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.

A– Z Survey - Bookmonkey Style

One of my favourite parts of blogging has always been the fact that whenever I run out of stuff to talk about, I just have to scan through a few others blogs and I’m bound to find something neat to comment on.

Earlier today I was reading the blog “The Written Word” - which is itself a pretty fun read, sharing a lot of interests with my own tastes (I actually got there by looking up a good reading order for all of my Fables trades), so I thought I would both send a thanks to that blog for the list and then I found something pretty neat – a reading-themed A-Z survey – so here goes:

Author I've Read The Most Books From: Although friends may guess Stephen King or Neil Gaiman, it is actually Louis L’Amour – hands down. I’ve read all 89 of his novels, 14 story collections, 2 books of poetry and his autobiography. Man that guy could write!

Best Sequel Ever: The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, by Stephen King

Currently Reading: Fables #4: March of the Wooden Soldiers, by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Craig Hamilton, Steve Leialoha, and P. Craig Russell

Drink of Choice While Reading: Fresh Brewed Coffee, first thing in the morning.

E-Reader or Physical Book: Physical book, but to be fair I have almost no experience with E-Readers

Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Dated in High School: Carrie White – although to be honest I’d probably have run when I met her mother…

Glad You Gave This Book A Chance: Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card – I don’t care if it’s basically a fantasy retelling of the found of the Mormon Church – it’s pretty amazing

Hidden Gem Book: Brooklyn Dreams by J.M. DeMatteis, one of the funniest, honest looks at remembrance, childhood and the teen years I’ve ever come across.

Important Moment in Your Reading Life: Realizing a book could talk directly to me while reading The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover by Jon Stone

Just Finished: Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living, by Nick Offerman

Kind of Books I Won't Read: None – unless my wife says it’s horrible.

Longest Book I've Read: Probably the Bible.

Major Book Hangover Because: If I’m reading older paperback where the font size gets so tiny I need to use a magnifying …..

Number of Bookcases I own: approximately ten – but that doesn’t count the boxes in the basement or garage, or the DVD shelves I use as convenient book storage.

One Book I have Read Multiple Times: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Preferred Place to Read: Leaning against the kitchen counter in the morning and smelling coffee brewing.

Quote That Inspires You/Gives You All the Feels From a Book You've Read: “Once Upon a Time…”

Reading Regret: I wish I had read Catcher in the Rye when I was younger

Series You Started and Need To Finish (All the books are out in the series): Currently working my way through Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series – limiting myself to one title a month so I can enjoy them

Three of Your All-Time Favourite Books: The Talisman, by Stephen King and Peter Straub, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Unapologetic Fanboy For: Nora Roberts Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy. Although Romance novels don’t tend to be my thing, I dare you to read these and not get swept away in these stories of destiny, love, and magic.

Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others: Neil Gaiman’s upcoming sequel to American Gods

Worst Bookish Habit: Collecting series before I read them, not a great habit when you crack open book one and realize that it’s not really your cup of tea…

X Marks The Spot: Start at the Top Left of Your Shelf and pick the 27th Book: The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie-The-Pooh, by A.A. Milne

Your Latest Book Purchase: The Walking Dead Volume 19: March to War, by Robert Kirkman

ZZZ-Snatcher Book- Book That Kept You Up WAY Too Late: Ironically, Doctor Sleep by Stephen King.

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.

Things I've Noticed: The Snow White Debate

For those of us looking forward to the various fantasy films coming out this year, there is an interesting couple of films featuring a similar premise involving a young lady with hair as black as night, lips as red as blood and skin as white as snow.

In the next month both Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman will be entering theatres showcasing the classic fairy tale, but with different twists – Mirror Mirror looks at a comedic angle and Snow White and the Huntsman appears to be very Grimm indeed (sorry for the obvious pun, but I think there’s a law that I have to use it when reviewing dark fantasy). This pairing of similar films has happened in the past (notably with disaster films like Dante’s Peak and Volcano, and Science Fiction films like Armageddon and Deep Impact), what is interesting however is that this year also introduced Snow White and her evil Stepmother as characters on television in ABCs Once Upon a Time and even as a featured character (although dead) in Castle.

So with all these Snow Whites running around, I started to ask myself who the best ones were. Did Disney’s 1937 classic win out due to its classic status? How about the various Snow Whites in fiction?

For me, I’d have to say my favourite Snow White is the character portrayed in Bill Willingham’s Fables. Hands down she is one of the coolest characters I’ve read in comics for quite a long time, and I suppose the Snow White character in Neil Gaiman’s Snow, Glass, Apples runs a very close second (although she is definitely not like any of the others).

In the end I probably won’t see either of the upcoming Snow White films in theatres unless there are extraordinary circumstances involved (kids, friends, or family wanting me to go), but I’ll probably check both out on DVD.

For me, the next big fantasy film I’m looking forward to is Dark Shadows.

Top Five Comics I'm still getting around to reading

As I'm sitting here typing away in my study, I'm faced directly by my bookshelf of books to be read and I'm realizing that my comic book and graphic novel collection is starting to pile up. I've been pretty focused on novels and school work for the last year and therefore the important business of comic book reading has fallen to the wayside a little (Interestingly I've read a number of books about comics this year, but that's not quite the same thing).

So here we go - Bookmonkey's top five list of comics I own but still haven't gotten around to reading yet:

5. Tiny Titans - this kid-aimed comic actually belongs to my youngest daughter, but those teeny tiny little versions of the Teen Titans are consistently awesome - I'm about 10 issues behind.

4. Jack of Fables - I got up to volume 5 (I think), to just about where the Great Fables Crossover occurs and haven't gotten back to the series since - I own them, I just haven't read them yet - I'm about 4 trade paperback collections behind.

3. Fables - Same story as above, only I'm about 5 trade paperback collections behind ( I did read Peter & Max, however, and it was awesome).

2. Hellboy - This one is a little embarrassing, although I'm only one trade paperback collection behind (and it only came out about a week ago), I'm usually so good about reading this title that a new collection doesn't spend a night in my house without me checking it out.

1. Starman - This one is actually the worst (not the series, I haven't read it yet), I mean this is my worst offender, as I own all six Starman Omnibus collections in hardcover, have heard nothing but praise from my friends who have read it, and it has a Hellboy crossover and I still haven't gotten past issue one! The series looks so good, but I just haven't had the time to begin!

So there you go - the comics I own that I still need to get around to reading. I've just got a few more books to read this month and then I'm totally going to start (only next month is happening in just over a week and then I have seven more books to read...

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.

Book Review: The Unwritten

Back in March I asked a couple friends about which current comics they were reading, as one of the titles I'm currently collecting just finished, I thought it would be fun to try something new. One of the first comics brought up was a series by Mike Carey and Peter Gross called The Unwritten. Last week I got the first volume of this series in from my public library and I've got to say - this is a pretty amazing series and I can't believe I hadn't heard of it before.

The premise of the series is pretty interesting; the main character, Tom Taylor, is the son of a famous author named Wilson Taylor, who wrote a massively popular book series about a boy wizard called Tommy Taylor. In the first issue while appearing at a convention, Tom is accused of not being his father's son, which causes a backlash of anger from fans of the book series. The intriguing part is that Tom may actually somehow be from another world - in fact, he might actually even be the boy wizard everyone assumes the character was based on.

The series feels a lot like a mix of Sandman and Fables to me - which is about as high a compliment as I can give a new comic series. I'm only six issues in and the series is ongoing, but seriously, if you are into dark fantasy, give it a look.

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

Bookmonkey's Top 5 Current Comic Series

I'm one of those people who likes to wait until a comic, novel, or television series are finished before I start buying them. I want to see where the story ends before I decide that it needs to be on my shelf, but certain comics are so good I can't wait. Although I love reading super hero comics, they make up a pretty small part of my overall collection.

Here are my top five currently published comic series that I'm snapping up as they come out (in graphic novel format).

5. The Dark Tower

Okay, this is the one I actually buy issue by issue but the reasons are pretty simple. The Dark Tower series of novels by Stephen King is possibly my favourite genre series of all time (Sorry LOTR, but you come a very close second). The series is written by Peter David and illustrated by Jae Lee. It works to fill in the gaps between the novel series and although I've had a problem with Lee's art in the past - it fits this series so well I am consistently blown away by it. If your a fan of the novels, check out the comics, they are simply that good.

4. Fables

You have to read this series. Bill Willingham is simply an amazing storyteller. Take all of your common knowledge of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, fantasy books and myths, then turn it into a series that is by turns violent, wonderful, epic, sensual, urban, hilarious, and a war story and you begin to get the idea of how good this series is. In addition, the spin-off series Jack of Fables, is also incredible. I'm not even sure why you are still reading my recommendation, go and read this now.

3. The Walking Dead

Last week I talked about how the protagonist of this series is one of my favourites in horror fiction. The series does exactly what I want to know after every zombie film - What next? Where does this go? What happens six months later. This series is pretty grim, what with all the zombies, but there is also a lot of hope in it, and for me hope is a pretty big part of what I like in any story. I just read that the series is being made into a TV show for AMC next year, and as I'm a fan of both of their other big shows (Mad Men and Breaking Bad), I am really jazzed about how they will adapt this amazing series.

2. Hellboy / BPRD

In a way, part of why I like these series is the same as why I'm a fan of Fables - they take classic folklore and give it a modern twist. Hellboy is simply an incredible character. I think I decided on loving this series when I read the two-page story, Pancakes, which shows a defining moment in the characters life, when he chose good over evil. The stories are incredible, the artwork is amazing (although BPRD's takes a little getting used to), and the graphic novels are actually decently priced (thanks Dark Horse!). The movie adaptations are great, but the original material is fan-freaking-tastic.

1. Scott Pilgrim

All right, I'll admit it, a huge part of why I love this series is because I'm Canadian. It takes a basic story (young man growing into adulthood and finding his first love) and then adds in the fact that in this world, if you date a girl you must battle each of her evil ex-boyfriends - in seriously awesome, martial arts battles. The series owes a lot to manga for its style and is incredibly funny. Scott's world is so well developed you end up caring for all of his friends and their stories too. Simply put, this is my current favourite comic book.