Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities FABLES (Spoilers Possible For the TPB Folks)

Hm. I forgot about Everafter. Probably because I never intend to get anything Fables-related that isn't written by Willingham. (Not saying that anything else is necessarily bad by definition, but it's a personal choice.) It sounds very peripheral in the Fables Universe, like the Dreaming book and other Sandman spin-offs of its kind did, so that doesn't help its case. I'll be watching reviews like yours carefully, though, FC.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about Fanfic Lady's discovery of Fables and how long it's been since we had updates. What's up, Fick?

Oh, my!

Oopsie.

I can't believe I allowed this to slip so far from the here and now that I left you (and possibly others) hanging, Lardy.

Apologies all around.

The short version is that, after what I felt was a too-matter-of-fact revelation of the Adversary's identity, my enthusiasm for "Fables" gradually started leaking away like air from a punctured tire. If I remember my post in this thread about that correctly, it didn't bother me that much at the time, but it definitely had a long-term effect on me sustaining my interest, even though the actual quality of the story & art didn't decrease appreciably at the point where I left off.

So I guess you could say I've been on an indefinite hiatus. I certainly haven't closed the door on resuming sometime sooner or later.

Funnily enough, I had a similar experience recently with another Vertigo ongoing, this one from one of my all-around fave writers, Mike Carey: "The Unwritten." I stopped right after the Moby Dick arc (Volume 5, was it?) I do intend to resume that one, too, at some unknown time, and comment accordingly in the Vertigo thread. What I will say about it is that while I don't think it's Carey's most satisfying work, some of the left-of-center done-in-one special issues are absolutely astounding -- I loved the secret-life-of-Rudyard-Kipling one, and one I loved *even more* was the one that parodied the whole A.A. Milne/Kenneth Grahame/Beatrix Potter school of writing, with the foul-mouthed renegade rabbit, and the little girl/the author's Mary Sue throwing him into the dark realm behind the basement door. Great stuff.

I think the Adversary storyline is much more rewarding beyond just the reveal of his true identity. In the end I think Gepetto was a good choice, especially with Pinnochio being an established member of the cast and giving the Adversary some weight as a result. But I think there's plenty to enjoy (and also mourn) in the balance of the story.

On the contrary, I don't see how Bill could ever have considered Peter Pan in the context of this series. (The TV show Once Upon a Time eventually went there, though--to mixed results.) I have to believe that at the very least he had decided on Gepetto by the time the wooden soldiers appeared.

Thanks, Lardy. I definitely will come back to "Fables" at some point.

Re: Peter Pan, after I made my most recent post in this thread, I went back and re-read that earlier one I made about the Adversary. I felt then (and still feel today) that Peter Pan as the Adversary would have been wrong on so many levels that it moves beyond absurd into scary.

And my reaction to the Geppetto reveal really had nothing to do with *who* was the Adversary, just the way that Willingham seemed to execute the reveal with a shrug, in a very matter-of-fact way, which kind of took the wind out of my sails, though I wasn't conscious of that at first. Geppetto was quite a good choice for the series' arch-villain IMO, I just felt the way that Willingham wrote that whole reveal sequence and its aftermath was wonky.

Yeah, in retrospect the reveal wasn't all that dramatic and, in fact, fairly anti-climactic. I guess it was less noticeable for me because I was inadvertently spoiled by a solicitation I'd read for one of the later TPBs that flat-out named him as the Adversary. But luckily, there was much more to enjoy beyond that reveal.

Jeez, Lardy, that sucks.

I can't recall offhand any similar personal experience of accidentally seeing a mega-spoiler of those proportions, but I can certainly sympathize.

I have no doubt that the next few trades awaiting me sometime in the future will be immensely rewarding.

And, while The Unwritten arguably has less to offer than Fables, I'm sure there are still some gems to be found (I can't recommend highly enough those two stand-alone special issues I mentioned before.)

Yeah, I was scrolling thru the TPB listings on Mycomicshop.com as I was trying to evaluate and price which TPBs I needed and there it was in the description for Vol. 9, "Sons of Empire":





This reminds me, though, that I still have 2 Fables GNs by Willingham that I stll need to get and read: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, Werewolves of the Heartland and Peter & Max. Is that a complete list of the GNs, Fables fans?



I own and read Unwritten Vol. 1 a few years ago. I definitely enjoyed it overall and meant to continue at some point. I had a similar experience reading 100 Bullets Vols. 1 & 2, but both projects have fallen by the wayside in the midst of numerous other trade interests (documented in my Pile thread). I guess both were really good but not great and addictive to the point that I HAD to have the rest. But they are both there waiting for me when the mood eventually strikes.

I'm afraid I can't attest to the completeness of that Fables GN list, Lardy, but I will opine that 1001 Nights of Snowfall is delightful. That was actually the *first* Fables GN I ever read, and then mainly for some of the guest artists. After that, I read Vol. 1 of the ongoing, and, as I recounted before, I was underwhelmed, and I didn't give Fables another chance until after your insistence that Vol. 2 was much better had been stuck in my mind for quite a while. I'm still very grateful for that.



Yep, some series are just better enjoyed piecemeal.

Do you remember liking the Rudyard Kipling issue of The Unwritten which concludes Vol. 1?

The memory is VERY vague, but yes, I do remember liking it and enjoying its offbeat flavour.

YAY! I'm glad to hear that, Lardy.

Sometimes I think "The Unwritten" would probably have been better as a tapestry of vaguely inter-connective done-in-ones.

1001 was and is a terrific read. True fairy tale telling, I read it again and again. At some point, I more enjoyed Fairest than Fables. Maybe the smaller cast but it also gave some of the off-beat characters a shine, it grew the characters and made them more interesting to me.

Werewolves was fun mostly from the point I could easily pretend I was reading real history, the parts they weren't allowed to put in our Social Studies books.

A comment on Unwritten: I felt they should have ended the series after the Moby Dick arc. The following issues struck me as meandering and repetitive. However, the final arc "Apocalypse" was much more satisfying. I suspect it's possible to skip the stories between Moby Dick and this final arc, since all the characters had been introduced by the end of Moby Dick.

Hmmm...I'll keep that in mind, FC. Thanks.

After a few issues, I decided to cut Everafter, primarily to free up funds for other books. It wasn't bad by any means, but it didn't capture my interest like Fables did and I found one of the main characters, Connor Wolf, pretty annoying. It also struck me as slower-paced than Fables.

Agree 100%. I loved the series and I loved the Moby Dick arc. But once it ended, I never felt enthralled by the series anymore, as if it was adding unnecessary parts to what was almost perfect before. I actually cancelled it soon after without seeing it to the end.

That being said, it's definitely my top Mike Carey series of all time.

Regarding Fables: it was once my very favorite series and then in the final years my enthusiasm really waned. But then the finale of the series was so brilliant and so satisfying that it felt like the perfect gift for long time fans. As a result, I just can't bring myself to buy any additional Fables related spin-offs, as it ended on such a good note after so many doubts it would do so. I don't want to screw that feeling up .