salarymanjam

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Fables - wow! How did this skip me...?

Just finished reading Fables #1-5 trade paperback, and never know why such a good book missed me.
 
I am always the last to admit to my friends that I like children stories. Disney, Asterix and other 19th century european tales used to really excite me because they were so fantastical. Fantastic was what I wanted from my reading entertainment. Total and utter removal from my own world for the hour or so I would take to a book was why I loved those tales so much. I remembered reading LotR when I was 12 and it blew my mind, gave my nightmares and shaped my entire teenage reading habits. Disney got me into animation and european old fables brought morals and ethics to life.
 
Fables is on a par with any of those in terms of a reading experience. It takes some of my most loved tales and characters are brings them right back to the modern period AND makes me remember all those golden oldies all over again. Twists on old themes, that were as much adult as for young people, make this book very easy to read. The tales are written by Bill Willingham and partnered with a great artistic team. This book couldn't be written any better.
 
How on earth did this skip by me for so many years?

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EisforExtinction

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Edited By EisforExtinction

I read the first five issues when it came out and was unimpressed. I heard the later ones were better and I checked them out and agreed but I still never got into it. Seemed too much like the X-Men so I just read the X-Men instead.

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salarymanjam

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Edited By salarymanjam
@EisforExtinction: Lots of people say similiar things. The general opinion is that it heats up from TPB #4, which I will get to sometime.
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Crom-Cruach

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Edited By Crom-Cruach

Love Fables, highly recommend it to everyone who asks. Bigby wolf is so awesome.

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Korg

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Edited By Korg

The best part is that there is so much of Fables to read... and then there's Jack of Fables! I don't know how Bill Willingham writes all this stuff, but it is absolutely brilliant. 
 
@EisforExtinction said:

"Seemed too much like the X-Men "
As someone who has read X-Men for 15 years, and has also read the first 13 Fables trades, I have to ask: How?
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salarymanjam

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Edited By salarymanjam
@aztek the lost: That's really interesting. I would have never known that #1-5 didn't do that well, but after I read any trade I do try and imagine what this would be like spread out over however many months. Personally I didn't think it slow or boring, but Vertigo must know something we don't so I guess they had to go with what they thought would sell best. Thanks for the info! Lots of catching up to do with this title.
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Korg

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Edited By Korg
@aztek the lost said:
" Matthew Sturges"
Sturges only works on Jack of Fables, IIRC. Willingham is still responsible for most of the work on both Fables titles, as well as the novel he released last year. 
 
@aztek the lost said:
" speaking of which, does anyone else when reading any work by multiple authors ponder about who wrote what? I find myself doing that with things like Jack of Fables, Sandman Mystery Theatre and Good Omens (the novel)"
It's funny you should mention Good Omens, because by the time I read it, I could easily tell which ideas came from Gaiman, and which ones came from Pratchett. It's harder with Jack of Fables, because it's the only book I read that Sturges works on.
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Korg

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Edited By Korg
@aztek the lost said:
"I mean when multiple artists do an issue it lists who did what pages but not the same courtesy for writers and I have a hard time believing they always agree on everything "
In the case of a novel like Good Omens, that wouldn't really be feasible, as both Gaiman and Pratchett contribute to the work as a whole on pretty much every page. They actually talk about the experience of writing it in the afterword of the book.
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kaanonm

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Edited By kaanonm

I just found it too. It's really really good.