I always love getting books at Christmas; the more varied, the better.  When I was in Columbus for the Festival of Cartoon Art I saw the great new collection of Grimm’s Fairy Tales from Taschen.  Taschen books are always a great feast for the eyes and this collection did not disappoint.  This brightly coloured volume includes 27 different stories illustrated by 27 diverse artists.  My lovely fiancée smuggled a duly-paid for copy out of Ohio and I found it under the tree on Christmas morning.

The spread above is Swiss artist Herbert Leupin’s 1946 illustration of the castle in “Sleeping Beauty.”  Collections of the Grimm Brothers’ collected Fairy Tales often reprint the stories but rarely reproduce the art that often accompanied each publication in the two centuries since then.   Given that the Grimms’ collected 170 tales in their career, I look forward to a second or third volume in the future.