No Rest for the Wicked (webcomic)


No Rest for the Wicked is a fantasy webcomic by Andrea L. Peterson. The characters are loosely based on characters from traditional fairy tales, including those by Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault, and the Brothers Grimm. The plot revolves around a princess who has been an insomniac since the disappearance of the moon and her journey to restore the moon to the sky. As of August 2007 it is on the fourth chapter, with a total of 200 pages thus far. The story has a generally elegiac mood, an undercurrent of sadness leavened with humor throughout. No Rest for the Wicked is now also available in Italian, German, and Japanese.

Characters

Main

;November:An oversensitive princess, youngest of three sisters, who is allergic to peas and bruises very easily. November has been unable to sleep since the Moon disappeared, and has set out on a quest to find where the Moon lies buried in hopes that restoring the Moon will solve her sleeping problem. She has been cursed so whenever she utters the word "altruistic" a frog or toad comes out of her mouth. She is affianced to The Boy, but ran away from home prior to their wedding. She is slightly biased in favor of nobility, and is drawn to atlases and especially their last page, to where she believes she may eventually have to travel.
;Perrault: A cunning cat who can take on a "person-ish" form and who has elevated his master's position in life from peasant to Marquis. While he lives the life of a gentleman-at-leisure, he has not lost his taste for hunting small animals. Current kill count: numerous mice, birds, and frogs. Before he gave himself the name Perrault, he was known simply as Puss. He's vain and selfish for the simple reason that he's a cat.
;"Red": A girl in a tattered red cloak who lives deep in the woods by herself. After a traumatic encounter with a certain wolf, Red has made it her business to kill every single flesh-eating beast she comes across, especially the ones that talk. She carries a handwoven basket and an axe. While the comic's art is mostly grayscale, "Red"'s cape is always shown in color, similar to Mary in Frank Miller's Sin City.

Secondary

;Pierre: The Marquis de Carabas, Pierre is about as intelligent as the average lemming, and it is only through Perrault's influence that he can wear silk and nice boots. Pierre is married to Colette and needs every aspect of his life to be overseen by his cat, whom he calls "Puss". Before this, he was a peasant.
;Colette: Pierre's wife, a dignified princess with a distaste for cats, rodents, and anything that does not belong in a palace. Easily fooled by gold and good looks, she mistakes November for a commoner and her husband for a nobleman.
;The Boy: A peasant boy who has never felt fear and is innocently curious about it. He rids the kingdom of all the fiends and monsters and in the process finds a trove of treasure, hands a share of it to King January, and as reward chose November as his bride. Last seen wandering the countryside with a bag of gold looking for his fiancée and attempting to learn what fear is.
;Beast: A hulking mass of fur and teeth with a penchant for speaking at the top of his voice, even in a library. Beast is something of an anti-social botanist stalker, as he has a magnificent rose garden and a ring which he uses to propose to Beauty every day at breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or whenever he happens to see her. He always seems close to foaming at the mouth. He is mocked by Red, who then throws him out of a window and nearly kills him. Beast may now be affianced to Beauty, who mistook his fall from the window as an attempted suicide over despair at her "long" absence of ten days.
;Beauty: The young lady in Beast's mansion who puts up with being proposed to breakfast, lunch, or dinner of every day. Last seen tearfully reuniting with the Beast after a visit with her family. Beauty regards Beast as a sensitive creature, and "cares about him very much, seems reluctant to commit to marrying him"
;Clare: A young woman with bandaged wrists where her hands ought to be. She was first seen after being sentenced to be burned at the stake as a witch for allegedly stealing a town's children. Flashbacks reveal that, as a girl, Clare was sold to the devil by her parents, who cut off her hands at his request. Clare was visited that night by the Moon, who told her a secret that may have prevented the devil from taking her. After this, Clare set out on her own.
;The Witch: An old woman living out in the woods near a town. She initially comes across as delusional, a sick yet tragic figure. When she was younger, her husband left her and their two children, Hansel and Gretel; she then moved to the forest to escape the malicious rumors in town. When Hansel fell sick and possibly died, she went insane and decided that she'd brought children into a hostile world and could only keep them safe by taking them back — into herself. She cannibalized both in pies. She since took to believing that everyone she meets is either Hansel or Gretel, gotten "out" of her.
;Prince Ricardo: Overly fastidious Prince, son of King Ricardo. Better known as "Dick the Picky". Introduced in the second Interlude, "The Wandering Swordsman". He reached the tower of Sleeping Beauty, a supposedly impossible task. However, his overly picky habits caused him to reject her after he learned that she snored. There are hints that he is wandering the world, searching for a "perfect" princess. As such, he may be the Prince from The Princess and the Pea, who was also said to have quested for such a bride, before returning to his castle.
;The Moon: Takes the form of a beautiful lady carrying a lantern. Her task is to bear her lantern across the sky for all but one day a month; on the day of the new moon she usually rests. At the beginning of the story, the Moon has been missing for over a year, during which November has not slept.

Myths, Tales, Legends, and Folklore

No Rest for the Wicked is freely adapted and cobbled together from a myriad of fairy tales, including:
The up-to-date list of tales used can be found in the '' section of the webcomic's site. Generally, the tales' most widely read versions are used in the story, but none of them are watered down and several involve dismemberment, cannibalism and other dark themes.

Awards