Review: Fables 11: War and Pieces by Bill Willingham
In the eleventh entry of Bill Willingham's Fables series, War and Pieces, our Fables heroes go to battle against the Adversary and Emperor. The principal characters in this book are Sleeping Beauty, Boy Blue, and Cinderella on the side of good and the Snow Queen, Hansel, and Geppetto on the side of evil. Of course many other familiar characters also make an appearance in the great war fought on three fronts.
War and Pieces marks the end of one major story arc, although there are still plenty of loose ends, many characters left to learn about, and at least one cliff hanger. This may be the most action-packed book yet, and the strategies, surprise attacks, and unexpected episodes are just part of the reason I'm hooked on this series.
T
he team of artists for Fables 11 is made of Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Niko Henrichon, Andrew Pepoy, Lee Loughridge, and Todd Klein. I've mentioned before that I like the work of some Fables artists better than others, so I was relieved that the style of the illustrations in this volume suits my tastes. The interpretations are not the same as the early books but are consistent with how I think the characters should look.
I picked the page at the right to scan because it's not very spoilery and because it features nonhuman Fables (click to enlarge and to read). The creatures are discussing whether they would rather stay in the Mundy (our) world, confined to a secret farm in upstate New York so humans don't see them, or would consider moving to a new kingdom in the homelands, where they wouldn't have to worry about remaining hidden. I love the art and the humor.
Don't let the fairy tale aspects of this series fool you. The books are not for your middle grade children.
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Published by DC Comics / Vertigo 2008
ISBN-13: 9781401219130
Source: bought (see review policy)
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy)
8 comments:
Yay, Fables!
I can't read this. I have this thing about reading reviews on series until I am caught up. But I did get the first one, thanks to your suggestion. :)
I loved the first Fable that I read as an experiment. I am just going to save them all up and order them when I need a graphic novel fix. I find it humorous at the characters that were evil in this episode!!
I have sooooo far to go to catch up with this series. Like you, some of the artistic styles bug me, but this is one I expect, like, and think of as "standard."
I'm currently all over fairytale re-tellings at the moment, and this sounds wonderful, despite the fact that I've never read a graphic novel. I'm intrigued as to how Geppetto and Hansel ended up on the evil side. Do you have to have read the previous books to understand what's going on?
@Charlie: yes, you really do have to read from the beginning. Although most of the books give a brief synopsis of "the story so far," you won't be able to full appreciate it unless you start with book 1.
Every time I see one of these books reviewed, I think to myself that I really need to get on the ball and go read them, and your review has me thinking that I have been seriously missing out. I need to stop puttering about and grab the first one off my shelf and give it a try. It might turn out to be a favorite for me too. Excellent review today!
I am just read my first Fables over the last couple of days, and can't wait to read more! So much fun!
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