Castle Waiting

I love the Castle Waiting comic book series by Linda Medley. Drawn in a simple yet precise B&W style, it tells the stories of various characters set in a world reminiscent of Europe's fairy tales. Contrary to Fables, which focuses on the most famous characters of the fairy tales (Snow White, Cinderella, etc.), Castle Waiting focuses on the characters who live in the background of the main protagonists.

The landscape, architecture, and costumes depicted in Castle Waiting suggest a fantasy version of north-western Europe between the 15th and the 17th centuries. Supernatural creatures from both the Christian and Nordic mythologies abound, more so in less inhabited areas; cities, however, do have their share of anthropomorphic animals. In addition to these, there also are Slavic beings, which is cool because I am quite fond of Slavic mythology. On the other hand, I haven't really been able to connect the anthropomorphic animals with any particular tale or legend.

The eponymous Castle Waiting is Sleeping Beauty's former castle — after she's abandoned it to live with the handsome prince. Part of her retinue still lives in it, and it has attracted all manners of misfits from round the world, most notably Simple Simon and his mother, two beastmen (a stork-man and a horse-man), a bearded nun, a single mother with a leshyi child, Iron Henry, a plague doctor, and several smaller fairies/goblins. There's also a community of Hammerlings (dwarves) living in the vicinity of the castle, and gipsy-like travellers.

In my Second Age Glorantha [which varies a lot], Castle Waiting is set on a small promontory overlooking the Dashomo Sea, north of [Third Age] Fengwal. This corresponds to the top left part of map No.68 of the Argan Argar Atlas. It is a former fortified mansion owned by a kind of Malki trader prince, and which now functions as a refuge for those who have lost all due to the upheavals affecting Umathela:
 - Sentient animal-human hybrids who have escaped the cellars of the mad GodLearners
 - former GodLearners who were not really involved in this madness
 - Malki nuns
 - visiting vegetarian dwarves from the Mari Mountains
 - unemployed delvers