Comic Quickies: Wrapping Up Fables

Fables Vol. 9 Sons of Empire: In this ninth volume of the Fables series, which I've plunged head-long into over the past half-year, there's a definite "calm before the storm" feeling.  Both sides, the Adversary and his empire, and the exiled Fables gear up for war.

In the Homelands, the Adversary calls together his most trusted advisers for a war council.  Together, they plan an invasion that would more or less decimate earth and all it's inhabitants, while putting an end to the threat of the exiled Fables.  Pinocchio, who's become on of the Adversary's favorites, is faced with the unfortunate task of throwing a big monkey wrench in their plans.

Meanwhile, Bigby Wolf, Snow White and their family embark on a risky trip back to the homelands to pay a visit to Bigby's dad, and his cubs' grandfather, the North Wind.  Bigby and North don't totally get along, so it's a trip neither one is looking forward to.

While all that is going down, the Empire sends an ambassador to Fabletown, Hansel, one of the two kids who stuffed Fabletown head-witch Frau Totenkinder into a hot oven.  Hansel is all grown up now and he's a total prick, which makes him a great match for Fabletown Mayor, Prince Charming.

I can't say that this was my favorite Fables volume, as it did more to cause me to lose steam for the series than it did to make me want to keep reading.  Under different circumstances, this is definitely a volume that would have caused me stall out on the series for a bit. However, I had the 10th and 11th volumes on loan from the library, so instead of taking a break, I forged onward.

Fables Vol. 10 The Good Prince: I'd been wondering when the Frog Prince, also known as Flycatcher, who up to this point has been seen mostly as the Fabletown custodian, would get a chance to shine in this series.  That question is answered here in this tenth volume, as Flycatcher finally gets his shit together, dons some sweet magical armor, hops down the witching well, puts together an army of ghosts, and travels back to the homelands.

Upon returning, he sets up his very own kingdom within the very confines of the Adversary's own homeworld, and begins building a castle and recruiting followers to his cause.  Flycatcher's kingdom, called Haven, is special because no harm can come to those who are part of the kingdom.  As more fables come to join Haven, the boundaries of Flycatcher's kingdom expand, and soon the Adversary starts chucking armies at Haven to remove the pest from his empire's backside.  However, the prince has a few non-violent tricks up his sleeves.

I was a little torn on this volume between like and dislike.  Sure, it was cool to see Flycatcher come up with a peaceful solution to problems which saved countless lives, but on the other hand, this whole story thread seemed just a little too convenient of a way for Willingham to remove a huge portion of the threat to Fabletown.  *Sigh* With the epic showdown looming so close, once again, this story arc did more to cool me off on this series.  There's just too much build and not enough payoff.  These last two volumes have felt more like bloat, or teasers.  I definitely have the feeling that the last two volumes could have easily been condensed, or trimmed in favor of taking a more direct line towards the conclusion of the main story arc.

Fables Vol. 11 War and Pieces: At long last, this eleventh volume finally gets to the long awaited war between the scrappy exile Fables and the Adversary and his world's spanning empire.  I've been excited to see this battle since the end of the first story arc.

Too bad I was a bit let down by the whole thing.

After about 70 issues of mounting tension, plots, sub-plots, twists, and a fair amount of bloat, Willingham finally gets around to telling the story of the war for the Homelands, and he told it in such a way that it felt like I was reading a highlight reel for the war.

I honestly felt a bit cheated.

This is a comic that gave something like nine issues to Flycatcher, a story arc that felt like a plot device to get the writer out of  a tight bind, but less than five issues to a confrontation that has been building for the entire length of the series.  That's not to say the conclusion wasn't good.  It was good.  I just wanted more of it.  This was the pay-off I've been reading towards and I felt like it barely got covered. I was sad.

As much as I've enjoyed this series overall, I don't think I could have read it in single issues, it would have been way too tiresome and tortuous, especially given the pay-off.  Overally, I'd say this is a remarkable comics series, but could have been much, much better with less bloat and a more finely tuned focus.  My plan has been to read Fables up to this point and then quit, unless I really wanted to carry on with the series.  After having read the first eleven trades worth, and covering everything up to my original destination, I gotta say that I don't have any urge to continue on with this series.

Despite being a series that flagged heavily towards the end, this is still a pretty great fantasy comic.  Sure I was a bit let down by the effort put into the ending, but it is still a pretty good ending.  Certainly not perfect, though no series is, I still recommend Fables, but with the caveat that one will have to be prepared for some writerly indulgence which leads to bloating along the way.

Overall Series Grade: B-

Comic Quickies: Fables Double Header

Fables Vol. 7 Arabian Nights (and Days):  The Fables who remain and live here in our mundane world have finally discovered the identity of the Adversary, so now it's a matter of shoring up their defenses and forging some strong alliances so that their stronghold here in the mundane world continues to be safe from attack.

One major group that remains unconquered by the Adversary are the Arabian Fables, who have sent a delegation to Fabletown in hopes of building a coalition against their mutual enemy.  That's all well and good, but they've come to Fabletown concealing a magical weapon that could cause destruction on a massive level.  It's up to Governor Prince Charming, and his newly appointed ambassador, (and former Governor, King Cole) to smooth things over, and avert a culture clash that could end in disaster.  In addition to the Arabian Nights (and Days) story, this seventh volume in the epic Fables series also features a two issue story called The Ballad of Rodney and June, which is a story of forbidden love among the wooden soldiers in the Adversary's army.

This was my least favorite Fables trade yet.  Sure, it was cool to meet some new fables from the Arabian Homelands, and it was kinda fun to see Old King Cole in his glad-handing element, but not a lot happened here. Arabian Nights (and Days) had a very distinct "middle book" feel to it where not a lot happens, but pieces are put into place for the final stages of the big story line.  I also didn't enjoy Jim Fern's art on the The Ballad of Rodney and June story, but the story was really good, and a lot of fun to read.  I think I liked this one more than the main plot story.

It was cool that Willingham added the Arabian fables characters to the story and added a new magical element to the plot as well, but overall, this one didn't impress me quite as much as previous volumes.  That being said, I'm still all the way on board with this series.

Obviously, given that I read this one as well...

Fables Vol. 8 Wolves:  We've got another "middle book" feeling volume here as Wolves focuses primarily on character development and world building over plot movement.  The best thing about this volume is that we get a healthy dose of Mowgli, who's a pretty cool character, and we finally have the return of Bigby Wolf who has been incognito for the last few volumes.  Bigby Wolf is one of the central characters to this story, and one of my favorite characters too, so it was nice to have the dude back.

Not only that, but this eighth volume contains the 50th issue of the Fables series and that mighty issue contains a big romantic plot thread payoff that is actually pretty well done.  I don't often go in for the romance stuff, but Willingham actually made me care about this love story in this series, so it was nice to see that plot thread have a happy ending...for now.

For the second volume in a row, the back-up story was my favorite part of the volume.  Sean McManus handles the guest art duties this time around and though I wasn't overly impressed, I also wasn't turned off.  Big and Small tells the story of Cinderella, who is one awesome secret agent, and how she managed to forge an alliance between Fabletown and the fine folks of the Cloud Kingdom.  Not the easiest task, and one that required a lot of leg-work and a bit of magical shape shifting!  I really enjoyed the blend of espionage and fantasy.  Good stuff.

All told, these were my two least favorite volumes in the Fables story yet.  Sure they were still quite good, but I felt like the plot took a back seat to side stories.  I realize this is probably one of the more bloated titles on the shelves, considering how many issues it has run for, but I was sorta hoping the bloat wouldn't come until after the battle with the Adversary is over and done with.  Hopefully, the few minor plot developments that do take place here will pay dividends down the road.  I'm still pretty high on this series, but there's a little less wind in my sails after this most recent spate of Fables reading.

Comic Quickies: The Rocketeer Flies Again

Rocketeer Cargo of Doom:  It's no secret around here that I'm a liker of the Rocketeer.  So, a new Rocketeer mini series is pretty much an instant buy and instant read for me.  IDW apparently also shares my love for the Rocketeer as well, since they have been responsible for producing all this great Rocketeer material of the past couple years.

The creative team behind The Cargo of Doom is a couple of industry heavy hitters, Mark Waid, and Chris Samnee.  Recently, Waid has been winning Eisners and Harvey's thanks to his work on Daredevil and Samnee has been earning lots of recognition cred for his high quality art, on a variety of projects.  As far as creative teams go, I think IDW really picked a couple of winners.  Waid has a knack for writing gripping, action-packed, and fun stories that don't go off the deep end with too much darkness or grittiness.  On the art side, Samnee has this great dynamic art style with lots of thick and juicy black inks that is a really great fit not only for the Rocketeer's high-flying action, but also a great fit for the time period the story is set in.

This first issue works pretty well as an opening issue.  We get to know all the primary characters, get a taste for their personalities, get some Rocketeer action, and get just enough of a taste of the "cargo" that is so doomy.  Oh, there's also some love drama in Cliff's life that could add an interesting element.  I can already tell that this is gonna be one of my favorite comics for the next few months.

The Sixth Gun #24:  Yikes!  I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I last wrote about The Sixth Gun.  I've been reading this comic in the monthly format since the first issue came out for free comic book day a couple years ago.  Ever since then, this has been one of my favorite titles, and it has only gotten better as time passes on.  Bunn and Hurtt have created a wonderful fantasy western world to set their story in and I truly enjoy falling into that world on a monthly basis.

This 24th issue is the start of a new story arc titled Winter Wolves and looks to be the start of more wonderful stuff.  General Hume, who has been out of commission since the 6th issue, makes a brief and creepy appearance, and Drake and Becky run  into some trouble with a giant white wolf.  It also looks like we might see more of Gord Cantrell, one of my favorite side characters, in this arc.  Gord's got some voodoo-dark magic tricks up his sleeves, so I'd love to see more of what he's capable of.

Brian Hurtt is one of the most unsung artists in comics, and this is one of his very best issues of The Sixth Gun yet.  This is an artist working at the top of his game on one of the finest comics on the shelves.  If you haven't had the pleasure of checking this comic out, throw all reservations aside.  The Sixth Gun is a winner.

Fables Vol. 5 The Mean Seasons:  Yup, I'm still reading and loving Fables.  Hands down some of the very best stuff I've read in comics.  The fifth trade collection, The Mean Seasons, is one hell of a whirlwind read.  Lots, and I mean lots of things go down in this volume.

First off, we get our first taste of Cinderella in this one, and I gotta say, she is one of the most interesting fables yet.  Her first story is brilliant.  That's just the opening salvo of this volume which covers more ground than a football field.  We also get a war story starring Bigby Wolf from back in his war fightin' days, the birth of some new little fables, the sundering of a relationship, and the election of a new Fabletown governor.

It's a lot of diverse stuff going on for one collected edition, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment one bit.  Sure, this volume didn't do a ton to move the major story line along too much, but it did move many different character arcs forward and put some pieces in place to make the story going forward much more interesting.  The Mean Seasons left me craving more from Fables which is why I followed this read up immediately with this next one....

Fables Vol. 6 Homelands:  This one starts out catching everyone up with what Jack has been up to since he ditched Fabletown. The story is pretty good, as Jack is one of those characters I love to hate, but I gotta say I was not a fan of the guest artist for this story.  David Hahn had the guest artist duties here, and he just wasn't up to snuff compared to the other guest artist that have been featured in this series.  Weak art can definitely take away from a good story, and that was the case here, as I don't think I enjoyed Jack Be Nimble nearly as much as I could have.

So, the start of this volume was a let down, but the rest of the trade more than made up for the false start.  The bulk of the remainder of this volume is given over to Boy Blue and his epic adventures across a series of fable-realms.  With the Witching Cloak and the Vorpal Blade, two of the most powerful fable artifacts, at his disposal, Blue goes on a deadly rampage through the Adversary's realms in an attempt to take out that evil fucker.  Not only is this an incredibly exciting adventure to read, but there's some really BIG reveals in this one that are quite important to the story.

With six volumes of Fables under my belt, I have no plans to slow down my pacing.  Well, maybe a bit, as I have to read Underwater Welder soon, but I plan to dive even deeper into this series over the next few weeks.  It is really fantastic and if you haven't already done so: read and enjoy.

Graphic Novel Review: Vol. 3 Storybook Love and Vol. 4 March of the Wooden Soldiers

Storybook Love:  It didn't take me long to dive right back into the Fables series.  After I got my first taste back in early August, I was so hard up for more that I decided the only way to go about things would be to read 'em two at a time.  Well, I figured that since I was reading them two at a time, I might as well review them in a two for one package as well.

Up first is the third volume in this comic series, Storybook Love.  This volume picks up on events in Fabletown during the winter when a nosy "mundy" reporter, (Fables-speak for us regular folks), has noticed something fishy about the people living in Fabletown. Through research, and conjecture the reporter concludes that he has uncovered a secret vampire society.  Foolishly, he decides to confront the Fables before publishing his work, thus forcing Sheriff Bigby Wolf, and some other Fables to partake in a covert operation.  By utilizing sleeping Beauty's curse, the Fables put the mundy Reporter's entire building to sleep, then sneak in his apartment to conclude their covert act of sabotage.

The next story line of this volume sees Bluebeard, the richest guy in Fabletown, in cahoots with Goldilocks, a revolutionary responsible for some dirty deeds back in the previous Fables trade paperback. Together, these two try to make a move to have both Bigby Wolf and Snow White eliminated for good.  This story line is pretty awesome as we get to see a bit of a love story develop, and see a non-dickish, non-womanizing side to Prince Charming.

Best of all, these two stories that deal with the main Fables story line, are sandwiched by two great standalone one-shot stories.  The first deals with Jack of Fables and one of his adventures during the American Civil War.  This story is drawn by Brian Talbot, whose artwork is beautiful and textured...really nice to look at.

The second one-shot which closes out this third volume tells the story of how the Lilliputian Expeditionary Force, a group of thumb-sized soldiers, came to the mundane world and how they managed to keep their race alive despite being only men.  Linda Medley of Castle Waiting fame does the art for this one.  Medley has much more of a cartoonist style in comparison to Talbot and Buckingham, and at first I had a hard time adjusting to her style, but I quickly came to see how her style was a great match for the story.  Both of these one-shot stories were fun additions to Storybook Love and helped develop characters in addition to developing the world everything takes place in.

March of the Wooden Soldiers:  For centuries, the Fables have stood guard over the magical gateways that connect our mundane world to their lost magical homelands.  Despite a near crippling fear of invasion, the gateways have been quiet for decades.

Until now.

A long lost love of Boy Blue has escaped the adversary and made it to sanctuary, which is cause for huge celebration in the Fable community.  Though this new addition to the community is a great boost to morale, not everyone is thrilled about this new community member, and her story smells of trouble to a certain Fabletown Sheriff.  As it turns out, things might be even worse then the most cynical fable suspects, as this new arrival brings with her a healthy dose of trouble.

March of the Wooden Soldiers is one of the best Fables volumes yet, as it ratchets the drama and conflict up a few notches, raises the stakes of the series quite a bit, and continues to develop and flesh out both the characters and the massive world they populate.  Oh, and it also delivers some fantastic action.

Central to this fourth volume is the character development that writer Bill Willingham delivers for Boy Blue.  This volume starts out with a standalone story called The Last Castle which chronicles the Fables' final stand against The Adversary before the last refugees fled from their magical homelands and into our world.  Not only do you get an awesome siege battle filled with crazy beasts, knights, Robin Hood, and much more, but you also get the perfect set up to the March of the Wooden Soldiers story.  If not for this standalone, the main story line would have lacked some punch and wouldn't have been as emotionally powerful .  This is a testament to Willingham's ability to tell an engaging story that hits the reader at a number of levels.

Not only has Fables been incredibly entertaining to read, but it has great characters, whose depths are continuously being plumbed.  On top of that, Willingham has created a huge world to set his stories in, and he is certainly exploring all corners of the world, which leads to some great side-tales and one shots.  The scope and depth of this series is fantastic.  This is the first comic series I've read that I feel reaches the heights and depths of some of the great Epic Fantasy series I love so much.

As usual, March of the Wooden Soldiers features the art of Mark Buckingham, who delivers his usual consistent, and solid art.  He's not my favorite artist, as I feel like his faces and facial expressions leave a lot to be desired, but on the other hand, he can draw all the cool, magical, fantastical stuff that is required for this series.  So, in the end, I am generally pleased with his art, but not totally blown away.  One of my favorite things about Fables is that Willingham will bring in guest artists for the one-shot, standalone stories, and it is always fun to see who these artists are.  In The Last Castle, Craig Hamilton and P. Craig Russell share the art, and both do a great job.  Especially Hamilton during the battle scenes.

So, with four volumes under my belt, I gotta say, Fables is really good.  Not only do I find myself wanting to devour more of the series, but I find myself craving it over any of the multitudes of unread comics on my shelves.  Basically I've been feeding my cravings like an addict.  I highly recommend this series, to both comics readers and the non-comics reading fans of this blog, as it is basically an awesome epic fantasy series in comic format.  So what are you waiting for? Go read some Fables!

Story Book Love Grade: B+
March of the Wooden Soldiers Grade: A

Fables Deluxe Edition Vol. 1

Over the course of the past few weeks I’ve been a semi-regular member of a comics club.  At our weekly meetings we discuss what stuff we’ve been reading, then pass it off to other folks so they can read it, then give their opinion the following week.  Make no mistake, it’s a fun group to be part of, but my inclusion is a bit of a blessing and curse all at the same time.  

The reason I say that is because I have so many unread comics on my shelves to begin with, adding more comics from other sources makes it difficult for me to feel like I am making any kind of progress on the stuff I own.  Also, I often receive a stack of comics that is so big (basically any stack larger than one graphic novel) there’s no way I could possibly work my way through it in a week; often I am the dude who didn’t get around to reading his stack, and thus delays the discussion of certain titles.  Lastly, I sometimes get stuff handed off to me that I really don’t have any interest in, and you all know what it is like to feel like you have to read something, rather than wanting to read something. 

The flip side of that coin is that I often get to read stuff I’ve wanted to check out without having to pay for the comic.  This is a great boost to my deflated wallet.  Overall, the best part is that I also get to read stuff that I might not have ever read in the first place and discover that it is amazing.  That’s where Fables Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 comes in. 

This was a comics club hand-off item that the previous reader said he wasn’t overly impressed with, only read the first story arc (the deluxe editions contain two collected trades worth of comics) and probably would never get back into the story.  All that didn’t really do much to make me eager to read the comic, but the art looked cool when I flipped through it, and I was intrigued enough to give Fables a go.  A decision, as it turns out, I am happy I made.

In Fables, the characters from the beloved tales of our youth have all been exiled from their respective fabled lands and find themselves laying low among the regular folk in New York City. Those who are able to uphold a human-like appearance live, for the most part, in New York City, while the others, elves, animals, beasts and what-not, live on a huge farm in upstate New York. 

Old King Cole is the de jure leader of the exiled fables but in truth it is his steward, Snow White who truly runs Fabletown.  Thus, in the opening story arc, Legends in Exile, it is Snow White, and Fabletown Sheriff, Bigby Wolf who it falls upon to solve the murder of Snow White’s sister, Rose Red, when her apartment is discovered trashed and covered in blood.  What follows is a murder mystery tale that features familiar characters in a familiar setting, yet with the reality dial turned ever-so-slightly so that the characters seem a quite a bit more real than their usual selves, and the setting seems a little bit more magical then it usually is.

 

This twisting of both the characters and setting is what makes Fables really great.  The story and characters both have an accessible familiarity, but there are enough changes, both large and small, that make the characters engaging and fun to explore and discover.  Bill Willingham, who writes Fables, has done a great job of taking fabled characters and their one dimensional qualities that they are known for and making them compelling characters that you’d want to read about and discover more about as an adult.  I can’t say that I was ever a fan of Snow White as a kid, but the Snow White of Fables, who has divorced Prince Charming, and taken on the tough job of running Fabletown is someone I enjoyed immensely.  Willingham's ability to make these fabled characters into characters for grown-ups is a great achievement.

In addition to the great characters, Willingham just flat out writes a great story.  Like I said, Legends in Exile is a murder mystery and it’s a damn good murder mystery too.  It has a bit of a Sherlock Holmes feel to it that lends a nice touch to the plot.  On top of writing a great murder mystery, Willingham also manages to gracefully add little tid-bits of backstory so that the reader comes to discover how and why the characters from fable are living in New York City rather than in their fabled lands. 

Basically, a dark and evil being referred to as The Adversary waged war on the fabled lands and exiled all the creatures and folk of fable. Willingham gives the reader a sense of how this happened in Legends in Exile, then gives the reader an idea of what some of the fable folk are doing to regain their lands in the second arc, Animal Farm, which takes place on the farm in upstate New York.  Both story arcs work well together as they introduce the reader to the world of Fables, lets the reader see what city life is like, who the players are, how they interact, and all that.  Then shows life on the farm, what those folk are up to, how their lives differ from the city folk, and the politics at play between the two groups.  It is all very intriguing to read, and definitely left me wanting to read more.

On top of Willingham’s great effort on writing, is some really top flight artwork.  In Legends in Exile, Lan Medina handles the art, and his work is truly fantastic.  He’s a guy that can draw whatever it is the story calls for, be it castle interiors, cityscapes, murder scenes, and more.  His characters look fantastic, and he draws facial expressions quite well too.  He’s an artist that I was totally unfamiliar with, and was very impressed with. Sadly, it looks like this is the only Fables story arc where Medina handles the art. From here on out its Mark Buckingham who handles the lion’s share of the art. 

Buckingham takes over on Animal Farm and while I thought he too does a great job with the art, I preferred Medina’s art.  I liked the way Medina drew the characters more.  They looked more realistic, while Buckingham’s characters looked a bit more cartoony to me.  That said, Buckingham is certainly no slouch, and I can see myself settling in and enjoying Buckingham’s art as the art that defines the series.

  

All told, Fables Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 was a great read.  Great writing, great art, and a story that is about fables, all while giving the reader that familiar feeling that they are actually reading a fable.  Getting started on the Fables series can be quite intimidating as there are something like eighteen collected trades out, with more issues coming on a monthly basis, as well as a number of spin off series.  That’s a lot to wade through and probably enough to scare more casual readers away…However, I have been told that one really only (ONLY) needs to read the stuff contained in the first 75 issues.

 

Yeah, I know, even that sounds like a lot! The first 75 issues contain what was initially meant to be THE Fables story Willingham wanted to tell.  However, the series was and is still so popular that it has become a bloated Jabba the Hutt-esque entity with tacked on stories and spin offs.  So really, if you want to get the story, read the first 75 issues, which are collected in trades 1-11.  At this point, that’s what I plan to read.  Maybe I’ll love the whole series as much as I loved the first two story arcs and want to read EVERYTHING Fables.  We’ll see.  For now though, Fables is the comics I want to be reading. 

Grade: A+