Despite continuous reading, this blog always slows down when it's time for me to review a comic.
Without the vernacular and history of a comic book reader, I'm left with vapid and basically meaningless statements, which amount to no more than plot summary.
Storybook Love was wonderful. There is clever usage of Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming, but the real meat of it is the developing relationship between Snow White and Bigby Wolf. Bigby's dialogue to White in the woods is the most romantic thing you could imagine coming from a giant wolf's mouth. Very creative and one of the first emotionally-charged speeches so far.
The opening story about Jack of all Trades is well-drawn and interesting: it reeks folklore, which I believe it's supposed to. Absolutely wonderful. Reading this first section of the comic in the store is what made me decide to go ahead and buy.
This is the volume where Willingham first pulls together a number of the established Fablisms (so to speak) into something truly unique. The interactions between city Fables and country Fables become more complex and less sophomoric than the relationships outlined in Animal Farm.
What I am enjoying the most about this series so far is the willingness to be physically brutal. This where the real power of "real-life fairy tales" comes into play. Most of our fairy tales have been sanitized by Disney and Mother Goose, their brutal aspects written out or drastically modified. What might be initially called a "reinvention" of fairy tales in the Fables series is actually closer to a revival. Once upon a time, in a kingdom far far away - that concept is abolished in favor of, Right here, in this city, just below your noses. The gruesome aspects of each story are presented in a way that would make the Grimm brothers proud.
The stupid bookstore doesn't have Volume 4, March of the Wooden Soldiers, but I plan to track it down soon. Hopefully, my insights will improve (at least in relation to this particular series).
Oh, I almost forgot. Storybook Love gives us the first instance of a human being (journalist, naturally) investigating the Fables. If that isn't a hook, I don't know what is.
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