fables...

i've recently started reading "fables" i wondered what people thought of the serries

started it, put it down, didn't pick it up again. It has some cute ideas, but it didn't gel for me. YMMV.

I think it only starts clicking with volume 2 (Animal Farm), with Mark Buckingham's awesome artwork ; then it gets truly awesome with volume 4 (March of the Wooden Soldiers). After that, it's a bit hit and miss, although on average it's still pretty good.

I liked it up to a point. But when the Fabletown=Israel thing became to apparent I dropped it. I usually drop things when politics>entertainment and I don't agree with the politics.

Ditto. I don't begrudge Bill Willingham for using his comic to express his worldview, but the fact that I stridently disagree made it difficult for me to enjoy it. The pro-Israel message felt heavy-handed (the counter-argument, of course, is that Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped) and the occasional Take Thats against abortion and feminism bothered me.

To paraphrase Alan Moore, there are hundreds of comics out there that don't have a message, so there's definitely room for one that does. Lots of people derive lots of enjoyment from "Fables", and that's awesome. I'm just not interested in reading it.

yes I've enjoyed the serries thus far but i felt some aspects of the war were poorly handled but the politics is dragging the series down I've stopped reading it

while i agree with alan moore about promethea but maybe fables is the wrong sort of comic for a pro israeli author tract at least with things like promethea or maus(which is a masterpiece BTW and should be compulsory reading)you know what your getting if Bill Willingham(one can assume he never gets called William Willingham) wanted to write a political tract then that's what he should have written i feel the series has gotten pretty anvilicious in terms of its political views

edited 9th Dec '10 5:51:41 AM by faradayangel

Am I the only one who kept on reading and enjoyed it?

No you are not. I love that series to death. By the way, in case anyone's interested, Jack of Fables is ending in February at issue #50.

I was never actually bugged by the political things. To me, it just made sense that a bunch of ancient fairy tale characters would hold Conservative (or "old-timey" perhaps) views. It also made sense that Bigby would be a fan of Israel. So yeah, I didn't mind it so much, since it seems internally consistent to me.

Not sure where the claim that it's anti-feminist comes from though. I honestly never got that vibe reading this comic.

Jack of Fables lost its way after the Literal arch, but even then the writers managed to paint Jack as such an a$$hole that I really didn't care what happened to him. Before, he showed promise as a trickster figure but this archtype has redeeming qualities. The field was wide open for Jack to learn a lesson, to show a hidden side and redeem himself. Like Prince Charming. So whose bright idea was it, to take Jack out of story entirely by turning him into a one-dimensional dragon? That spelled the end of the series, really.

I never had much of a high opinion of Jack but I do hope to read more about his son. The wandering hero and his trusty companion doing heroic deeds - not doing them right, but still getting them done somehow - will definately provide some entertainment.

"Not sure where the claim that it's anti-feminist comes from though."

I guess some people took Goldilocks too seriously.

edited 18th Dec '10 9:30:55 AM by Scholastica

Fuck, I never even saw Goldilocks as being particularly feminist. She always struck me as more of Straw Commie with a thing for bestiality than a Straw Feminist.

Just started reading this. Is this written by some sort of objectivist Jerkass? Small government that limits itself to playing Leviathan, Strawman Political communists attempting to reenact Animal Farm and firmly holding the Idiot Ball, and, well, an entire cast of jerks...

I came here because of the video game, but I'm not sure whether it's worth continuing...

That's basically it. She's about as straw and over-the-top as you can get. Never since A Confederacy Of Dunces have I seen so many idiots falling for a #1 Moron-in-Chief like that.

edited 14th Jul '14 5:33:20 PM by TheHandle

Yeah, pretty much (or to put it in a less contentious way, the author has politically conservative views which he expresses through his characters).

More like reactionary. I don't mind reading an Author Tract, but if you're gonna preach you've got to do it right: at the very least, you need to play Devil's Advocate convincingly, and represent the opposing views to the best of your knowledge and ability. That also means acknowledging when you're not 100% certain your favoured position is the right one.

Also, the timeline is all messed up: one moment Bigby has been working on Fabletown for centuries, and another Snow has been learning from him over a few weeks. Fables who died in their stories show up alive, suggesting that they're immortal, but then they get killed here. And some Fables are very recent, so it's not like everyone is centuries old.

The videogame was kind of like a Lighter and Softer Sin City (not that that's much of a challenge), but this comic feels like something else entirely.

The Farm arc was uncomfortable to read but most arcs are not like that. Overall I could enjoy the story fine even if I cringed here and there. There is an Israel rant that I found just as uncomfortable as Goldilocks straw communism.

I am not 100% sure but I believe all of that is addressed at one point or another. Particularly the mortality issue.

Bigby's faces when up the beanstalk and when getting caught about "the Sarah lady".

LOL.

Also, his Israel fanboyism makes sense in context. I hope the story proves him wrong, and that this policy of Disproportionate Retribution comes back to bite him in the ass.

Spoiler alert- it doesn't- Bigby is speaking for the author when he voices those sentiments (although, the sentiments are in-character with Bigby's Social Darwinist views).

It makes some amount of sense given the character^note though I found weird him bringing up Israel, but Bigby is usually portrayed as the sane man of the bunch, so he is usually in the right. A quick Google at made me discover what pointed out. Bigby's opinion is, in fact, the author's.

Frankly, what bothered me most was not quite the content of the rant itself^note which I don't quite agree, but makes sense in context, but the statement that Fabletown situation is similar to Israel. It seemed very out of touch with reality and it is quite disturbing when I thought deeper about it.

I wonder if that makes us mundies the Palestinians.

Kay and Totenkinder's exchange about her "evil" donations to abortion clinics put more of a bad taste in my mouth than the Israel rant (which I thought was in-character and pretty cool considering what happened immediately after).

Haven't been keeping up with Fables since #18 for the collected editions, but wasn't Totenkinder's association with abortion clinics just Epileptic Trees? I definitely don't remember her confirming it.

edited 20th Jul '14 9:27:49 AM by Eagal

Could've sworn they confirmed it in-character. Unfortunately I've only read through volume 14 through my college's library, and only own volumes 1 and 2 personally (so far) so I can't go fact checking.

Oh, just wait for the utterly wretched bullshit they pull with Rose Red. Like guilt free rape from Jack.

I wish I were joking.

At least he gets run out of town by Stinky...uhh... Brock Blueheart and his posse.

They have Fables at my college library. Should read it? It looks interesting, but this forum making me rethink it.