Nightmare in Wonderland is a comic-book miniseries by Kat Calamia and Phil Falco, with art from Rina Mata. Published by Lifeline Comics, as part of its Ever After Verse, it was funded via Kickstarter.
Back when they were children, Alice and Bianca became fast friends, pretending to go on adventures in Wonderland. As teenagers, they fell in love and thought that they would be together forever. But then Bianca experienced a vision in which her parents were murdered and a war broke out between her kingdom, Briarwood, and neighboring Hellebore. The war would be bloody and endless, and on the sunset of her twenty-fifth birthday, Bianca would fall into an unending sleep.
Now, it's her twenty-fifth birthday, and a desperate Bianca summons Alice, who has grown up to be an assassin, to protect her from what she fears is an impending assassination. Things do not quite go as planned, however, and instead, Bianca and Alice end up in a twisted version of the Wonderland from their childhood games.
Nightmare in Wonderland contains examples of:
- The Beard: In the opening of the first issue, Bianca is having a tryst with a man, but it quickly becomes clear that her heart's not really in it. It soon turns out that she's actually a lesbian.
- The Chains of Commanding: Bianca has not adjusted well to being Queen of Briarwood, having become so obsessed with schedules that she only allows herself half an hour for incredibly-detached sex with a man. Her twin brother Philip is handling the throne even worse; he constantly defers to his top General, Winnie, even allowing her to dress him down in front of his own guards.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Bianca and Alice were best friends first, then became lovers when they grew up.
- Cope by Pretending: As a child, Alice invented her adventures in Wonderland as a way of distracting herself from her unhappy home life. Now she and Bianca find themselves in a twisted version of that imaginary world.
- Scenery Censor: In-universe example; Bianca's curse strikes while she is completely nude and receiving oral sex from Alice. When Philip finds them, he stage-manages things so that Bianca has a pillow conveniently covering her privates when the guards come in. He also makes sure that Alice is positioned at the foot of her bed, so that it looks as though the latter was holding an Unbroken Vigil rather than anything that might suggest that his sister was having lesbian sex with a commoner.
- Stealth Sequel: Issue #3 reveals that this series is set in the same universe as The Beast and Snow... and that Briarwood, Bianca's kingdom, is at war with Hellebore, the kingdom ruled by the Evil Queen from that series.
- We Used to Be Friends: Bianca and Alice were childhood friends, and then young lovers. Their relationship fell apart, however, when Bianca's parents were assassinated and she was forced to become the new Queen of Briarwood. Between the stresses of her new role and the fact that a prophecy said that she would fall into an unending sleep at age twenty-five, Bianca pushed Alice away, and eventually, Alice got tired of waiting for her to take her back.Bianca: I had to make every second matter.Alice:: ... And that's when you realized that I didn't.