Fables

[dave_littler]

There's a comic book series currently being published by Vertigo entitled "Fables" which my friend Colin introduced me to last year. Pretty good. Pretty good. The premise, in the broadest terms, is that all the old fables and fairy-tales and legends and such of all the cultures of earth are in some sense true; the characters are all real people who

Comments

[kurosakihisoka]

I happened to see Fables in the local comic book store and waffled on buying it. It was an issue somewhere out in the middle and it seemed like it had a fairly involved story, so I decided against it. However, now that I've heard the plot I think I might go back for it!

[dave_littler]

In all seriousness, it really is a fun series, even if the writer is personally and politically kind of a douchebag.

If I were to give any serious warning here, it's that the first couple of trade paperbacks are ... well, they're a little slow; they serve to set up the characters, concept and setting, but the actual story of the series doesn't begin in earnest until somewhere around issue 20 or thereabouts.

So, by all means, check it out if it sounds like your cup of tea, but do so with these advisements.

[anadart]

That and Bill Willingham is a strong Rush Limbaugh supporter. From my understanding Willingham is starting to make his politics more publicly know as he and others (Mike Baron, Jim Hudnall, Bill Tucci) fight against the "liberal ideas" in the comic and Hollywood industries.

[dave_littler]

I didn't know that, but it doesn't particularly surprise me, given what else I've heard and read about him.

Mind you, this makes my analogy that much more hillarious in-context. I've got to see if he has some official forum or something where I can post this without the PPS at the end. See how he and/or his supporters react.

It's a shame that he can't go as completely and as awesomely batshit loco as Dave Sim did, towards the end of Cerebus. Did you hear about that one?

[anadart]

Yeah Dave Sim is a really sad case. He was a great guy through out the 1980's, but by 1995 he lost it. I was at a Convention with him here in Pittsburgh where he started going apeshit after the Con. Some of what happened turned into the "Guys" story line as Don Simpson was in it and at the after Con diner.

[dave_littler]

And now I've heard about this new thing of his; Glamourpuss, I think? A comic about women's fashions and using some sort of incredibly crude traced artwork? I haven't had the heart to check it out for myself. There's a point, for me, where even a trainwreck eventually becomes too sad and terrible to look at.

[dave_littler]

I realize this comes across as a pretty lukewarm review, but reading between the lines, you have to remember that I wouldn't be able to write this review if I didn't enjoy the book enough to stick through some eighty-plus issues of it.

[barbarpappa]

Huh.. weird.. The only time I've been annoyed with Fables was the one time, out of nowhere, Bigby Wolf started praising Israel and its struggle. I felt the sudden blatant introduction of real world politics extremely out of place and annoying.

Maybe more so because I'm very sympathetic with the struggle of the Palestinians.

It was actually the first time I noticed that the author might be conservative. I really hadn't noticed at all and was really surprised when I read about his political views afterwards.

[dave_littler]

Yeah, that one kind of came out of left field, but even within the narrative, you can dismiss it a little by saying "Well, Bigby is a charming and entertaining character, but he's also a predatory monster, so his support of Israel seems appropriate."

If it were Flycatcher or someone, THEN I would have been fucking enraged.

[ashbet]

Wow, that's . . . disturbing. I've read and enjoyed "Fables," as has my daughter, and I'm -- just going to try to forget that I read this, because I kind of hate to re-color my memories of the book that way. Deeply unfortunate that Willingham felt the need to speak up about it, rather than letting the story stand on its own.

(FWIW, I always thought Geppetto looked Italian!)

-- A <3

[dave_littler]

Well, it's like I said with Orson Scott Card; sometimes the work just needs to stand on its own, independant of the one doing the work. Is a hamburger served by a nazi going to taste worse than one served by a humanitarian?

This is all just sort of my reaction to him feeling the need to spell it out in interviews and such.

[barbarpappa]

But everybody knows nazis can't cook.