Rapunzel: no cape, no tights

This made my day! Fabulous librarian and graphic novel guru Robin Brenner made a Rapunzel outfit and sported it recently at ALA. (Which reminds me...I will be doing a costume contest around Halloween. Dressing up as characters from any of my books gains you entry. Send photos.) This outfit is what we called Rapunzel's superhero outfit from calamity jack. I love it.

In rapunzel's revenge, Rapunzel wears pretty ridiculous clothing for the first half of the story. Then Jack buys her some new garb. In the script when she first puts it on, we described it to Nate Hale (illustrator) as the moment Superman emerges from the phone booth. It's her kicking-butt clothing, the clothes that express the kind of girl she's become. Jack buys them for her, showing how well he knows her, and how highly he thinks of her awesomeness. This is a lad who is not intimidated by a powerful girl. You gotta love Jack. (He was pretty easy to write. I happen to be married to a man who is the least sexist person I've ever known. Can you imagine I'd marry him otherwise? How lucky his three daughters are/will be to have a dad like him!)

In calamity jack, Rapunzel goes to the big city and tries to fit in with how she thinks Jack wants her to be. She spends the first half in a cumbersome (though lovely) Victorian dress. At one point she goes out to buy Jack a piece of clothing (I won't spoil it if you haven't read it yet). It is the one thing in all the world he would want and best expresses who he is. While she is out, we decided she would shed her constricting garb and buy herself a new, updated superhero outfit, one that combined elements from the previous but with a slick, urban style. This is Rapunzel Kicking Butt in the Big City. Nate grew up in a theater family and has a wonderful sense of costumes. He did lots of research and sketches until he found just the right look for her. I LOVE the jacket. She's so awesome in these clothes.

Nate really is incredible. I could pour over calamity jack for hours, examining all the little details he includes. Genius. He created a live, bustling, turn-of-the-century, steampunk/fairy tale city and perfectly expressed a hundred different characters. Pure genius.

Comments

[Hannah]

Love it. I want to read the second one so bad. I love your books and will have to try dressing up. I'm thinking maybe Enna...:-)

[Karen Adair]

Awesome! Now I guess he can go into costume design in between graphic novels. :) Thanks for the excellent posting.

[Anna]

I ordered Calamity Jack through the library.....SOO excited! I was nervous the Punzie wasn't in it because she wasn't in any of the little preview thing-ma-jings. Anyway thanks for the reassurance and go Dean!!! from what I can tell he is gonna have 3 little heart breakers on his hands very soon.

[hwalk]

Had to go grab Calamity Jack and review it again. It's so great.

[Enna Isilee]

Ooh! Ooh! I already have a Dashti costume! Can I use that one again?

So cool!

[Jenn Sim]

I love both books. They're full of high adventure and great laughs. I love recommending them to friends who have never read a graphic novel before.

Have you seen the trailer for the new Disney Movie "Tangled". It appears that Disney likes some of your ideas too. It's just different enough...

[Je Reve]

My hair is now long enough to be Ani/Isi...
Thanks for the great post. They always brighten my day.

[Raindrops]

I'd love to dress up as Miri from the princess Acadamy. But sewing the acadamy dress would take more than just two months.Especialy the little roses on the ruffles of the dress described as in the book. I'd love that dress...well, I can always immagine wearing it.
--Raindrops

[Robin B.]

I've been offline for a bit, but I'm totally gleeful that you saw fit to post the photo! Thanks. Now I'm blushing. The only sad part is my colleague who was going to be Jack could not attend this ALA, but we're planning on it for the next time we're in the same city!

Thanks to everyone for the inspiring costume -- who wouldn't want to be (for a day) the steampunk, butt-kicking Rapunzel!?

[Miriam]

It's to my shame I haven't read either (are they even out in the UK? Possibility that I just haven't been looking in the right place) but I seriously want to- especially as at the moment I'm writing a Rapunzel spin-off and I reaaally want to see your interpretation (yeah, I know it's not exact or whatever, but still, it looks awesome). So I might be paying Amazon a visit...

Also, that costume is ridiculously awesome. So you know.

[Princess Loucida]

Ohhh! I think I'll dress as Rin!

And this post was very interesting!

[Gwen]

I'd really like to dress as Ani/Isi but does it matter if my hair isn't blond? I mean, I think I'm a lot like her and I have some perfect costume pieces...oh, I'm so excited! :)

[Princess Luna]

OH MY GOSH!!!!!! YOUR HAVING A COSTUME CONTEST Squeee! That is really,really,really,really cool!
If I were to enter I'd enter as Enna....I have black hair(though brown in the sun or up close)and eyes that represent my hair,though my skin is tan.But my all time favorite character is Miri....I feel the same way she does about being short,but in the opposite way(which mean Im really tall).I know thios is totally off subject,but I wanna tell you you are my all time favorite author,and you are my insperation for the books I'm writting now and hopefully the books that I'll be able to get published in the future.You showed me what I'm best at writting at,Fantasy!

[Miastar]

Oooo Costume contest!!!

[aax]

Where should I send the photo?

[yakx]

Are you going to write any more of the Rapunzel series?