The Notoriously Bad Fairytale Club

RECREATING OUR CLASSIC FAIRYTALES. 

Recreating our classic fairy tales, with many that were banned books a hundred years later to make them fun & relevant. A child doesn’t care about how they were made, or AI, but they do care about what sparks their imagination, what makes their eyes widen and their hearts race. They are the antidote to the culture of violence, guns, and terror that too often fills children’s current worlds. By reclaiming and reimagining these stories, we give children a chance to experience resiliency, morality, and imagination instead of fear & hate. Please hit the CC button so I can read along with it ?                                           Follow the link at the end to go to the Brooklyn Public Library, where you can take out any banned book.                                                                                            Mark Strodl  Email: markstrodl2@gmail.com 

Major Works & Projects

The 8 Freedoms
A large-scale watercolor, mural series celebrating the foundations of democracy — freedom of speech, worship, press, assembly, and thought — rendered as monumental compositions that “sing the songs of freedom without a word spoken.” What are your freedoms?

Banned Books & Illiteracy Series
A multimedia initiative transforming censored and classic literature into accessible educational videos for youth struggling with literacy, censorship, and cultural exclusion.

Heroes: The Everyday Portraits
A watercolor series honoring unsung individuals — nurses, teachers, farmers, and caretakers — who embody quiet heroism and moral courage.

Native American Watercolors
A tribute to the spirit, humor, and heritage of Indigenous cultures — painted with reverence, narrative depth, and humanity.

AI as Brush – The Myth of Artificial Intelligence
An exploration of AI as an artistic tool, not a replacement — blending decades of visual archives, custom prompts, and painterly editing to reclaim technology as a medium of emotion, it allows for access, the desire without the skillset.

Each project takes over 160 hours and is made on limited resources, often with a 14 year old computer. I give them away freely, because stories should not be locked behind a $19.99 subscription. My goal is simple: to restore access, spark imaginations, and give children, especially those who struggle to read, those like me who have ADHD, and Dyslexia, who have learning problems a chance. 

In Huckleberry Finn, was written prior to the “N” word. Give Mark Twain a break; it was written in 1864.

Peter Pan: People labeled him a pedophile when the actual story was that he was missing his brother, who died before him at 12 years old, and created this legacy around him.  The Brothers Grimm were very bold & didn't use the best judgment in terms of children's Fairy tails. “The Wizard of Oz”, the Opium fields & a strong female character were looked down upon. “Alice in Wonderland”, for what was in her tea & the hookah pipe scenes?

If we want the next generation to grow up believing in creativity, empathy, and shared values, then the stories they consume matter. The tales we give them are not just entertainment; they’re building blocks for their imaginations and seeing how they see the world. And I would rather see children nourished by stories that elevate them than ones that teach them hate, violence, bloodshed, early that life that is cruelty, disguised as entertainment.

Artificial Intelligence:

No one owns AI, which puts many artists off, which I find interesting. This only tells me you are interested in the financial rewards of making Art, not making Art for art's sake. Let me break this down. AI is like a musical note; no one can own a note, but one can own a series of notes as a tune or its very own narrative structure. It is a string of notes that creates its own identity free from the instrument that played it. It is the same with letters of the alphabet, no one can own a letter or a word, yet you can write a poem or a story and own that if you are prolific.