Every time I pick up a new trade of this series, I consider going back to the beginning to read it again--perhaps a bit more carefully. It's complex plot and large cast of characters make it challenging to keep track of of what's happening. When getting screenshots of the cover photos from Amazon to make this entry, I found that my feelings are not unique. Customer reviewer Garietta Falls said, "I really liked this series in the beginning, but I am beginning to
wonder what the point is. The story, concerning Fig usually, makes large
jumps that are hard to follow." In Volume 7, the story quite literally jumps, as the house lifts off its foundation, leaving everyone but Fig and Cain behind. This provides the opportunity--or, as it so often turns out in House of Mystery, the challenge--of following multiple plot lines within what would more usually be a single story arc. In this case, we alternate between Fig and Cain's struggle through a series of increasingly smaller houses that reveal parts of her earlier life; the choices the characters left behind make in order to occupy their time and continue their lives; the efforts of her (estranged, and possibly dead) brother, father, and grandfather to find (and maybe kill?) their sister/daughter/granddaughter; and the origins of the still bizarre and increasingly confusing, creepy couple called the Conception. It's become equal parts confusing and compelling. Another Amazon customer reviewer, Jason Upton, explained, "The story started strong and now feels like there's no plan. It jumps
around without following the stories teased out. I'm hoping the next
one is better or I'll have to move on." I'm right there with him.
In fact, I'm just starting Volume 8 now, so you'll have to wait a short time to see what I conclude!
Update: It looks like Garietta, John, and I were not alone in our struggles to stay engaged in an increasingly pointless plot. Volume 8 of House of Mystery starts out with a typed summary of all seven previous trade collections, hitting on the main points that create a consistent storyline--but leaving a heck of a lot out. When it gets boiled down this way, it easier to see what the underlying premise is. However, it would have been much simpler to keep that idea at the forefront all along rather than cluttering it up with extraneous side plots. As it turns out, I need not worry about whether or not to continue with the series, as Volume 8 appears to be the end. And, while I can't say that it was tied up nice and neatly, at least there was an effort to conclude in come way that made sense of the whole thing. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this series unless you are a diehard horror comic fan, and even then I'd say you may want to stop after trade 3 or 4--when the ideas are still fresh and interesting but haven;t yet become a tangled mess.
In 2012, the comic series Fables (reviewed here and here) did a 6-issue story arc featuring Cinderella (review here). Likely based on its popularity, and (I'd hazard) the increasing number of female comics readers, the women of Fables are going it alone. Well, mostly alone.
The first story arc of Fairest features Briar Rose, with male hero Ali Baba, a bottle imp, the Snow Queen, and a cool collection of powerful women deities. The initial premise was actually established in issue 107 of the Fables series (in trade 16), but you don't need to read it to make sense of the story. After all, most of us know Briar Rose and her story from tales of childhood. If not, here's you chance to catch up now and get in on the ground floor of what promises to be a great new series.
These are numbers 16 and 17 in the Fables series, so we're far into the plot by this point. I've provided an overview of the premise in my review of trades 14 and 15, so I'd recommend you check it out first (at this link) to get an overview of the series.
Trade sixteen details the efforts of the Fables living in Haven, a temporary escape from enemy Mister Dark, to develop a super team of fighters to battle against evil. Led by the powerful witch Ozma, with advice about Super Hero mythology from Pinocchio, the team begins training for the confrontation, only to have the need cut short by a sacrifice from unexpected corners.The bonus issue in the collection sets up the premise for the first story arc in the new Fairest series--which will focus on the female fables--with the story of Briar Rose. I've recently finished that first trade, so I'll post my review soon.
Trade seventeen focuses on the children of Bigby Wolf and Snow White--the grandchildren of the North Wind. To continue the family tradition of guarding the north, one of the children must be identified as successor, so a series of trials are held to determine which of the young cubs (actually flying children) will prevail. The bonus issue following this story arc involved Beauty, of Beauty and the Beast fame, so I'm guessing that trade two of Fairest will pick the story up as well.
Of all the comics still in process, the Fables series if my favorite, and it's a great one to start off with if you are considering an investigation of modern adult comics.
It's the end of the road for our hero Jack of Fables, the charming bad-boy featured in a 50 issue spin off of Bill Willingham's fantastic Fables series. I did a relatively lengthy write up for a combined posting of trades 5-7, so you can check out some of the back story there to learn what it's all about.
The raucous tales of Jack--and
his son Jack Frost--gallop over these final pages, complete with
favorite characters and a few new ones as well. Fare thee well, Jack.
See you between the pages of your many fairytales.
Review coming soon. Tell me what you thought!
Inspired by the graphic novel Persepolis and my sister Sarah, I started reading comics approximately five years ago. Mind you, these are not the comics of my childhood years--when I was familiar with Richie Rich, Archie, and Scrooge McDuck--and I've generally kept superheros out of my repertoire. Instead, the comics I read are richly imagined tales written and drawn for adults. And, until you start reading them, you can't imagine how many options there are out there. I read approximately 10-12 series at this point, made manageable by the fact that I stick to trade compilations: 4-8 single issues comprising a single story arc bound in paperback without ads and the other filler of single-issue releases. In recent postings I've shared Jack of Fables and Cinderella with you, both of which are the offspring of the Fables series.
Fables is one of the first comics I read, and it helped to draw me into the world of adult comics. As I've mentioned before, the series tells the tales of common fable and fairytale characters, now living among humans (mundanes) in an enchanted neighborhood in New York City and battling adversaries who want to control them and/or remove magic and imagination from the mundane world. It's wonderful to see childhood characters come to life and be given real personalities, beyond their shallow origins.
One of the premises of the series is that Fables who have agreed to live in Fabletown have signed a compact which forgives their past sins, commits them to leave humans alone, and requires they maintain the anonymity of the community. Thus, the Big Bad Wolf--transformed into a human through the intervention of money and magic--has become Bigby Wolf, and serves as the town's Sheriff at the beginning of the series. Volume 14 focuses on several other characters with shady pasts: the Witches, including Frau Totenkinder (of Hansel and Gretel fame). In this volume, the Fables begin to take on their newest adversary in earnest: The Dark Man, who seeks to destroy the mundane world and thus threatens the Fable environment as well. In order to distance themselves from the Dark Man's evil energy (which has caused problems, such as Bigby and the Beast--usually friends--to lose control, revert to their animal natures, and fight), the human Fables have all moved out to The Farm, where non-human Fables must live in order to avoid detection.
Bill Willingham's Fables comic series is one of the first I began when I started my foray into comics and graphic novels. A world in which familiar childhood characters--Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Prince Charming, and the Big Bad Wolf--have escaped the Fableland's evil ruler and live amongst mundanes (mere humans) in an enchanted section of New York City is understandably attractive to a life-long reader and English teacher. Throughout the series, Willingham and a host of writers and artists develop a complex plot involving human and animal fables, war and love, fiction and reality, and good fun. The number of characters is quite extensive, so we learn just a bit of each over the course of the 100-issues-and-counting series. That's why I enjoy out-takes like Cinderella, where a single character is the focus of a 6-issue story arc.
I can't recall exactly when in the series readers learned that Cinderella was more than a shoe-shop owning, globe-trotting divorcée (her Prince Charming, after all, is the same Prince Charming of all the fables). In fact, Cindy is a deep-cover super spy, serving at the behest of Sheriff Bigby Wolf--and later the Beast--in an effort to keep the world safe for (and sometimes from) Fables.
In this six-issue collection, Cindy sets out to track down the evildoer who is introducing magical items into the mundane world--a extreme no-no, as it can draw attention to the Fables. She unwillingly becomes teamed with Arabian Fable Alladin, who has been sent by his people for the same purpose. I love this version of Cindy, who is no hearth-sweeping, downtrodden step-daughter, but rather a sassy, sexy, and sarcastic 007 (Get the book's subtitle now?). Cindy always has a trick or a snide comment up her sleeve, and in two or three places in the story, I guffawed aloud: a genuine GOL versus a plain LOL. This trade will, of course, appeal to fans of the main Fables story line, but it actually stands alone pretty well and may be a good introduction to those interested in checking out the series.
I've read everything David Sedaris has published, look forward to his pieces in The New Yorker, and go to see him every couple years when he performs on campus. So, I'm a fan. And, when his recent book came out, I didn't even read a review or glance at the book jacket; I bought it on first sight. I picked up the book a couple months ago on a rainy afternoon, anticipating settling in with a good friend, and was instead met by a stranger. Simply put, on first impression this book is nothing like any other Sedaris publication.
I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it that first time. Indeed, I read the first two anthropomorphic fables in the collection--"The Cat and the Baboon" and "The Migrating Warbler"--smiled a bit, scratched my head, and put the book aside. Another couple books got piled on top of it, giving me something to focus on while the puzzle of the new Sedaris book worked itself out in the back of my mind. Finally, unwilling to betray my fandom, I recently decided it was time to try it again, and this time I was ready. Instead of seeing these stories of animals as something foreign and different, on my second approach I recognized that the ironic magnifying glass which Sedaris trains on his family, friends, and himself, is still focused on the same subject manner in these fables. Indeed, the animal protagonists and antagonists share the same foibles and fears as characters do in the human world. I wouldn't exactly say that there is a self-evident moral to every story, a la Aesop, but underneath the fur and feathers you'll certainly recognize a few folks that you know.
Maybe it was because I was ready, but the third story of the collection--the "Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk" of the book's title--captured me immediately, providing a tale familiar to anyone who has been in or knows someone who's been in a mixed-species (or race, or religion, or...) relationship. The (expectedly) horrible behavior of the crow in "The Crow and the Lamb," the selfishness of the cow in "The Cow and the Turkey," and the foolishness of one of "The Parenting Storks" will surely remind readers of some members of the human species. Quite frankly, "Hello Kitty" offers the absolutely best cat-in-prison AA story that I've ever heard.
In the end, I was happy to discover that underneath a new genre--and handsomely illustrated by Ian Falconer, author/illustrator of the wonderful Olivia the Pig children's books--lurks the same Sedaris stories that fans enjoy. And, I can assure you that I will never look at an Irish Setter the same way again.
