Fables
Well, this was inevitable. One of the books I tossed in the TBR purge got fished back out now that the numbers are down - and I've fallen fanatically for it.
Fables is a serial graphic soap opera about the refugee characters from children's stories. Run out of their land by an anti-magic conquerer known as The Adversary, the survivors escaped through a magic portal, with a fair number of them settling in New York City, living among the "mundys."
Beginning to get why I love it? The book that I have - Compilation #3, "Storybook Love" - continues the 10th Kingdom parallels by having Bigby Wolf (formerly The Big Bad Wolf and now the sheriff of Fabletown) somewhat accidentally knock up Snow White. I have no idea why I suddenly love angst when you stick a tail on it, and Bigby Wolf isn't 1/5 as handsome as Scott Cohen's Wolf - but there is AAAAANGST in the highest, between him being in love with Snow, Snow being ambivalent about him, and his general low position in the pecking order due to his species and his job.
In addition to that, we've got Prince Charming, a serial user who seems to have wandered off the Into the Woods set, because he was definately raised to be charming and not sincere. (He has married and divorced Snow White and Sleeping Beauty "Briar Rose," with a stopoff banging Rose Red in between.) Also Jack, of "and the beanstalk" fame who is renowned for his get-rich-quick schemes that never work; The Frog Prince, now known as "Flycatcher" for his Renfield cuisine; Bluebeard who has stopped killing wives and started making his own mythical mafia; Goldilocks who has since become a gun-toting radical; and a host of others, including the MPs - the "mouse police," an itty-bitty spy force consisting of Lilliputians riding intelligent mice. (They're too small to notice, while other "Fables" who can't pass as mundy live in a farm upstate.)
Multiple plotlines in the novel I have include the Snow/Wolf stuttering romance, Bluebeard's and Prince Charming's machinations, how to cover up Briar Rose's pricking her finger at a jewelry counter and making an entire shopping mall fall asleep, a mundy reporter who thinks the Fables are a nest of vampires and intends to publish, and more. The drama is offset by one-off comics retelling urban legends and "the truth" behind certain fables; these solo stories are much shorter and lighter.
The comic is still running, published by Vertigo. For those who prefer to have graphic novels instead of single comic books, compilations 1-5 are available at Amazon and #6 comes out in January. Although I got my first one out of order, it has long-running arcs and is best read in sequence.
Anyone who likes reimagined, modernized tales with a bite to them will probably enjoy Fables, although I warn you that they aren't kidding when they call it "graphic." 10th Kingdom fans, cheated by ratings out of a continuing story, will find themselves practically coming home.
Fables is a serial graphic soap opera about the refugee characters from children's stories. Run out of their land by an anti-magic conquerer known as The Adversary, the survivors escaped through a magic portal, with a fair number of them settling in New York City, living among the "mundys."
Beginning to get why I love it? The book that I have - Compilation #3, "Storybook Love" - continues the 10th Kingdom parallels by having Bigby Wolf (formerly The Big Bad Wolf and now the sheriff of Fabletown) somewhat accidentally knock up Snow White. I have no idea why I suddenly love angst when you stick a tail on it, and Bigby Wolf isn't 1/5 as handsome as Scott Cohen's Wolf - but there is AAAAANGST in the highest, between him being in love with Snow, Snow being ambivalent about him, and his general low position in the pecking order due to his species and his job.
In addition to that, we've got Prince Charming, a serial user who seems to have wandered off the Into the Woods set, because he was definately raised to be charming and not sincere. (He has married and divorced Snow White and Sleeping Beauty "Briar Rose," with a stopoff banging Rose Red in between.) Also Jack, of "and the beanstalk" fame who is renowned for his get-rich-quick schemes that never work; The Frog Prince, now known as "Flycatcher" for his Renfield cuisine; Bluebeard who has stopped killing wives and started making his own mythical mafia; Goldilocks who has since become a gun-toting radical; and a host of others, including the MPs - the "mouse police," an itty-bitty spy force consisting of Lilliputians riding intelligent mice. (They're too small to notice, while other "Fables" who can't pass as mundy live in a farm upstate.)
Multiple plotlines in the novel I have include the Snow/Wolf stuttering romance, Bluebeard's and Prince Charming's machinations, how to cover up Briar Rose's pricking her finger at a jewelry counter and making an entire shopping mall fall asleep, a mundy reporter who thinks the Fables are a nest of vampires and intends to publish, and more. The drama is offset by one-off comics retelling urban legends and "the truth" behind certain fables; these solo stories are much shorter and lighter.
The comic is still running, published by Vertigo. For those who prefer to have graphic novels instead of single comic books, compilations 1-5 are available at Amazon and #6 comes out in January. Although I got my first one out of order, it has long-running arcs and is best read in sequence.
Anyone who likes reimagined, modernized tales with a bite to them will probably enjoy Fables, although I warn you that they aren't kidding when they call it "graphic." 10th Kingdom fans, cheated by ratings out of a continuing story, will find themselves practically coming home.