Fables: What the Hell?

[thehefner]

OK. I give up. Does anyone here read the hugely-popular comic series FABLES? If so, can you tell me what the big fucking deal is?

Seriously. This is like LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN and AMERICAN GODS for idiots. It's like, let's spell every single reference out for you. "Oh, I broght this sword along. It's a vorpal blade. Y'know, from Jabberwocky fame. Snicker-Snack and all that." I'm not even exaggerating, it was that much "let's beat it into their heads."

There isn't an ounce of cleverness or subtlety here. And y'know what'd be really cool? If we took all these storybook characters and made them all cynical, unlikable, cursing, and smoking, boy that would be so fresh and cool! No. No, it really isn't. It's just unimaginative hackery. It reeks of bad fanfiction.

Maybe it gets better after the third volume, where I'm at now. But in the meantime, no, Mister Bill Willingham, you have not redeemed yourself for killing Spoiler and pointlessly turning Dr. Leslie Thompkins into a murderer.

Comments

[jellied.livejournal.com]

I've got all the trades. I kind of thinks it jumps the shark after Storybook Romance.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Which is what I'm on now, and so far it's the first one I'm actively liking.

It's still wildly popular at my store, so enough people must think it's been doing something right.

[jellied.livejournal.com]

I just like Bigby. Dude in the next one, he fights Frankenstein! And Nazis!

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Well, see, ok... I don't think there's any way I could hate that. The Big Bad Wolf versus the Frankenscence Monster and Nazis is a sure-fire combo for fun.

Just as long as it's not, like, VAN HELSING or something. *shudder*

[icewolf010.livejournal.com]

*shrug* I dunno. I just like them.

And, having read the original tales by the Brothers Grimm (neither of whom was Matt Damon, thankyouverymuch), not to mention the myths they and others evolved from, cynical, unlikeable fairy tale characters are par for the course. That's how most of them started before Disney, bless his good intentions and phenomenal talent for making money, and overwrought left-over Victorian sensiblities got hold of them.

For me, reading FABLES gives a sense of "Ah-ha! There you are, Cinderella! Where the heck have you been? Good to see you with a rapier in your hand."

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

See, my problem is if Cinderella shows up, within the first couple panels of her appearance they'll say something like, "Oh, it's you, Cinderella? Run out of any balls lately? Oh, and don't forget my sammitch this time, it's not a glass slipper, after all!" Y'know what I mean?

Maybe I'm just spoiled by the way Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman handled things, letting the reader be smart enough to figure these things out for themselves. Which is far more rewarding, in my opinion.

[icewolf010.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's the hardcore feminist in me, but I'm just ecstatic to see Cinderall sans prince.

I think a lot of the wording you're having issues with are things that are standard hard boiled detective lingo. Which was never, ever noted for its subtlety.

But I, too, mourn the passing of subtlety in our society. I can't count how many times I've been told something I'd written was "too complex." Go look at what's running on TV. While Aaron Sorkin was writing West Wing, there was a theatre reference in every show. Seriously. I'll loan you the DVDs the next time I see you. But then he left and the writing didn't so much plummet as it idled into a stall.

What I think you, and me, and a lot of the people of our acquaintence forget is that readers who find being challenged rewarding are a minority. Even if I open the category up to all SF/F fans, most of whom seem to fall in that camp, we're still a tiny fraction of the general public.

Who are lazy as all hell.

But I'm working on it. Got 65 subjects students this semester alone, heh, heh, heh....

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Yes, well, virtially all the princesses are single because the prince is a cad. Which makes perfect sense.

And no, it's not the hardcore detective lingo. I looooove detective lingo. It's the constant explicitly stating of who is whom within moments of their appearances, stuff like that. You can have all the lingo you want and still be damn subtle. Look at LA Confidential. I'm tangenting a bit here, but part of what makes some noir lingo so powerful is how everything can have double or triple meanings, and while one thing may be hit hard upon, it could have a subtle reference to something else entirely.

Yes, please do lend me West Wing! I had no idea about the theatre references, now you've totally piqued my interest.

God, you speak a painful truth about the general laziness of the public. I hate it when I remember that. Curse my damn snobbery. You're definitely in the best position; sometimes I think the only time I could get away with being a snob is if I were a teacher.

[icewolf010.livejournal.com]

T-teacher...get...away...with being...a....s-snob....?!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!

Trust me when I say there is no greater tiger pit for a teacher than being a snob. God looks down, and he laughs just about as hard as I did just now, and then he sends you an incredibly intelligent student who knows exactly 10% more than you do.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, but that's where you take the valuable lesson of several of my professors and my stepfather Gordon: You may be often incorrect, but you are never wrong.

[sharrainchains.livejournal.com]

::shaking with suppressed mushroom farm laughter:: That was my reaction, even when I first heard about the series.

One of the reasons I liked Into the Woods so very much was that it treated its audience as intelligent - as well as managing to give traditional characters an edge while maintaining the truth and integrity of their mythagos archetypes.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

I didn't find Fables too bad. I didn't see it as being worth all the hype, but parts were pretty entertaining. Of course, I didn't pay for my copies. I would agree that it doesn't redeem Willingham for what he did to the Batverse.

Also, icon love!

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Heh, thanks! We all need more "Beat" Takeshi Kitano love out there.

from Karla (Frumple's gf, who needs her own LJ ID)

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly, I have no defense. I enjoy it. I love the art. I like the whole magic-realism concept of a community driven underground. I like mythic icons being given actual personalities and flaws that show the dark flip side of the traits they idealize (beauty, charm, cleverness). I like that Snow White is a divorcee and b*llbusting politico instead of a chirpy little pedophilia poster child.

Sure, the dialog occasionally tromps through the story in hobnailed boots. And the Goldilocks-Baby Bear bestiality squicks me out. And I want someone (either the author or another character) to take an aluminum bat to that stupid flying monkey.

Sure, the story has been done before -- and better. Neil Gaiman is much, much smoother about integrating backstory into his tales, and he inspires me to learn more and makes me feel smarter for having read him. He's the king, no doubt. But there's room in my personal universe for him and his less polished brethren and, uh, sistren.

And I’ve always loved fairytales in any form. We forgive much for love. That’s why we eat chemical-flavored snack cakes and listen to cheesy ‘80s pop and watch B movies with awful production values.

I guess I acknowledge what you're saying about the flaws. I've read better, but I've also read much worse, and Fables is good enough and different enough that I'm keeping it on my shelf. (Unless Frumple steals it from me.)

[spacechild.livejournal.com]

i dig it. its not the most brilliant thing, but i like it.

Holly and i got the first couple. ask her what she thinks, because i'm not sure whether she likes it or not.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I'm liking it better volume three onward. It stopped trying to be all "ooh, look at all the shiny toys I've got!" and started actually getting to the meat of the plot.

[spacechild.livejournal.com]

word. i need to read more of them.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Meh. I'd say so, only after you've read AMERICAN GODS and LEAGUE vols. 1 and 2. Which you probably have. Jus' sayin'.

[spacechild.livejournal.com]

nope.

havent.

you have quite the list of stuff that you are supposed to loan me. ;)

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I'll try to dig 'em out. Because they both show Fables who the big dogs really are.

[spacechild.livejournal.com]

i cant even remember all the stuff i wanted to borrow from you.

damn..