By Robin Jones
“Once upon a time, in a land of glass, steel and concrete, lived a displaced and homesick people wandering the sidewalks, hidden from the wider world. Fabled characters of lore and stories, they co-exist with us, the mundys, whilst dreaming of reclaiming their stolen lands. In the shadows however, lurked an ancient evil. An evil of many forms and shapes. Wampir, Striga, Peuchen, Kasha…Vampire. Different breeds and legacies inhabit the night, but in this modern world of steel and glass, a new breed lurks. Different. Feral. Wild. The American Vampire. In this land of fables and monsters, only one will inherit our world…let the battle commence…THE COMIC BATTLE!”
Rather than have two books of the same nature facing off against one another in the latest comic battle, I wanted to see what would happen if I chose two beloved series and threw them head to head at one another; snarling, gnashing, clawing at each other until one stands victorious over the other, it’s ink leaking all over the pavement, pages torn and ripped and it’s spine tattered and broken. Step forward, the challengers: Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque’s American Vampire and Bill Willingham and Lan Medina’s Fables: Legends In Exile. Two unique books from two very talented creative teams. They were unleashed upon each other all over my twitter feed and during the course of the day the poll swung in both books favour. However, only one could stand victorious…and that one was…
Fables.
New York. Home of immigrants, the hot dog, the Empire State building, community spirit, yellow taxi cabs and the displaced refugees of the fairy tale worlds. Our once upon a times are their worlds and existences. A world and existence that was ripped from them by the omnipotent and malevolent Adversary.Those who survived the invasion and onslaught fled into our world, the one world the Adversary had no interest in, the one world without magic, the Mundane world. Fables: Legends in Exile collects the first five issues of Bill Willingham’s sprawling epic, introducing us to the world the fables inhabit and several key figures. Snow White, deputy mayor/director of Fable affairs, and Bigby Wolf (formerly the big bad wolf, in a human form) are tasked with investigating the suspicious death of Snow’s sister Rose Red. Effectively a prologue, the volume suffers slightly due to it acting as an introduction. The pacing is slow to start with, but as you follow Bigby’s investigation, it picks up, the writing starts to shine through and the detective story really picks the pace up.
What Fables: Legends in Exile does, is provide us with a great deal of characterisation, despite the (at the time) ludicrous idea of fairy tale characters existing in the “real” world. The murder mystery feel of this first volume concentrates more on the reactions to Rose Red’s apparent death rather than the procedure, which adds a nice touch of charm to things, instead of focusing on the procedure behind the investigation, and it helps us to get our bearings in Willingham’s world through the eyes of the reformed Bigby and Snow. Snow is a strong character, albeit a slightly stereotypically 90’s woman, however her dialogue is snappy, her emotive scenes work well and she is an excellent companion to Bigby’s grizzled, noir-ish detective and his unrequited affection for Snow offers us laughs. The side characters are also intriguing, and it’s obvious that they are being setup for future issues/arcs. There’s Jack the fabled giant killer, an inept tricksters and schemer and his girlfriend Rose Red, Snow White’s estranged sister, socialite, party animal and the assumed missing. Then there’s Bluebeard and Prince Charming, the former a posturing, wealthy villain, the later a slick, womanizing conman with a list of conquests who haunt him.
Lan Medina’s artwork, unfortunately, can feel very dated. However his style is evocative and the detail he puts into each panel is beautiful. The character designs are fantastic, with Bigby’s gruff detective reflecting his wolfish nature, the other animal fables shining through with personality and charm and each fable has a modern element added to them. to keep a fairy tale theme, there are scroll designs throughout the artwork, playing on the comics roots and the colours and shading, whilst dating the comic, do also lend to its charm. Each of the cover’s are a standalone work of art, with cover artist James Jean creating masterpieces.
Whilst there can ultimately be parallels drawn between Fables and the TV shows Once upon a Time and Grimm, it was Willingham’s idea that came first and this first volume sets the scene for the long running story, chock full of characters with an unexpected amount of complexity and tantalizing storylines. From what I understand, it only gets better from here.
Inter-Comics currently has Fables and the Comic Battle loser American Vampire on sale at the moment, where you can pick up single issues starting at 99p! Just follow the LINK!
Until Next Time…
Rob Jones is an honourary Yorkie, but for the life of him, he can’t understand why. He writes articles, is attempting to write comics and his life ambition is to own a solid gold Donkey… For more comic news, reviews and the odd bit of sense, follow Robin on twitter @Hulksmash1985
Posted on May 30th, 2014
Category: PAPERCUTS AND INKSTAINS VOL. 2, REVIEWS
Tags: American Vampire, Bill Willingham, Comic Battle, Fables, Rafael Albuquerque, Robin Jones, Scott Snyder, Stephen King
Reviewed by Chris Fenn
I have enjoyed Snyder’s writing in the New 52, but I do have some slight hang ups over his plots. Now I know you may think that this has nothing to do with Batman #28, but bear with me; I’ll get there eventually!
I’ve recently been buying and sorting out Grant Morrison books; I have his complete Batman run, in trade paperbacks, from Batman and Son to the end of the first Batman Incorporated, and I have all of his New 52 Batman Incorporated books in comics. One of Morrison’s best arcs, in my opinion, spans the length of his Batman run and revolves around the Black Glove. Now this predates Snyder’s Court of Owls and I have to say, I feel The Black Glove is more complete, detailed and the identity of the main villain is more ambiguous which helps the story more. This isn’t to say that Snyder’s Owls arc is bad, it’s just Morrison’s is better.
So once Snyder was finished with Court of Owls he did his Death of the Family arc. I have to say that I haven’t read anything like it before and I think it’s on the whole very original and I enjoyed it. My hang up with this arc is that we seemed to be promised more than was delivered, and I’m sure this is due to the powers that be and not Snyder, but it turned what could have been a nuclear bomb into a sparkler. So, again, it’s not that I didn’t enjoy this story arc, but it did leave me with a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.
Now we have Snyder’s take on Year One. Clearly this is a tall order to deliver something that seems to be revered as a Holy book by the general Batman community, but I like that Snyder is going in his own direction and focusing less on the mafia angle and more on the super-villain ‘prototypes’. I’ve been liking this story a lot, and I love how he has incorporated the Red Hood, Riddler and Dr. Death without making the whole thing feel like a schizophrenic mess.
Then there’s Batman #28.
Advertised on the front cover it does say that this is a “Secret Glimpse into Batman Eternal”, but I expected something along the lines of what Detective Comics #27 gave us for Gothtopia. Instead it gave us the bulk of the issue as a context-less sample of Eternal and then a ‘trailer’ for American Vampire.
Now I liked what I read with Batman Eternal; I like the fact that it’s set in a totalitarian or dystopian near future and thus far we have no idea why. I like that Harper Row is being made useful instead of being an annoying character with no significance other than the fact it’s obvious she will assume the role of a side-kick or spin off character. I like that Stephanie Brown makes an appearance and is being made out to be a very significant character towards Eternal’s plot. I like this nastier, unforgiving Catwoman and am looking forward to seeing where her hatred for Batman has come from.
What I don’t like is when I pay for a Batman comic and get a Batman Eternal comic. I wanted to read about Batman facing the Riddler and I wanted to see how his first adventure ends, or at least see the story progress towards an end. I was probably going to buy Batman Eternal anyway; because it’s another Batman book written by Snyder, I don’t need to pay for an advert when I’m confident that I’ll be seeing a lot of adverts for it in my other DC comics.
I’m also really bitter towards the plugging of Snyder’s American Vampire. It’s not even because that title doesn’t interest me, it just seems like a cheap way of using up space and lining Snyder’s pockets. The Batman Eternal inclusion is irritating, but makes sense; advertise more Batman comics in, what is possibly the most popular and best-selling Batman title.
I know this isn’t much of a review of content, but it just really bugged me. Sorry for the rant readers, but if anybody who read Batman #28 felt the same way as I did then it’s perfectly justified.
For more comic views and reviews follow Chris on Twitter at @fenneth1989
Posted on February 16th, 2014
Category: OUT OF THE LONG BOX, REVIEWS
Tags: American Vampire, Batman #28 Review, Catwoman, Chris Fenn, Comic Blog, Comic Reviews, DC Comics, Harper Row, Scott Snyder, Spoiler
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