Fables or Zombies? What's a Bookmonkey to do?

Sometimes a Christmas present can be a double-edged sword - not literally (well, yes, technically I suppose you could get a double-edged sword for Christmas, but that's not what I meant), but metaphorically, like the $20 Playstation Network gift card stocking stuffer I received.

The problem is, there are actually two games I'd like to get.  A few months ago I did a post on the Telltale game The Walking Dead which I really loved - a game focused less on the run and jump aspect of the majority of video games and instead on building trust and relationships was a really neat idea, and one of my favourite gaming experiences of 2013.

So then when I found out the same company was creating a new game based on the Vertigo series Fables (which is one of my favourite comic book series, period), I got pretty excited.  Early reviews were really positive and you get to play as Fabletown's sherrif, Bigby Wolf (who I've posted about here) and I've always been a sucker for the world created by Bill Willigham.

So things looked pretty simple, spend my $20, get a Fables game - awesome.  Only then I found out that Telltale games was releasing a second season of The Walking Dead and this time you get to play as Clemintine (the girl that the main character works to protect in the first game), so now I'm in a tricky place:

Do I pick the Fables, or the Zombies...

Genre Character of the Week: Jack of Fables

Since last week I've started re-reading my collection of Bill Willingham's Fables to get myself caught back up as one of my other current comics, The Unwritten, has a pretty major crossover with Fables and I'm really looking forward to reading that when the trade comes out (July 2014).

This week's character is also the star of the first major Fables spin-off, Jack (also known as Jack of Jack and Jill, Little Jack Horner, Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack the Giant Killer, etc. etc. etc.).  Like the rest of the characters in the series, Jack was chased out of his own realm when an invading army arrived and has since moved to our world and taken up residence here.

Like the Jack of various fairy tales, this Jack is not above bragging about his own exploits (in the spin-off series, Jack of Fables, he actually writes the final caption of each issue, usually explaining all of the amazing things he is planning to do in the next issue - which usually do not come to pass) and he may not be the brightest bulb in the room, but what Jack is, is a pretty amazing trickster - he can usually talk his way in or out of any scenario and although he doesn't always succeed at his various schemes, he does became a very loyal friend to those who stand by him (not that there are many of them) .

If you've never read Fables, I would strongly recomend giving it a try, and Jack is one of the main reasons I love this strange world he inhabits so much.

Things I’ve noticed: I’m falling behind in Fables

Last week I picked up a few new titles from my local comic book store and as I was shelving them at home I realized, I’m falling behind on Fables! Not in collecting it, mind you, but in reading the darn thing! When I first started collecting the title I would read each trade paperback collection as it came out, but for some reason or other (maybe Grad School, maybe a new job), I’ve fallen behind in the last few years and now have almost TEN collections I haven’t touched! To be fair, I’m including all three spin off series: Jack of Fables, Cinderella, and Fairest, in my total, but still, that puts me pretty far behind the current storylines.

The worst part is, I really like this series – I list it all the time as a personal favourite, I’ve read the tie-in novel Peter & Max and I got righteously indignant when Once Upon a Time first came out and stole all of Fables potential to become a television series in its own right. So now I’m about to revisit the first trade collection Fables #1: Legends in Exile for my current course on comic books and graphic novels in libraries, and I’m realizing I’m not as up-to-date a fan as I could be!

Luckily I do have a little bit of time between now and when I take an in depth look at the series for school, so step one is to figure out what order to read each of these titles in – as the various spin-off series also include crossovers, I want to make sure I’m not spoiling plot points for myself as I go along. So I make a quick stop at Trade Reading Order and then check out their list for Fables – even though the list isn’t quite up to date, it does get me 80% of the info I need, and once I register for the site myself I’ll see if I can bring it up to date.

So there you go, a little embarrassing, but at least I have a starting point for getting myself back on track.

Genre Character of the Week: Max the Wolf

This weekend I read the 2011 novel Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham (of Fables fame), and was introduced to it's plucky hero, a Boy Scout called Max "the Wolf" who also happens to be something of a detective.

Max awakens in a strange forest, similar, but definitely not the forest of his home town, and although he begins his experience alone he quickly finds a number of animals, that can talk.

Travelling with a badger, a barn cat, and a bear, Max has to elude strange hunters called the Blue Cutters and try to figure out where on earth he is and how to get home.

One of the neatest things about the book for me was it took a pretty familiar story (the plot shares more than a few twists and turns with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), added a boy detective (not unlike Encyclopedia Brown), and took me on quite a fun little adventure.

The supporting characters are great, the villains get more back story than I tend to expect in children's fiction and the main character, Max, is just one of those great kids you find in fiction that you just want to cheer for as they make their way through the story.

A great read.

Thing's I've Noticed: I'm ahead on my reading!

It's the strangest thing, once I didn't have classes (and the assigned readings for classes) I blew through my list of readings for April incredibly quickly - I'm just finishing up the last one right now which means I get to pick another Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction title to read this month!!!

So next up for me will be a fantasy novel I've been meaning to read for a while now Down the Mystery River, by Bill Willingham, an advanced readers copy of the new Joe Hill novel NOS4A2, and one of the many science fiction novels that have been sitting on my "to be read" shelf.

Finishing stuff is awesome!

Genre Character of the Week: Peter Piper

Like many readers, I have a pretty big back-log of books I honestly mean to read, but end up sitting on my shelves month after month (and sometimes, I am sad to say, year after year) waiting for the guy who purchased them in the first place to fulfill his end of the bargain and read them. This year I’ve been pretty good, making sure that I hit at least one a month, and for May that book was Peter & Max: A Fables Novel by Bill Willingham. The main character of the book is none other than Peter Piper, who indeed picks a peck of peppers early on in the story.

One of my favourite parts of Fables is the conceit that these storybook characters who live in a modern, real world setting, can be more than one character from old stories, nursery rhymes etc., so Jack is Jack Frost, a giant killer, beanstalk climber, and fellow to Jill. Prince Charming is a serial monogamist, having married, and in turned divorced himself from Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White.

The main character in Peter & Max is not just a pepper picker, but also the same Peter from Peter and the Wolf and is also something of a Pumpkin Eater. His brother Max is also a Piper, and one who has a dark destiny with the folks of Hamelin Town.

What I love about Peter in this book is his bravery, his willingness to accept challenges, and his love for his wife, Bo Peep (sorry Woody, but Peter and Bo have a much stronger relationship than you ever did).

If you’ve never read any Fables before, I strongly recommend checking out the comic series first, but the book is great as a stand-alone novel as well.

In the end, I can definitely say this book was worth the wait.

Genre Character of the week: Bigby Wolf

Using an already established character in a story can be very tricky - many of my embarrassing journeys into fan fiction as a teen came from the fact that I could not match the stuff I wanted the character to do with the already established things the character had done. I can still recall people explaining to me that R2 would never have acted the way I made him in my 1987 story (The Day R2-D2 stole the Statue of Liberty) - but I digress. This week's genre character is Bigby Wolf (pictured left) from the comic series Fables.

One of the most amazing things about Bill Willingham's series Fables is that the entire cast is made up of already established characters. From Snow White to the Frog Prince, and Cinderella to Old King Cole - all of the main characters already exist in literature and even a six-year-old* could see if they were being mistreated. In my mind the best character from fairy tales he uses though is Bigby Wolf, also known as the Big Bad Wolf.

Bigby is indeed the same wolf who antagonized the three little pigs as well as Little Red Riding Hood. In the beginning of the series Fables however, he is the sheriff of Fabletown. The concept behind the series is pretty neat - chased through the various realms of fantasy in which each character lived by a villain known only as The Adversary, a small group of these characters (known as fables) escape into our world and live in a small community in New York. Their mayor is Old King Cole, their deputy mayor is Snow White and the job keeping these escaped creatures in line falls to Bigby Wolf.

Here is what I like most about Bigby - he's a straight forward guy/wolf. Yes he did do some horrible things in those Fairy tales, but these days he's doing his best to help his people out. I love the fact that the author has found a way to make the villain in two classic fairy tales into a good guy (he ate a grandmother, remember?), and the fact that you really start to care for him throughout the series is pretty amazing.

If you haven't read Fables yet, give it a try - I like it so much I could probably do a favourite Fables Character of the week for the rest of 2010.

*Never, Under any circumstances should you let a six-year-old read Bill WIllingham's Fables