Which is fair.
It’s not the best crafted novel and I can see that now that I’m older
and have considerable more experience in life and the post-apocalyptic
tale. Still, I was hoping that someone
would at least like it. I was hoping
that at least they’d like Lisa, the heroine.
No such like, and I’m now hesitant to pick any books in the future.
Allow me to recommend here, however, the graphic
novel adaptation titled (wait for it) The
Girl Who Owned a City. The art is
cool; I’m kind of a fan of this new style comic artists have and drawing these
square-faced kids. It’s cute and has a
striking presence. But best of all, it
eliminates all the problems in the novel (Lisa’s boring stories and weird
things like what happened to the adults’ bodies.)
***
Bill Willingham has branched out yet again in his Fables series with Fairest, a new series devoted to the female cast of Fables.
This honestly was needed. There
are a lot of women in the Fables
series but except for Snow White, Rose Red, and Cinderella, very few of them
take a front-row seat to the action. So
now we get a look at their lives.
With Volume 1, the majority of it is devoted to
Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty. This was
fun because in it, Willingham finally wakes her up along with the Snow Queen,
all thanks to Ali Baba. It’s funny how
true love is interpreted. After all, in
this series, Aurora has been kissed awake fifty times by true love’s first
kiss. Well, the kisses were true love,
otherwise she wouldn’t have woken, but it’s never been lasting love otherwise
she wouldn’t still be single by the end of the story. (And by the way, I’m fine with that. I love that thing’s worked out between Ali
Baba and the Snow Queen.)
And the Imp is awesome. I hope to see more of him in the future.
There’s a last little short story devoted to Beauty
and her husband Beast. She’s been given
a much creepier backstory and there are some exciting possibilities for the
future of Fables.
And the art, as always, is gorgeous. Even with their worst stories (like the
reprehensible Jack of Fables), their
art has always been above and beyond.
I’m excited to see more of future volumes of Fairest.
***
I usually don’t feel compelled to tout Marvel’s
work, since anything they have will generally sell just by having their name
attached to it. But I need to say a word
for Neil Gaiman’s 1602, which creates
an origin story for Marvel’s superheroes if they were born in the sixteenth
century.
You have the Fantastic Four, Peter Parker, the
Avengers, and the original X-Men in medieval garb, living in Europe, traveling
to the New World, and complete with an end-of-the-world situation. It is a lot of fun and it even has heart. I love how Peter remains a hero without any
superpowers through the whole story. And
I am a huge fan of how the Fantastic Four were part of a mythology before
making an appearance. A lot of fun.
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