into the one I was working on. I ended up
moving that up in the timeline of the whole book, which I wish I hadn’t done. I wish I
had it in the right sequence because it falls right in the middle of a story that’s already
happening” (Epstein).
When Medley reluctantly allowed Fantagraphics to enter the scene several years
later, they gathered the previously published material from Th e Curse of the Brambly
Hedge and Th e Lucky Road with an introduction from author Jane Yolen to produce a
handsome hardcover graphic novel simply titled Castle Waiting. Fantagraphics has also
continued to publish Medley’s serial presentation of the story, beginning with issue #1
containing the two fi nal stories from the Olio run and a new story written to begin
