World Literature

While some retellings of "Little Red Riding Hood" bring the fairy tale back to its sexual roots, Maya Kern's Redden takes a different tack, sending the little girl on a dangerous errand to bring food to Grandmother, the most fearsome creature in the forest.

Redden is a short webcomic, a self-contained piece of fairy tale horror that perfectly exemplifies why comics are a particularly great medium for certain stories. Kern includes many of the well-worn symbols of the tale: the young girl bringing a basket into the woods, the wolf, the axe, and grandmother's house. But nothing is quite how you'll remember it from Charles Perrault or the Brothers Grimm. The wolf is ghostly and enigmatic, while the grandmother is terrifying. And the young girl must find her own power in this strange world if she is to survive her trials. While Kern's artwork might seem at first cutesy, it is quickly juxtaposed against the bizarre nature of the beings who lurk outside Red's comfortable home.

If you're looking for something lighter, Kern also makes the wonderful ongoing webcomic Monster Pop! about a sweet cyclops girl and her life in a city and school where humans and monsters live (not always amicably) side-by-side.