Sunday, March 6, 2011

10 Thoughts on... Fables vol. 1

One more “10 Thoughts on...” post before the weekend is finished. I'm kind of leaning towards saving these “10 Thoughts” posts for the weekends and doing my regular reviews during the week. Of course that plan can, and almost definitely will change, but that's the current plan. We'll see just how long I decide to stick with it.

Fables, Volume 1: Legends in Exile. Collecting Fables #1-5

-First, it's quick origin time! It seems that assorted Fairy Tales characters(and not the G-rated, Disney-fied versions either) had their lands and kingdoms conquered by some mysterious Adversary character. By the time the Fable's characters realized just what a threat the Adversary posed, it was too late as he had amassed too much power. With no recourse, the Fables characters were forced to go into hiding in the regular world, or as they call it, the Mundane World. Since not sticking together is what screwed them over in the first place, they've decided to a) stick together in Fabletown, a small section of New York City, and b) NEVER reveal who/what they truly were to any of the Mundanes(regular folks).

-Man, Snow White really came across as a bit of a witch early on in this one! Who'd have thunk it?

-And then you had Prince Charming, Snow White's ex-husband, who is the very definition of the word man-whore!Man, Prince Charming is a real ass!


-Besides meeting a few of the main characters in Fabletown, this trade centered around trying to figure out what happened to/who killed Rose Red(Snow White's sister). Rose Red's boyfriend, Jack(of Jack and the Beanstalk fame) alerts the town's sheriff, the Big Bad Wolf of the crime, and the Wolf scopes out the VERY gory apartment shared by Red and Jack.

-As the Wolf goes through with his investigation, he meets with Bluebeard, who seems to be one of the richer members of the Fable community. During the interview, the Wolf learns that Bluebeard was actually engaged to Red, but that the engagement was secret, and wasn't to be revealed until a year after the engagement occurred. This naturally makes Bluebeard a suspect since his whole thing is to marry and then kill his wives on their wedding night.

-Bluebeard points the finger of blame at Jack, since Bluebeard had nothing to gain in killing Red, and lost a rather fat dowry paid to Red as well.Bluebeard and Jack, NOT the best of friends.


-Yeah, so while this whole whodunit mystery was going on, I have to admit, Pinocchio made me laugh pretty hard...What can I possibly add to that?!


-During some huge meeting where all of the Fables character meet up once a year to touch base, the Wolf reveals he solved the mystery, telling the gathered that Red(with help from Jack) had faked her death. And he proves this by pulling a wig off of Red herself! Basically Red wanted Bluebeard's money so Jack could do some stupid get rich quick scheme, and figured she could pay Bluebeard off before the time to marry came up. With the time of the marriage fast approaching, and no money in sight, Red and Jack figured the way to go was to fake her death so she wouldn't have to go through with the marriage.

-Snow White screwing Prince Charming(who slept with Red a few years back) out of a ton of money he thought he'd acquired was pretty funny, and totally deserved.

-If I had one gripe with this trade, it was that so many characters were introduced! Snow White, King Cole, The Wolf, Boy Blue, Beauty and the Beast, Jack, Rose Red, Prince Charming, Bluebeard, and so on and so forth. There were times when I'd be sitting there trying to remember who was what to who, and what each character was currently doing.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10. I really enjoyed the whole whodunit murder mystery that was the focal point of this trade. It was fun trying to figure out the mystery along with the Wolf(and yes, my guess of Bluebeard was wrong), and I really liked the way Bill Willingham had the Wolf spell out EXACTLY how and why Red and Jack did what they did. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this comic(I mean it's about fairy tale characters!), but once you realized this wasn't the cartoonish version of those characters, but rather the darker, pre-Disney versions, I was able to get into this story rather quickly. This was a good opening arc, and I figure as I read more and get more acquainted with the characters, I'll enjoy each passing trade more and more.

18 comments:

  1. I like this trade a lot as well, but so far I've only read this volume and the next one. And you picked three of my favorite pages too, which is pretty awesome. I loved watching Bigby go from being something of a social outcast to being more an accepted member of the Fables community.

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  2. Ah. Well I should definitely have the second trade up and posted at the latest next weekend. It's written up, I just need to proof it and scan some pics from it. I've actually read the first three Fables trades(same as Y) and am thinking about starting Morning Glories next. Either that or some random back issues just to try to stretch out my enjoyment of those two series! As for picking those three scans, what can I say! All I knew was that I HAD to post the Pinocchio page, because it just came from SO far out of left field! :D

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  3. Lmao, the Pinnochio page was the best page in the whole trade. I laughed a good 10 minutes behind that.

    Also when Beauty basically implied Snow White had a little fun with the dwarfs if you know what I mean lol.

    But I'm glad you got a chance to read this and enjoy it X. I was looking for something outside of DC and Marvel to read and decided to pick this up and had no clue if I would enjoy it or not. But as you've heard I've already picked up half the trades lol.

    So I'm definitely looking forward to reading Vol. 2 and hearing your thoughts when you read it as well. ^_^

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  4. Well I didn't read the review, just checked the score out of curiosity. I keep wanting to check out Fables and it must be a coincidence that I JUST went out and bought it a few days ago finally.

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  5. I'm currently reading the 4th trade now, Lisha, so I've got LOTS to say about Fables by this point! :D

    That is SO weird, Josh! JT, Falisha, my sister and myself ALL just started reading Fables within the past few weeks as well! There must be some sort of subliminal message going around or something...

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  6. Lol, you and your sister have good taste!!! Yeah there must be something going around for us to have picked up the trades. I know one thing though, I'm glad I was able to get word to read them. Definitely something I enjoy reading. I have to hol off starting Vol 2, until my two exams this week. But I'm anxious to start.

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  7. Ugh, two exams this week?! Good luck on that, Lisha. I started vol. 4 last night, but I have so many new books to get through I may have to hold off on finishing that trade off.

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  8. I know right?! It's like I didn't FULLY enjoy my "spring break" because I was making sure I was up to par on my reading and studying. So hopefully, I can study my butt off and possibly start reading today.

    And X, lol, when don't you have new stuff to read!! Well, I hope you've been enjoying them so far. Definitely can't wait to hear your thoughts.

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  9. I HATE when they do that to you! You get a Spring or Winter break and BAM, everybody seems to load up on the papers/homework! That drives me crazy!

    HA! It's so true... I always seem to have a few new books laying around. It be nice to be COMPLETELY caught up on everything one of these days...

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  10. This semester, each teacher insists on getting through every page of 300+ pages books. :| But only a little over a month left then it's all good.

    And lol, I don't think you'll be getting caught up anytime soon hun. Just have fun reading!! ^_^

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  11. UGH! My Lit teacher has us reading like 7 FULL books for this semester, as well as various short stories he's handed out. So far we're up to book #3... And that's just my Lit class!! So I can feel your pain, Lisha!

    "Just have fun reading!!" That's always the plan! :D

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  12. Are you kidding me? 7 Books? About WHAT?! That's ridiculous. I had a teacher that planned for us to read like 6 on top of 3 poetry books, but we lucked out because he got sick as hell halfway through the semester and ended missing like 2 weeks. Lol.

    But I hope you make it through sir, I really go. Or start a riot in the class lol.Okay maybe that's not the best idea. But it sounded cool, lol.

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  13. Just on a whole mess of random stuff. Then we have to analyze it all psychologically... It's about as fun as it sounds... :/ On top of that I have two group presentations due for two different classes ON THE SAME DAY(March 21)!! That sucks like crazy!

    I actually kind of like the riot idea... :P

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  14. Wow, I am so sorry you have to go through hell this semester X. I know how that feels and it sucks! Especially group presentations, because there is always that ONE person who is lazy and doesn't want to do anything and screws everything up.

    And if you riot, make sure you video tape I want to see this! lol.

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  15. " because there is always that ONE person who is lazy and doesn't want to do anything and screws everything up." Oh my god, that is SO true!!! My first semester at school we had a group project and one guy just DIDN'T show up the day of the presentation! I mean how the hell do you do that?!? Luckily we managed to pull it together anyway(and get an A! :P) but yeah, that pissed me off big time! I'm not really sweating either of the presentations, but then again I haven't started working on it yet either, so yeah...

    I'll tape it and post it here on the blog! You'll know who I am, I'll be the guy wearing the paper bag with a big "X" on it! :P

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  16. Ugh, I've had a couple projects like that. Made me so mad then they want to get upset and say we didn't include them and blame us for their grade, assholes.

    Lmao, that made me laugh so hard. I could seriously see that happening.

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  17. Wooo, I'm glad my teammates didn't ever pull that crap on me, caused I'd have EXPLODED at them! It's bad enough you didn't help, THEN you want to blame ME for that?!? Man, I'd go off!!

    I'd do it too! :D

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