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Book cover (Penguin Random House, n.d.)
Title: Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales
Author and Illustrator: Melanie Gillman
ISBN: 9780593303184
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Copyright Date: 2022
Genre: Fairy Tales; Fantasy; LGBTQ+
Format: Graphic Novel
Interest Level: 13+ (The book is marketed at YA, but it has the readability and stylistic appeal for younger ages, too)
Plot Summary
Plot Summary
Other Ever Afters is a book full of queer-centered fairy tales where they aren’t punished or die at the end (for the most part; they are fairy tales in the end). These are stories where the humans fall in love with gods and monsters, royalty bows to peasants, and the breath from a wrong-spoken name burns at the ears. Driven by the soft colors and style of Melanie Gillman’s colored pencil drawings, the stories feel like the simple yet provocative fairytales of old. They have surprise twists and strong moral lessons, AND they have queer characters at the heart of each tale. This is a must-have for anyone who loves a surprising happy ever after.
Author Background
Author Background
Mel Gilman is a queer nonbinary color pencil artist who makes comics. Their webcomic, As the Crow Flies, was made into a graphic novel. Even though it was already nominated for the Eisner Award while still a webcomic, its publication garnered the book a Stonewall Book Award Honor. They have gone on to illustrate and write many other graphic novels including the Steven Universe graphic novels, Stage Dreams, and Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales (Melanie Gillman, 2025).
Photograph of Mel Gillman with their book As the Crow Flies (Elkin, 2020).
A lengthy interview with Mel Gillman. They cover topics about the graphic novel as well as the power of comics and visual storytelling, particularly for the LGBTQ community (Comix Experience, 2024).
Critical Evaluation
Critical Evaluation
This graphic novel is a delicate masterpiece in storytelling and artistic style. Each of the tales is carefully thought through, with not a single word or panel wasted. In the acknowledgements of the book, Gillman states that this book came from a 24-hour comic challenge, called 24-Hour Comics Day, where artists are challenged to write a 24-page comic in one day. Because of the limited nature of the challenge, space is a premium, and Gillman uses it masterfully to portray an array of emotions from love to pain to loss to fury.
While I was initially hesitant about the colored-pencil style that Gillman is known for, I quickly fell in love with it. The visible stokes on the page give the stories a child-like quality without sacrificing the depth, fear, and seriousness of some of the topics. This book feels like a collection of picture books with the sophisticated writing of a novel. The pastel colors also give a generally optimistic feeling to each tale. Even when a woman is trapped in a cave with a giant or a child’s ear is burnt to a crisp, the colors and round shapes of the characters indicate that there will be a happily ever after. Gillman provides a foundation for the reader to trust that they will carry us through to the end without too much harm.
The first page of the first fairy tale in the book. This is emblematic of the color saturation and style of the rest of the graphic novel. Images from the Google Books preview (Gillman, 2022).
A page displaying a more terrifying page of the comic. Despite the stark contrast and sharper shapes, the page is still bordered with whimsical flowers and filled with rounded edges. Images from the Google Books preview (Gillman, 2022).
I loved this book. Not only was each story filled with queer representation, but each tale had lessons that older fairy tales are missing. The goal isn’t to marry the prince or to gain power, but to honor the community and care for one another. Love and care are appreciated while selfishness and bigotry are punished. In that way, Other Ever Afters carries the moralistic legacy of its predecessors, but it does so with a communal twist that modernizes what an “ever after” should be.
Creative Use for a Library Program
Creative Use for a Library Program
This book would be a great excuse to have a colored pencil-centric program. Mel Gillman’s style is so gorgeous and shows how colored pencils can be a sophisticated and powerful medium. It would be fun to learn advanced colored pencil techniques or even just offer a chance for people to color in pages again! The supplies are simple to procure as they can just be colored pencils (even the poor quality ones can show great results) and coloring pages. The designs can be the complicated adult coloring pages that are popular or simpler ones marketed towards children. You’d be surprised by how much teens enjoy coloring things in. But this could be an opportunity for learning techniques to take coloring to a new level: using multiple colors in layers, developing shadows and highlights, and being aware of stroke marks.
Gillman’s tutorial on how to make a one page comic book (Philbrook Museum of Art, 2020)
Book Talk
Book Talk
A tome of beautiful and beautifully queer fairy tales.
A tome of beautiful and beautifully queer fairy tales.
Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation
Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation
Because this book features queer characters who are in visibly queer relationships, I’m sure that there will be challenges against it. Part of me wonders if this book is marketed towards teens because of its inclusion of queer characters. As a defense, I will explain how it is the library’s duty to represent the experiences of its community and the world around them. This includes queer people and their stories. There are queer teens in every community, and they deserve to see their own happily ever afters. There is nothing otherwise objectionable in the content of the book, at least nothing more objectionable than can be found in Grimm’s fairy tales.
Reason for Inclusion
Reason for Inclusion
This was a shockingly gorgeous and truly incredible book filled with heartwarming tales. Not all of them have happy endings, but I found myself gorging on each one, engrossed by the story and characters. It’s amazing how much Melanie Gillman is able to do with so few words. This book will be going in my personal collection due to the beauty and power it holds for me, so it definitely belongs in a library’s collection. It does such a wonderful job of providing an array of representation and putting queer people in a positive light. Reading this graphic novel for the first time was an experience that I will cherish forever.
Page 1 of As the Crow Flies (Gillman, 2012)
References
References
Comix Experience. (2024, June 27). Melanie Gillman for other ever afters [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LMQ5gzu-CQ
Elkin, D. (2020, August 19). Knowing is half the battle: Melanie Gilman gives advice on the publishing industry. SOLRAD. https://solrad.co/knowing-is-half-the-battle-melanie-gillman-gives-advice-on-the-publishing-industry
Gillman, M. (2012). Page #1. https://www.melaniegillman.com/comic/01-25-2012/
Gillman, M. (2022). Other ever afters. Penguin Random House. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Other_Ever_Afters/FC6EEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
Gillman, M. (2025). As the crow flies. https://www.melaniegillman.com/
Melanie Gillman. (2025, February 16). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Melanie_Gillman&oldid=1276012671
Penguin Random House. (n.d.). Other ever afters. Retrieved April 14, 2025, from https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/647312/other-ever-afters-by-melanie-gillman/
Philbrook Museum of Art. (2020, April 24). Creative distancing: Melanie Gillman [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdlKV-Z4qNA
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