Sakura of DOOM

Wow, I haven't read Fables in a while. I originally loved the series -- it's about fairy tales and fables, all jaded and bitter, living in New York! How could I not love it?

But this collection and the last one (March of the Wooden Soldiers) have an underlying harshness to them that is disconcerting. It's not a sudden thing; it's been there all along, but it's been grating on me more. I can't tell if it's because londonkds's commentary on the way Willingham seems to tend toward the conservative or what. I noticed it especially in this collection.

It's the focus on Bigby and Snow as the sole people who can keep order in Fabletown, with the small exception of Rose Red, and it's especially apparent in this book, where Bigby stresses how he's the one who does the things that no one else wants to do or even know about, and it's those very same unsavory things that keep the town running. londonkds has been drawing parallels to extremely hawkish, conservative politics for a while, (alas, I cannot find the entries!), and it is rather unsettling reading about statements like this after a war and in the current political climate. I am also irked that Bigby gets a nifty, macho WWII war story background while Snow almost always is non-violent unless threatened and a firm believer in order.

( Spoilers )

I am officially in love with this comic now. I liked it a whole lot before, but this one had me smiling and laughing and generally having a wonderful time.

Fables actually reminds me a bit of Sandman, except at this point, it's not quite as broad or as deep. They both have stories at the center, but while Sandman takes everyday life and makes it mythic, Fables takes the mythic and makes it everyday.

This collection is actually framed by two sort-of fairy tales -- the first one is a story of Jack in the Confederate South, and as Willingham puts it, "This story was freely adapted from a couple of the Mountain Jack Tales of American Folklore. In true oral tradition, it's been much altered under my care, which is a polite way of saying that I stole everything I thought I could use, changed a bunch of stuff to suit my whims, and made up the rest." The second is a story of what happens when Thumbelina is the only thumb-sized girl in a city of Lilliputians tale.

Then there's a two-parter, which leads to Storybook Love (actually only four issues). For Who Killed Rose Red? and Animal Farm, I liked the Fables characters, particularly Bigby (the Big Bad Wolf in human form) and Snow White, but now I've just fallen completely for them. Most of the characters are more caricature than character in the beginning books, funny sketches of what fairy tale characters would be like in the real world if they were immortal, but Willingham's started to really make them his own characters by the middle of the second book. There's an interesting mix of ruthlessness and goodness in them, and while the world is by no means warm and fuzzy, Willingham isn't nearly as bleak as Alan Moore can be. And I like how the threads of plot from the first two books tie in and the continuity in general. I'm a sucker for continuity and slow world-building, which is why I like long series and TV shows.

And Bigby and Snow are so cute! I particularly love Snow White and her practical, business-minded self, and Bigby is much in the tradition of Wolverine.

While the first two books of Fables were really good, to me, this one started really opening up the world for side things, like the new folktales, and I'm particularly looking forward to more stories from the Homeland. I really like how the structure of the Fables world supports this, which is what reminded me the most of Sandman. Hellboy's sort of got the same appeal in terms of short stories, but Hellboy's overriding arcs are pretty messy and the characterization isn't quite as neatly drawn.

Sigh. Now I really want to start buying the issues monthly, which is not at all practical.

Oh, also, there are rodent deaths in Storybook Love. Somehow I doubt anyone else on my FL is quite as squeamish about this as me (what with the pet mice and rats), but I sniffled.