Trade Waiting Retrospective: Fables

Fables by Bill Willingham

Words cannot adequately express my love for Bill Willingham’s Fables.  I have read the eleven available trades, the special edition book of side stories, and four trades of its spin-off, Jack of Fables, and I find myself incredibly depressed to learn that it will be months before I get another volume.  In recent years, fairy tales have made a comeback in popular literature.  Gregory Maguire has launched a career reworking classic fairy tales, and other authors are following suit.  I even took a college course devoted entirely to fairy tales.  While I hope that this resurgence in interest in classic children’s stories doesn’t become overdone, I’m loving it while its still fun and Fables is one of the funnest comics I’ve ever read.

Fables presents a world where fairy tale characters live in a specific neighborhood in New York City known as Fabletown.  Those characters that can’t pass as human (such as the Three Little Pigs) are forced to live on the Farm, Fabletown’s massive farm in upstate New York.  The series stars an ensemble cast that are slowly introduced over the first few trades, as are bits of backstory and history.  The Fables have been driven from their Homelands by a mysterious and all-powerful Adversary.  The different arcs present the overall goal of all characters, which is to return to the Homelands, and while numerous characters are presented, a few strong leaders present themselves.  Snow White is the deputy mayor of Fabletown, the Big Bad Wolf (now Bigby) is sherrif, Prince Charming is seeking to become the new mayor, Boy Blue is the town’s main errand runner, and Snow’s estranged sister Rose Red is the leader of the Farm.

Fairy tales all follow a pretty standard formula.  There are only a few characters, with very few actually being given names.  There’s the good girl, there is the wicked girl (or stepmother), and a trickster figure somewhere in between.  Most male and female fairy tale characters fall into one of these catagories.  Something traumatic happens, typically with the nice character being victimized by the bad character, the good character flees “into the woods” where he/she faces tribulations typically by threes, learns to stand up for themselves, and returns to assert their new authority and independence.  Fables does not follow this exactly, but similar themes are followed.  All of the characters are various shades of grey, neither completely good or bad.  Willingham even makes characters that you should hate likeable.  Prince Charming is the best example of this.  Thrice divorced, shaking up with any woman with money that he can steal, he is a horrible excuse for a human being.  But he is still immensely likeable.

One great aspect of Fables is that nearly every arc is presented as a specific type of genre fiction.  The first arc is a murder mystery, with the last issue actually being called “The Parlor Scene” where everything is revealed.  The second arc is the story of a revolution, a modern retelling of Orwell’s Animal Farm.  There are romances, there are intrigue stories, there are war stories.  All different story telling methods are employed, but they never seem disconnected from each other.  The whole work flows together beautifully.  As the story progresses, the rules of how the universe works are shown, and they are reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.  The Fables have powers that normal people (we’re known as mundies) believe them to have, and the more widely known the Fable is, the more powerful they are.  A character takes a bullet to the head, but because everyone knows her story, she makes a perfect recovery.  There is another case where characters die, but someone has to fill their place in the stories.  This sort of meta-level examination of literature is fascinating.  Jack of Fables, the spin-off series featuring Jack of beanstalk fame, goes even further, developing a race called Literals, personification of literary devices like the pathetic fallacy (giving human emotions to inanimate objects).

I would recommend this to anyone who loves comics, and to those that have never read comics before.  Because the characters are those that everyone knows, but in new situations, it is immediately accessible and highly addictive.  I recommend this to everyone because anyone who loves to read will find pleasure in thinking about what the characters of their favorite stories are up to after the “Happily Ever After.”  There are some minor language, sexual, and violence issues, but nothing horribly offensive.  The only problem I have known people to have with the series is having to wait for more.  I’ve long said that comics are a deep, dark hole, and amazing series like Fables are the reasons I never want to find my way out.  Until next time, folks.

Airborn

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

Matt Cruse is a cabin boy aboard the airship Aurora, a dirigible filled with the lighter then air gas, hydrium. He yearns to move up in rank and become an assistant sailmaker, a person who attends and repairs the giant gas cells that keep the ship afloat, just like his deceased father. Matt’s adventure starts when he encounters an elderly balloonist in a dramatic midair rescue attempt. The balloonist eventually dies soon after confiding in Matt about strange creatures hereto undiscovered; creatures that live their whole lives in the open air. Six months later Matt encounters the balloonists granddaughter, Kate de Vries, on a trip to Australia, and discovers that not only does she share his curiosity about the mysterious creatures but plans on finding evidence of their existence. In the meantime Matt discovers he won’t get promoted because a young man of wealth and connection, Bruce Lunardi, has been placed as the new junior sailmaker. To top it off Matt and the airship encounter pirates and are eventually shipwrecked on a uncharted island that may hold the proof of the airborn creatures they’ve been looking for. But the island holds many dangers that will test their ingenuity, courage, and may hasten the end of their mortality.

This was an enjoyable novel that is in the tradition of old swashbuckler movies, and the works of Robert Louis Stevenson. The novel keeps a good balance between its action scenes and character development. The reader not only becomes invested in the plot, the predicaments (of which there are many) that the characters find themselves in, but also in the characters themselves, how they grow and change because of the situations they face. The only defect is that the novel slows down a bit in the middle, but it’s redeemed by a rousing, action packed conclusion.

I’d recommend it for anyone 12 and up, especially those who are interested in pirates and classic adventure yarns.

Black Tattoo

The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven

I hate to admit it but I picked this up based mostly on its cover. It just screamed too cool for school. And then I started reading it and couldn’t put it down. It’s a very quick and engrossing read, with plenty of action and a fresh take on the demon/hell subgenre.

Black Tattoo is the story of three teens and their attempts to thwart the evil Scourge, a demon intent on destroying all of reality. Esme is the young heroine who has magical abilities, such as flight, but can also kick major bootie with a sword and hand to hand combat. Then there is Charlie, whose parents recently divorced. He is pretty angry at his parents and the world. Then all of a sudden he is given magical abilities because of a mysterious black tattoo that appears on his body. Having unlimited power and being angry is not the best situation a young man could find himself in. Fortunately for Charlie he has his best friend for the ride, Jack. After Esme and Charlie, Jack is just a normal everyday teen. Through out the journey he proves time again that despite not having powers, and being pretty much scared witless all the time even a normal boy can become a hero.

What I really liked about this book though is where the second half of the book occurs, Hell. Although it resembles a fire and brimstone hell, it really is its own world, full of different monsters, gladiator battles, and a mysterious dragon at the heart of reality.

I’d highly recommend this book. It’s the perfect distraction on a winter afternoon.

Hero

Hero by Perry Moore

There’s really nothing the super hero genre hasn’t already done.  It hasn’t really forged any new ground, and has instead continued using the same archetypes of heroes granted godlike powers and all kinds of insecurities.  “I can fly at the speed of sound, can’t be killed, and I just can’t get Lois Lane/Mary Jane/Jean Grey/etc.”  Don’t get me wrong, I love my superhero comics, but the major characters haven’t really evolved.  The same could be said for coming out literature.  Starting with Alex Sanchez’s Rainbow Boys, the number of books involving gay characters coming to grips with their sexuality has grown substantially.  But they are still basically Dawson’s Creek with gay characters.  “Oh, I love you but I can never be with you…Oh woe is me…”  Perry Moore’s Hero manages to merge the two genres into a pretty seamless package.  While it doesn’t forge new ground in either genre, as a combined effort, it’s a great young adult novel.

Thom Creed is not your average kid.  He goes to high school and he plays basketball, but he is far from being a normal teenager.  His father was once a superhero.  He was apprenticed to a character similar to Superman, but was disgraced and driven from the League, a massive group of heroes who protect the Earth and are modeled after DC’s pantheon.  The mystery of Thom’s father’s fall from grace is central to the plot, and is intriguing enough to keep reading.

The House of the Scorpion

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Set in a depressing future, The House of the Scorpion is an interesting young adult novel dealing with drug production and cloning.  The bulk of the story is set in the country of Opium, which was created between the United States and Mexico.  This country was founded for a variety of reasons.  It is a buffer between the countries, preventing illegal immigration.  This immigration was apparently no longer from Mexico into America, but Americans were crossing the Rio Grande into the booming Mexican economy.  Opium was also established as a place to legally grow opium poppy, fields and fields of it.  The drugs produced here were not to be sold to either American or Mexican citizens, and the widespread availability of the drugs were meant to dissuade people from using them.  If they are everywhere and easy to obtain, fewer people will use them is apparently the logic.

The story follows Matt who was being raised by a cook on the fringes of the palatial grounds of the ruler of Opium, El Patron.  Through a series of events, Matt comes to live in the palace of El Patron, learning that he is a clone of the nearly 200 year-old drug lord.  Matt becomes El Patron’s favorite pet, while all other potential heirs to his throne obviously hate Matt.  El Patron’s health declines and Matt learns he has been grown solely for new organs for El Patron, and seeks to escape before he becomes the next clone to fall victim to El Patron’s failing health.

Monster Planet

Monster Planet: A Zombie Novel

This book is third in David Wellington’s zombie series. The first book is Monster Island, (but actually happens to be the second in story chronology). The second of the series published (but first in story chronology) is Monster Nation. All are great book and work as a trilogy, although I think there may be more to come.

We are all, or at least should be, familiar with zombie apocalypses. Wellington’s Monster series follows the traditional outline of zombie attacks, that is the dead rise from the dead, eat the living, the living fight back to only realize that they (humanity) are the real monsters. Zombies, from a character stand point, are kind of like one trick ponies; they eat people and that’s about it. Wellington diverges from the zombie norm by incorporating lich (rhymes with ditch) zombies, or liches in the plural. Liches are badass zombies who retain their personalities and gain magical abilities. They also want to destroy the rest of humanity (not just eat it).

Overall Wellington does a great job at combining the old with the new. The action sequences are great. The humans are just the right amount of desperate, the zombies are just the right amount of hungry and the liches are just to cool for school. Highly recommended!

Eclipse

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

What is it about vampires that people find sexy? I’ve never quite understood the fascination with being made the meal of a blood-thirsty creature of the night. Anne Rice certainly made a career out of showing the exotic side of vampires, and now Stephenie Meyer has done the same thing for the young adult audience.

This series is quickly becoming a juggernaut. If it will ever overtake Harry Potter in terms of ubiquitous popularity remains to be seen, but these books are insanely popular. Eclipse is the third in the series, and like Harry Potter, they must be read in order. Twilight, New Moon, and now Eclipse follow the exploits of Bella Swan, who moves to Forks, Washington, to live with her sheriff father. Once in school, she becomes enamoured with a family of extremely beautiful brothers and sisters, and begins a relationship with the most beautiful, Edward. This relationship is immediately the only thing in Bella’s life, and all of her other relationships are jeopardized. Edward’s desire for Bella goes beyond just her personality, as it turns out he’s a vampire, but they manage to make it work. That is until they have a big dramatic break-up, Bella runs off with a friend of hers, Jacob, who turns out to be a werewolf. Thus, the horrible question is presented: which creature of the night will she chose to love?