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Fables
I just finished Volume 10 of Fables, The Good Prince, and let me tell you, if you are not reading this series you need to be.
Here’s the gist: There has been a terrible war that has driven many Folk and Fairy tales from their Homeland. Many who can pass as human are living in Fabletown in New York, while those who can’t pass as human live on The Farm up State New York.
While the Fables yearn to return to the Homelands, they have their own lives to live, and those lives are even more complex than you can imagine.
These are not fairy tales for kids. These stories hark back to the folk and fairy tales before they were cleaned up. There is murder and sex and revenge and most of all fantastic stories.
So really, check it out. It’s completely and totally worth it.
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June 18th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
That’s how I felt about the first Laurell K Hamilton Merry Gentry book. And then they rapidly devolved into My Little Pony soft core for grownups and I stopped reading them.
I’ll have to check out Fables.
June 18th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Fables has had it’s ups and downs. The first volume was good, and it pretty much steadily improved from there. Even if there were volumes I didn’t love, they were still good. And it just gets better over time.
If you’re not sure, check out 1001 Nights of Snowfall. It’s a stand alone, but gives you the flavor and idea of the Fables series.
The other thing I particularly like is although there is an overarching story, each arc in a volume is complete, so you’re left wanting more, but not desperate to find out what happens to a character.
OK, if I rave anymore I’ll have to go back and reread the entire series.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:18 am
I read the first volume of Fables and thought it was pretty good, but for whatever reason never went on to read more. I’ll have to look into that; I’ve been looking for a new graphic novel to dive into.
On the other hand, I just started re-reading Mage: The Hero Discovered by Matt Wagner for the umpteenth time. Excellent series.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Matt, if you read my original reviews, I thought volume one was pretty good, but wasn’t in a hurry to read volume two. That changed a couple volumes in.
Do you read Ex-Machina or Runaways? Ex Machina is intriguing. Runaways is just plain excellent.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:40 am
I haven’t read either of those. I’ll have to look into that.
I was hitting the superhero graphic novels pretty hard and then I switched over to Bone. Bone was great, but when I was done with that I needed a comic book break for a little while.
If you like fantasy mixed with realism, there’s a really good web comic that I just picked up the printed edition of, it’s North World by Lars Brown (www.north-world.com). It’s a black and white, hand drawn comic that combines every day life with magic and giant animals and other fantasy stuff. I would compare his drawing style (somewhat) to Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai (another excellent book one of my favorites, but there’s over 20 volumes out now if you’re looking for a quick read).
June 19th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Ex Machina can be frustrating at times. Just so you know.
I’ve looked at Bone, but wasn’t sure about it. Good you say?
And FYI, Michael is the big comic reader. I’ve found a few things I really like, but find a lot of other stuff kinda meh.
I’ll look at North World tho.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Bone is good if a bit long. I’m going to head to the library tonight and see what they have of Ex Machina and Fables. My wife doesn’t read comics, but I got her to read Preacher, which is really, really messed up but a good series. Although, it has a lot of swearing and violence and some nudity if you try to avoid that kind of thing.
June 19th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
I read the first volume of Preacher and just couldn’t get into it. I think Michael gave up on it as well. Actually, the same thing happened with Y and with Lucifer and with Hellblazer.
I think starting out with Sandman spoiled me.