it’s already on my classic comic book series list along with Grant Morrision’s New X-men run, Peter Milligan’s X-force/X-statix run and Brian K. Vuaghan’s RUnaways run….

I hope this writer on Fables never stops like the other writers did…this series is just to good…and were in the 90′s range of issues now with this series plus a hardcover of snowfall…this series is great and we got Jack of Fables too! I love this series…I collected all of them in tpb form…all 9 for Fables…2 for Jack of Fables and the hardcover of fables…love the series!

Another one I would’ve liked to have seen on the list is The Other Side. I realize it’s only just started, but the first issue was a promising start.

I read Loveless—or should I say I tried to read it. I think I like the story. I sometimes like the art. The art has varied from very good to almost incomprehensible, which is what this issue (#12) has. Because of this, it is hard to tell when the story is in the present or in the past.

The writer has the present and past overlapping and intertwining during the story. Sometimes the character on a page is watching himself doing something in the past. Sometimes the past action is merely presented with different color schemes. But sometimes you can only tell if a character is in the past or present by the style of his/her hair.

This latest issue is so poorly drawn that I gave up trying to figure out what was what. That’s too bad. I generally enjoy Azzarello’s writing. I generally enjoy stories in western settings. This story is set shortly after the Civil War, and is thus ripe to hold my attention for a long time. But it is not to be. At $3 an issue, comics have to provide at least some enjoyment. This one doesn’t.

And yet they sold Azzarello’s “Highwater” as a huge trade…

Totally agree, I also think Mark Buckingham is a great fit for Fables and he starts in that arc.

Somebody mentioned the lack of character development in Fables, how about Bigby and Snow? I think the transition from hardboiled (quite bitchy) government figure to responsible mother was well executed. And Prince Charming is getting a lot more shading since he became mayor. Somewhere I expect Flycatcher to have his day too, especially since his surprisingly gruesome ‘origin story’ in 1001 Nights Of Snowfall.

Totally agree, I also think Mark Buckingham is a great fit for Fables and he starts in that arc.

Somebody mentioned the lack of character development in Fables, how about Bigby and Snow? I think the transition from hardboiled (quite bitchy) government figure to responsible mother was well executed. And Prince Charming is getting a lot more shading since he became mayor. Somewhere I expect Flycatcher to have his day too, especially since his surprisingly gruesome ‘origin story’ in 1001 Nights Of Snowfall.

Try the 2nd arc. I felt the same way you did about the first story, but the 2nd arc is head and shoulders above it, and the third still above that.

” Volumes 3 and 9 were absolute A plusses on the MarkAndrew scale. More than makes up for the confusing draggy stuff in-between.”

I was on the outs with 100 Bullets, but the 3rd volume brought me on board. That story was amazing – an example of how good comics can be. I read it in one sitting because there was no putting that one down.
As I said, I like 100 Bullets – hell I love it at times, but I want to read it as a complete whole.

Yeah, I can buy it as an effective demonstration of sociological principles. But I’m not getting any of the symbolic/metaphorical stuff’s all over the Invisibles.

I read Fables, once, and I’m pretty sure I won’t glean much more outta the material on re-reads. Doesn’t mean it’s worthless. ‘Fact, I think it’s solidly entertaining. Just less.. hmm.. literary, maybe, than I like or expect.

Hellblazer can be so great, but apparently Mina needs to learn the same lesson that Carey never did, that arcs should have ENDINGS.

Again, though, Mina sat down to write her story as one big story, and it was DC who broke it up, because it is easier to sell a six-part trade than a twelve-part one.

Fables is pure surface fluff with no thematic or character depth. Certainly solidly executed surface fluff, but still there ain’t t’quote a wise man “No actual THERE THERE.”

and Y is just plain fucked in the narrative department, always has been, and doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Bonus points for the monkey, but still.

100 Bullets is (IMO) the best drawn, much better plotted than Y*, has the characterization and bit nature of the human experience themes, and when it hits it hits HARD.** Volumes 3 and 9 were absolute A plusses on the MarkAndrew scale. More than makes up for the confusing draggy stuff in-between.

* As is pretty much every other mainstream comic.

** To steal Jonathon Bogart’s apt description of Andre 3000 of Outkast.

Fables is… shit, I wanted to like it, and I found high concept fascinating, but I can’t stand any of the characters. Bigby seemed compelling, but the rest seemed far too… simple and boring. I bought the first three trades and ended up trading them away for comics that I actually enjoyed.

100 Bullets had a great start, but I preferred the single issue, high concept format they had going. Having a title drag itself into a big, over-arching conspiracy theories really bores the hell out of me. I didn’t dig it when the X-Files did it, and I don’t dig it now.

Hellblazer can be so great, but apparently Mina needs to learn the same lesson that Carey never did, that arcs should have ENDINGS.

I’ve heard from several people that they didn’t like the first FABLES arc, and it wasn’t until the next that they got into it. I must have been the only one that immediately liked FABLES better than Y. The question now is, where does FABLES rank on the Vertigo all- time list?

100 Bullets looks gorgeous, but Azzarello’s been stringing that plot along for far too long. I think he thought, “100 Bullets, one hundred issues!” and that was it, and now he’s stuck trying to pad out a story that really should’ve been paced to end about thirty issues ago. Maybe the problem is that the ongoing “arc” has never really worked; the individual “revenge doesn’t pay/careful what you wish for” stories were always far more interesting than the stuff with the Minutemen and the Trust.

Like I said above, this is not meant to be a knocking of the books NOT mentioned, but yes, that’s precisely why 100 Bullets is not on the list – although, even with that problem that 100 Bullets has, it was close between it and Jack (and DMZ, for that matter).

Wow.

That’s about the most wrong thing ever.

As opposed to Fables, where Willingham started on a stock (if very well done) detective story that served little purpose beyond introducing Fabletown. It really isn’t until halfway through “March of the Wooden Soldiers,” nearly two years into the series, that he finally focuses on the series’ plot, and even that was more in support of “March” than of the series as a whole. In fact, the series had already gone through several twists before Willingham finally gave us a full-on Fables vs. Adversary story in “Homelands.” Essentially, where Vaughan started plot-heavy and started going character-driven when the plot waned, Willingham started character-driven and went plot-heavy to reinvigorate the characters.

IOW, Fables has room to grow and Y seemingly has nowhere to go but down. Not that Willingham can’t get sloppy and Vaughan can’t write himself out of a corner, but that their respective series’ have been built in ways that make Fables the one with better options.