Fables

A new fantasy series about fairytale characters, and their refugee community in the real world

by Bill Willingham and various artists

(principal artist Mark Buckingham)

Fables Vol. 4:
March of the Wooden Soldiers

Rating: Young adult to adult.

Genre / themes: Alternate fairy tales, alternate universes, refugees, urban fantasy, modern world.

Art level: Good, coloured, western.

Star Rating: 4/5

Number of Books: Currently 14, nearly completed (I haven't been able to read the last couple of books yet).
 Also a spin-off series of nine books called 'Jack of the Fables'

and a single spin-off title, Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love


Other notes: Variable books quality and length, but gets into its stride later in the series. Worth reading as an entire series.

The Fables books are a very new graphic novel series, and definitely worth picking up. The books are extremely variable in both length and quality - but skipping any isn't the best idea, as there is an actual narrative storyline! The first book is probably the least impressive, but later ones definitely make up for it! (I wouldn't recommend the first book alone, but I strongly recommend the entire series)

Fables is the story of the Fables - story book characters, fairy tales and myths - Snow White, Baba Yaga, Bigsby (the Big Bad Wolf), Prince Charming, Shere Khan, Bluebeard, Geppetto and Pinochio, the major King Coal, and the frog prince, to name but a few. They are refugees, fleeing a terrible army, who have established a city in the real world and are trying to get by without being noticed.

Fabletown is initially run by the affable and portly major, King Coal, and his ruthless secretary, Snow White. Bigsby, oncet he Big Bad Wolf, and the son of the North Wind, plays the sheriff, and the rest of the fables make up the diversity of the rest of the community, that they try to keep in line and out of site of the Mundanes. All signed a compact forgiving past crimes, and swearing to obey the laws of Fabletown. The (visually) non-humans live up on the Farm, also a source of tension.

The books follow both their individual adventures (Jack, knave of many stories, from tarts to beanstalks, wanders off to make himself a movie star at one point, and the first book revolves around the apparent murder of Rose Red), the politics and life of Fabletown (an uprising on the Farm, Prince Charming's election campaign), and the actual war with the Enemy (both in their homelands, and when spies and armies invade Fabletown).

The entire published Fables series in order, from left to right

Watchmen

The classic gritty mockery of the superhero genre

by Alan Moore

Rating: Adult.

Genre / themes: Realistic/psychological take on superheroes, modern day, urban,

Art level: Functional. A couple of decades old and it shows. Everything is quite crammed in, and the colours look faded compared to today's books.

Star Rating: 4/5

Number of Books: One.

Other notes:  The recent film Watchmen was based on this book. Very large thick book, considered one of the classic greats of graphic novels. In the top 100 novels of Time magazine.

Watchmen : Amazon Blurb
Has any comic been as acclaimed as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen? Possibly only Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, but Watchmen  remains the critics' favorite. Why? Because Moore is a better writer, and Watchmen a more complex and dark and literate creation than Miller's fantastic, subversive take on the Batman myth. Moore, renowned for many other of the genre's finest creations (Saga of the Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, and From Hell, with Eddie Campbell) first put out Watchmen in 12 issues for DC in 1986-87. It won a comic award at the time (the 1987 Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards for Best Writer/Artist combination) and has continued to gather praise since.

My Review
Any list of graphic novels must include this. A gritty and cynical take on the popular (and often happy and mindless) superhero comics that became popular, Watchmen follows the story of a group of vigilante superheros years after their boom-and-bust fame, and the intricate plot they either get caught up in, or mastermind, to fix their miserable world. The art is a little outdated, but not as badly as a lot of comics from that period - it takes a little adjustment, but works well enough not to spoil the story, and the dark, slightly distorted feel works well for everything set within the city.

Not for younger readers, this is very definitely a book for adults, and is big enough to take hours reading. And yes, it was the source material of the recent movie. I've put it first on the list because, although I prefer his other major graphic novel V for Vendetta, it is his best known and most recommended book!

Strangers In Paradise

A tale of two girls in love, and the guy who loved them too. Also, crime, art, and growing up

By Terry Moore

Strangers In Paradise
Pocket Book 1

Rating: Young adult-adult

Genre / themes: Love, growing up, crime (mafia/drugs/prostitution), relationships, lesbian/bisexual, modern day America.

Art level: Good. Black and white.

Star Rating: 5/5

Number of Books: . Individual comics collated into nineteen graphic novels, also collected into six small pocketbooks.
Check the book order here

Other notes: Self-published. Lots of flashbacks and forwards. Music and poetry a major theme.

Strangers in Paradise: Amazon Blurb
Katchoo is a beautiful young woman living a quiet life with everything going for her. She's smart, independent and very much in love with her best friend, Francine. Then Katchoo meets David, a gentle but persistent young man who is determined to win Katchoo's heart. The resulting love triangle is a touching comedy of romantic errors until Katchoo's former employer comes looking for her and $850,000 in missing mob money. As her idyllic life begins to fall apart, Katchoo discovers no one can be trusted and that the past she thought she left behind now threatens to destroy her and everything she loves, including Francine. This is the first edition in the series - don't miss it! 


My Review

I LOVE this series.

Strangers in Paradise is the love story of Katchoo - a violent, intelligent, artistic blonde, with a troubled past and future, and Francine - the girl she grew up with, who's sweet and kind, has body image issues, and dreams of Mr. Right and the house with the white picket fence. It's also the story of art galleries and mobs, cancer and babies, death, guns, and school plays. Strangers in Paradise is kick ass, and philosophical, tasteful and sexy. The art is brilliant, and Terry Moore's lines are some of the few that make me want to draw cartoons instead of paintings.

The story of Katchoo, Francine and David is a brilliant graphic novel series. The explosiveness and the gentleness that is Katchoo will capture your heart and her story, and the story of her friends and love, interweaves deftly between art gallery, mafia, high school flashbacks, marriage, loss, jealousy, threesomes, death, and trust. This is an epic series. You can also read a bit more about Strangers in Paradise here.

The collected pocketbooks of Strangers In Paradise










The Strangers in Paradise: Treasury Edition is basically an edited version of the entire series in one book, with extra drawngs and cover art. Good for the beginner or collector, but the individual books are better for the entire story.

• For a more in-depth review of the Strangers in Paradise books, the music and the order of the entire nineteen large graphic novels (among other things!) check out this site on SiP.

• Check out the review of Strangers In Paradise at Good Lesbian Books
• Along with more lesbian graphic novels

Schlock Mercenary

Space-going mercenaries tough it out with teraporting, aliens, guns and lots of humour

by Howard Tayler

Schlock Mercenary (6):
Resident Mad Scientist 

Rating: Young adult-adult

Genre / themes: Science fiction, mercenaries, spaceships, traveling the galazy, crdue and advanced humour, AIs, robots, aliens, BIG guns

Art level: Terrible, but functional. The drawing style does actually suit the story and the characters - one of the only webcomics where the art doesn't impede the enjoyment of the strips. All in colour.

Star Rating: 4.5/5

Number of Books: Six so far (ongoing).
  Books are not numbered in the title, the order is :
* The Tub of Happiness
* Teraport Wars
* Under New Management
* The Blackness Between
* The Scrapyard of Insufferable Arrogance
* Resident Mad Scientist


Other notes: Also a webcomic that updates daily, self-published.

Schlock Mercenary: The Tub of Happiness: Amazon Blurb
Welcome to Tagon's Toughs, a mercenary company whose newest recruit is almost as much trouble as the new owners. They want to revolutionize space travel. Schlock just wants to hurt people and break things. This 240-page volume takes the reader back to the very start of Schlock Mercenary, and then some. It opens with nine pages of all-new strips telling the story of how Schlock came to enlist, and then forges onward chronologically from the very first strip. It also includes concept sketches, commentary, excellent guest art, deck plans for the Kitesfear. If you've been waiting to devour this Schlock Mercenary from the very beginning, the wait is over: grab your big spoon and dig into the Tub of Happiness.


My Review

Schlock Mercenary has terrible art, but it gets the job done - this is one of the best webcomics around. You should buy this for anyone who likes scifi, mercenaries, humour, big guns, stealing, time travel, and aliens who not only look like a pile of poop, but would eat it too. Full color illustrations that grow strangely in your affections as you read and very ...unique characters.

Schlock , the title character of Schlock Mercenary, is a rather unique alien - a carbosilicate amorph - that looks... well, like a toilet joke, and is basically indestructible. He has an almost religious love for plasma cannons. He signs up to a crew of tough space-going mercenaries and havok and politics ensues as they fly around the galaxy embroiled in politics, one step behind their last paycheck and always looking for bigger guns to play with. It is satirical, sarcastic and punny.

The stories range from little sideplots (often amusing) involving the jobs the crew takes on, and galaxy-spanning politics and machinations that they step into, break and run away from (such as the gatekeepers and their sinister behind the scenes cloning and control over galactic travel). Some of the science fiction gets a little wordy but Howard Tayler manages to explain what a teraport is (for example), while lightly glossing over the more boring details, so this shouldn't impede enjoyment.

All the books published so far, in order