Tuesday, July 11, 2006
borrowing comics is better than spending money on them
Fables Volumes 2 and 3
I wrote a little bit of shit about Fables a few weeks ago. Since then I’ve read through the second and third trades, and it does definitely get better. My initial reaction to the second trade, Animal Farm, was a little irrational; I don’t like seeing cute talking animals get killed, and that happens a lot in this one. The story and characterization are mostly big improvements over the first volume, though, and there’s not as much self-satisfied cleverness mucking up the whole enterprise. Also Reynard the Fox, the best character to date, is introduced, and should’ve immediately become the focus of the book. The third volume, Storybook Romance, is a collection of shorter stories, including a four-parter that deals with some of the ramifications of Animal Farm. The issue with Jack cheating Death while masquerading as a Confederate soldier during the Civil War might be my favorite single issue thus far, if only because at one point Jack utters my mother-in-law’s favorite swear word, “shit-fire”. Still, I think Bill Willingham is focusing on too narrow a cast of characters, which is probably the main reason the one-issue asides with Jack and John Barleycorn stick out as the best of the run thus far. These issues are the only ones that don’t feature Bigby or Snow as the main protagonist, and are a nice change of pace. Bigby continues to become a more interesting character, even if he is veering a bit too close to Wolverine territory. Snow White, though, has hardly been developed at all, and bounces back and forth between two stereotypical roles, the uptight ice-queen and the beautiful damsel in distress. The best moments remain the glimpses of the larger Fable community; as such, this should definitely be more of an ensemble book than it has been thus far.
Fables Volumes 2 and 3
I wrote a little bit of shit about Fables a few weeks ago. Since then I’ve read through the second and third trades, and it does definitely get better. My initial reaction to the second trade, Animal Farm, was a little irrational; I don’t like seeing cute talking animals get killed, and that happens a lot in this one. The story and characterization are mostly big improvements over the first volume, though, and there’s not as much self-satisfied cleverness mucking up the whole enterprise. Also Reynard the Fox, the best character to date, is introduced, and should’ve immediately become the focus of the book. The third volume, Storybook Romance, is a collection of shorter stories, including a four-parter that deals with some of the ramifications of Animal Farm. The issue with Jack cheating Death while masquerading as a Confederate soldier during the Civil War might be my favorite single issue thus far, if only because at one point Jack utters my mother-in-law’s favorite swear word, “shit-fire”. Still, I think Bill Willingham is focusing on too narrow a cast of characters, which is probably the main reason the one-issue asides with Jack and John Barleycorn stick out as the best of the run thus far. These issues are the only ones that don’t feature Bigby or Snow as the main protagonist, and are a nice change of pace. Bigby continues to become a more interesting character, even if he is veering a bit too close to Wolverine territory. Snow White, though, has hardly been developed at all, and bounces back and forth between two stereotypical roles, the uptight ice-queen and the beautiful damsel in distress. The best moments remain the glimpses of the larger Fable community; as such, this should definitely be more of an ensemble book than it has been thus far.
