Like a Virgin: FABLES VOL. 3

As I said over in the first installment of this column, I fancy myself a well-read comics fan, but there's tons of highly praised stuff I just haven't made it to, yet.

So, I've decided to tackle Fables from Vertigo Comics and I'm posting my reactions to each collection here. Watch out for spoiler if you haven't read the books!

This time it's Vol. 3: Storybook Love.


Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Mark Buckingham, Lan Medina, Bryan Talbot and Linda Medley
Inked by Steve Leialoha, Craig Hamilton, Talbot and Medley
Covers by James Jean and Aron Wiesenfeld
Collects Fables #11-#18

What I knew going in (remember: there will be spoilers!):

• Snow White and Bigby Wolf are going to have babies.
• Gapetto is the Adversary/series creator Bill Willingham intended for the Adversary to be Peter Pan before it was discovered that copyright laws in certain places didn't have Pan in the public domain, which is a criteria Willingham uses in his recruiting for the characters in the series.
  
• James Jean is a dope-ass artist.
• I originally bought and read issues #1-15 of the series as they came out and just stopped one day because I was spending too much money and it landed on the chopping block for no good reason.

What I thought as I read:

• Lookit Aron Wiesenfeld doing his cover thang! I dunno why he did the cover for issue #11's standalone story, but he did. He also did the late teens/early 20s covers for Y: The Last Man, too. He's a solid artist I first noticed from his spectacular covers on that anthology book WildStorm!, and you can check out his line art here:

So, when I saw him in Fables, I was tickled and baffled. And both were very welcome feelings. I think this cover may be only one of two for the entire series NOT done by Jean. The first being that Maleev variant for issue #1.

• Zombie farmyard animals? Rad.

• I gotta say, as much as I enjoyed Medina's art in the first volume, his art in this volume's two-issue story about a journalist who thinks the Fables are a community of vampires was top-notch. Great layouts and angles and pacing all over. Wow.
• Did I mention this story is about a journalist who thinks the Fables are a community of VAMPIRES!? Fuck, that's exactly what I meant in my vol. 1 writeup when I said I was excited about the story possibilities this series could present. And seeing a group of the male characters stumbling around in heist fashion to steal any evidence the journalist had is so much fun to watch.
• Seeing Bigby knock Bluebeard down a peg was pretty cathartic considering Bluebeard is kind of a tool. But I wasn't prepared to see BB cry like that - and even more unprepared for how sorry it made me feel for the formerly murderous pirate.

• Forget my crush on plain ol' Beauty - I now have a crush on SLEEPING Beauty:

• Cold, Bluebeard. Yer cold as ICE:

• Tiny patrolmen on mice?! YES!

• The sparring match between Bluebeard and Prince Charming that ran across the bottom of the pages in issue #14 was a little distracting at first, but I didn't mind the switch-up in structure by the end.
• Goldilocks and Bluebeard?! Ew, lah lah!:

• Heroes:

• Not sure I dig the way Buckingham draws Bigby's mouth (or lack of a mouth) under his facial hair. Maybe I'll get used to it...

• Pinocchio made an odd design change between issues #13 and #15 - what's with the square jaw?:

• I just like this panel:

• Fucking hero:

• I like Prince Charming setting up some detective work of his own by hiring the tiny police agents from the farm. Just as I was thinking the guy was a one-note douche character, he pulls some stuff like that.
• Fucking EPIC hero:

See, it's the side battles and arcs like this that really keep me glued to this book. The Snow White and Bigby stuff is usually front and center and then you get smaller (literally smaller, as is the case here) intrigue from sprinkled bits like this. It usually leads to no fat in the series, which I like.

• It's cute to hear Bigby's proclamation of love to Snow White. Following up on the text piece from the end of the first volume, Bigby's explanation that Snow White, no matter all his work to make the fact not true, is his one eternal love...and he's known it for some time now. Genuinely touching stuff and surprising emotional responses from characters I thought I had pegged for sure.
  
• Here's my favorite splash of the series so far, courtesy of Bigby's huff and puff attack against a sniping Goldilocks. You can feel the power in the art:

• Speaking of which, finding out the Bigby's dad is the North Wind is a stellar touch! Looking forward to seeing THAT interaction followed up.
• Oh Snap! Bluebeard vs. Prince Charming? PC comes out on top. Poor Bluebeard.
• As if Goldilocks unloading a rifle into a full-grown Bigby's wolf mouth weren't brutal enough, in comes Snow White with the thwack:
• The following chilling panel reminds me of Brad Pitt in Fight Club whispering "What's that smell."

• And the fight goes on for a few panels. It's really beautiful, frightening survival of the fittest shit going on. The volume is worth a read for those few pages alone.
• Ah-ha! I did NOT know that was how Snow and Bigby got preggers. The poor couple.
• Notice in the standalone backup story from issue #18 that as the tiny adventurer and his brave bird fly back into the Homelands for a miracle to save his people, he tells his bird to fly "straight on 'til morning." Those, of course, are the final words of direction used in "Peter Pan" to explain how to get to Neverland. I dunno how long it was before Willingham decided not to go with Peter as the Adversary, but to get back to the Homelands you had to at least go through Pan's realm, so I'd assume it was still in Willingham's head in issue #18.
• My favorite cover in the collection? Right here:

It's dangerous, soft, stylized, leveled and pink. But here is my choice for second place, which is unfortunate, because I stopped buying the series initially just one issue before it. And you can see this is the collection where James Jean really starts feeling comfortable with his voice on the series' covers. As always, I love his pinks here. And the mood in this cover is just the right mix of noir and elegance for me.

Now on to volume 4...

Like a Virgin: FABLES VOL. 2

As I said over in the first installment of this column, I fancy myself a well-read comics fan, but there's tons of highly praised stuff I just haven't made it to, yet.

So, I've decided to tackle Fables from Vertigo Comics and I'm posting my reactions to each collection here. Watch out for spoiler if you haven't read the books!

This time it's Vol. 2: Animal Farm.

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Mark Buckingham
Inked by Steve Leialoha
Covers by James Jean
Collects Fables #6-#10

What I knew going in (remember: there will be spoilers!):

• Snow White and Bigby Wolf are going to have babies.
• Gapetto is the Adversary/series creator Bill Willingham intended for the Adversary to be Peter Pan before it was discovered that copyright laws in certain places didn't have Pan in the public domain, which is a criteria Willingham uses in his recruiting for the characters in the series.
  
• James Jean is a dope-ass artist.
• I originally bought and read issues #1-15 of the series as they came out and just stopped one day because I was spending too much money and it landed on the chopping block for no good reason.

What I thought as I read:

• I know Mark Buckingham goes on to become the regular Fables interior artist, so it was good to see his debut stuff here, especially because his rounded art style lends itself well to animals and fantastical creatures and those are exactly the type of characters predominantly seen in this volume. Makes me wonder if Fables was originally going to recruit artists in step with the tone of the stories as the series went on.
• I love how the tone of the story shifts by the end of the first issue thanks to that unexpected beheading. Guh, that was a punch to the stomach.

• And remember how Colin was seen in the background of the first volume a ton? Shit, he's on all the covers of the first volume's single issues trying to hide in the picture. Take a look:
  

He even crashed on Bigby's couch. At the time he seemd to just want to hang in the city, but it's clear here now that he wanted to live in the city because his peers on the farm were going bat-shit crazy.

• I like that Bigby isn't allowed on the farm upstate because of all the terrible shit he's done to the animal characters there. Amnestry or not, they don't want a serial killer in their midst. :)
• That troll thing that shows up is clearly an homage to Kirby art, right? I mean, look at those claws and the Kirby face detail lines.

• How big an asshole is Goldilocks?

• Yum! Bestiality!

• You try and eat Snow White and she'll shoot your ass until you fall off a cliff. Fucking brutal.

• This reminds me of Annette Bening's quick breakdown in American Beauty.

• I enjoyed the discussions about freedom in this volume and adding the philosophies on the subject to the idea that the Fables have been in the human realm for centuries never came off forced or ineffective. If anything, it all added a depth to the plight of the characters and illustrated how trapped they ALL are. Sad stuff.
• And even though I read it in single issues, the final scene of issue #9 still surprised me on this reading!

• And, of course, the shooting lead to the revelation that a Fable's invulnerability is directly linked to their popularity among humans. Snow White being so popular, she was able to shrug off a bullet to the head (though it did take MONTHS of therapy). Immediately it had me calling bullshit, though, cause of the death of Colin, one of the 3 little pigs, earlier in the arc. The 3 Little Pigs is a hugely popular story. So how was he capable of dying? But whatever, I guess his appearance to Snow in a vision after her death explains it well enough. Fables never really die, they just go to a sort of limbo.
• The "characters can't die if their stories are popular" rule also touched on the idea of Peter Pan as the Adversary for me. In Peter Pan, if you tell the fairies in the story that you don't believe in them, they die. But if you clap your hands, they come back to life. The ratio of popularity to death in both instances seem to mirror each other for me, though I also think I'm reaching here.
  
• Just like in the first arc, there's a nice, tidy resolution of all the loose ends as all the characters involved find themselves somewhere they weren't at when the story began. I liked this arc's resolution better than the first arc's and you can tell how comfortable Willingham was becoming with this world of characters.
• And the extras in this baby are rad! I loved it back when TPBs had extras like sketch material for fans. It showed a little somethin' somethin' for those who plunked down the cash for these things. Both Willingham and Jean provide sketches including Wuillingham's character concept images, which are great fun to look at thanks to Willingham's strong art style. It's also neat to see how the characters evolved from his ideas to the final product.
  
• I loved all the pinks in James Jean's covers this time around, and you can tell he's finding a new creativity in these issues thanks to the cover collection in the back of the trade. My favorite from this collection? Issue #10:

Though the wraparound cover to the trade is STUNNING.

And that's that! On to volume 3...

Like a Virgin: FABLES

I fancy myself an unusually well-read comics fan.

I own and have read a little of everything. From obscure mini comics by Jeffrey Brown to the entire "Death of Superman" run to Kramers Ergot to all of Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps to the Jim Mahfood Generation X Special to Kamandi to the Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics to Lewis Trondheim to literally thousands of other random things. I've been around.

Even still, there're several books/series/runs referred to as "essentials" that I haven't read before. And it's high time I dove in, don't you think?

So I'm starting this series of articles titled "Like a Virgin" in which I plan on giving my thoughts about my first full readings of these popular books/series/runs and invite you to post your own feelings. Maybe you can read along with me? Or maybe just read what I think and compare it to what you've already thought of the series - I AM coming to the party late, after all, so there's no doubt you're already ahead of me. Also, these will be posted as I make my way through the thick of it, so they WILL feature spoilers. Enter at your own risk.

First up is FABLES vol. 1: Legends in Exile from Vertigo Comics

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Lan Medina
Inked by Steve Leialoha and Craig Hamilton
Covers by James Jean with a special cover by Alex Maleev

What I knew going in (remember: there will be spoilers!):

• Snow White and Bigby Wolf are going to have babies.
• Gapetto is the Adversary/series creator Bill Willingham intended for the Adversary to be Peter Pan before it was discovered that copyright laws in certain places didn't have Pan in the public domain, which is a criteria Willingham uses in his recruiting for the characters in the series.
  
• James Jean is a dope-ass artist.
• I originally bought and read issues #1-15 of the series as they came out and just stopped one day because I was spending too much money and it landed on the chopping block for no good reason.
  

What I thought as I read:

• When it came out originally, I TOTALLY bought the Alex Maleev cover to issue #1 over the James Jean cover. :)
  
• Original series artist Lan Medina reminds me an awful lot of Dale Eaglesham in terms of their backgrounds, facial features and action scenes. It's fun to watch here as the series clearly tries on artistic shoes to see what fits early on.
  
• It's interesting how the pace of the first arc in the first trade feels so much like a Vertigo miniseries (if that makes any sense) rather than the start of a long-lasting series. The first arcs of books such as The Sandman, Preacher, and Swamp Thing, for instance, seemed much more comfortable with their places as the starts of series with something special to say. This first arc (and from what I remember of the first arc of future "Like a Virgin" series 100 Bullets) felt more like, say, the first Bite Club miniseries. Very definite. Very tidy. Very clear. This Fables story was even a simplly structured "Locked Room" mystery - though very very creative in its use of characters and dialogue. I'm glad the tonal kitty got to stretch more as the book went on.
• I kind of have a crush on Beauty...

• I'm surprised by how...well, dull the first arc's covers by James Jean were considering he's grown into a fierce artist nowadays who's unafraid to juxtapose mediums and images for the best piece possible. But just click here and take a look at what I mean. It was impressive then. But not signature. Which, I guess, speaks volumes for Jean as an artist, that he only got better and better and better...
• If you get the TPB collection, please don't skip the touching prose piece at the end of the volume! I ended up skipping the last few prose pieces in the single issues of the second volume of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and never went back. But if those were as integral as this one was to the story, I missed a pretty large section of the plot. Wanna know how Bigby first met Snow? Then go back and read this!
• The story possibilities set up in this arc are ENDLESS and I forgot how exciting it was to read for the first time. Mashing up all of these fairy tales was a great treat and very promising. And it didn't HIT me til the speech during the Remembrance Day festival later in this collection. As the mayor speaks about the Fables and their fleeing from a bad dude conqueror called The Adversary who stole all their respective kingdoms (thus pushing them to move to the human "Mundy" realm), a flashback reveals scenes featuring characters from a bevy of stories running for their lives alongside each other. Very exciting, indeed.
  
• During the very same speech, we get a glimpse of the Adversary and discover he was "From beyond the farthest shores of Never..." This is obviously the first hint at the Adversary as Peter Pan, and it makes me wonder how many people had Pan pegged as such from here on out.
• A few pages later we get our first appearance of Pinocchio. I haven't gotten far enough yet to know if Pinocchio plays a larger role in Gapetto's being the Adversary, but it's neat to see him and hints at Pan in the same issue. Also, he's horny.

And that does it. All-in-all, I'm excited to get to the next volume as soon as I can...