eevahotta

After years of hearing of Fables in hushed, reverent whispers, I thought I might take a look and see. I fear being branded a heretic, but I must admit I was underwhelmed. The premise of fairyland escaping Evil into our world was interesting, but the story was nothing more than an average detective novel told as an unmistakable DC comic. The highly touted sophistication I had heard about seemed to solely be in placing cherished children's characters in a vulgar dime novel. There was blood, sex, and copious f-bombs—all the trimmings of what passes for "adult" entertainment in American comics. But what of the story? Was it memorable? Did it have scope for the imagination? Or did it instead spend considerable energy childishly finding new sacred cows to paint as foul mouthed hussies? One or two characters might have been believable, but all of them? They spoke with the same voice. Each character was the same rebellious teenager, but with a different face. The origin tales are grim, a word we take from their original authors, but the characters depicted here were mundane. All wasn't a loss, though. Bill Willingham's story "A Wolf in the Fold" was excellent. It had depth and voice and the sophistication the graphic novel sadly lacked. I found myself thinking they had illustrated the wrong story. I highly recommend it and wish it was available separately for my ebook collection. Also of interest was James Jean's early paintings. His work has become more surreally elegant over the past decade, and certainly his craftsmanship has improved, but his unique vision still comes through these early pieces. I was quite happy to see them. The graphic novel was a two star experience for me, but the novel was a four. I'll give the book a three star overall and hope that volume two proves to be worthy of all the high praise.

2022-11-14 18:39