Fables is good

[xodacia81]

So I just finished Fables: Rose Red (TPB #15 I think)

Super great, wonderful. The horrific Literals/JoF crossover is LOOOOOOOOOONG in the past. This is such a great book. I really liked the extras in the back of the TPB (I'm assuming that the extras originally appeared in #100). I'm hoping that I get a B&N gift card for Christmas so I can get TPB #16.

I loves me some Fables.

Me too. The followup story to Rose Red was equally cool and the current one could end up being even better than the last one. As of the RR followup-arc, some long-standing story seeds are finally sprouting. Excellent series that lost its way for a year or so but finally got back on track.

[xodacia81]

So I just finished Fables: Rose Red (TPB #15 I think)

Super great, wonderful. The horrific Literals/JoF crossover is LOOOOOOOOOONG in the past. This is such a great book. I really liked the extras in the back of the TPB (I'm assuming that the extras originally appeared in #100). I'm hoping that I get a B&N gift card for Christmas so I can get TPB #16.

I loves me some Fables.

That crossover killed the series for me. *SQUEE* was one of the worst things ever. The idea was clever, the execution was Secret Weapons bad.

It was bad but the following arcs have been back to the quality of the first 10 storylines. Dark Ages/Great Crossover were trash-although DA had moments-but since then? Other than that one bad year, the series has been rocking.

[Lightning Strike]

So I just finished Fables: Rose Red (TPB #15 I think)

Super great, wonderful. The horrific Literals/JoF crossover is LOOOOOOOOOONG in the past. This is such a great book. I really liked the extras in the back of the TPB (I'm assuming that the extras originally appeared in #100). I'm hoping that I get a B&N gift card for Christmas so I can get TPB #16.

I loves me some Fables.

That crossover killed the series for me. *SQUEE* was one of the worst things ever. The idea was clever, the execution was Secret Weapons bad.

I didn't care for the crossover either. It had it moments here and there, but overall, it was a disappointment. But Fables is one of the few books I can't wait to get in the mail every six months or so when the new tbp comes out. I immediately read it right away no matter what is in my "to read" pile.

[Lightning Strike]

So I just finished Fables: Rose Red (TPB #15 I think)

Super great, wonderful. The horrific Literals/JoF crossover is LOOOOOOOOOONG in the past. This is such a great book. I really liked the extras in the back of the TPB (I'm assuming that the extras originally appeared in #100). I'm hoping that I get a B&N gift card for Christmas so I can get TPB #16.

I loves me some Fables.

That crossover killed the series for me. *SQUEE* was one of the worst things ever. The idea was clever, the execution was Secret Weapons bad.

It was bad but the following arcs have been back to the quality of the first 10 storylines. Dark Ages/Great Crossover were trash-although DA had moments-but since then? Other than that one bad year, the series has been rocking.

I liked DA, but yeah, the crossover was bad.

[400yrs]

So I just finished Fables: Rose Red (TPB #15 I think)

Super great, wonderful. The horrific Literals/JoF crossover is LOOOOOOOOOONG in the past. This is such a great book. I really liked the extras in the back of the TPB (I'm assuming that the extras originally appeared in #100). I'm hoping that I get a B&N gift card for Christmas so I can get TPB #16.

I loves me some Fables.

That crossover killed the series for me. *SQUEE* was one of the worst things ever. The idea was clever, the execution was Secret Weapons bad.

Same. I sold off all my trades and will not be going back to the series again. He should've ended it at his original ending.

[Lightning Strike]

So I just finished Fables: Rose Red (TPB #15 I think)

Super great, wonderful. The horrific Literals/JoF crossover is LOOOOOOOOOONG in the past. This is such a great book. I really liked the extras in the back of the TPB (I'm assuming that the extras originally appeared in #100). I'm hoping that I get a B&N gift card for Christmas so I can get TPB #16.

I loves me some Fables.

That crossover killed the series for me. *SQUEE* was one of the worst things ever. The idea was clever, the execution was Secret Weapons bad.

Same. I sold off all my trades and will not be going back to the series again. He should've ended it at his original ending.

Are you talking about issue #50?

[xodacia81]

So I just finished Fables: Rose Red (TPB #15 I think)

Super great, wonderful. The horrific Literals/JoF crossover is LOOOOOOOOOONG in the past. This is such a great book. I really liked the extras in the back of the TPB (I'm assuming that the extras originally appeared in #100). I'm hoping that I get a B&N gift card for Christmas so I can get TPB #16.

I loves me some Fables.

That crossover killed the series for me. *SQUEE* was one of the worst things ever. The idea was clever, the execution was Secret Weapons bad.

Same. I sold off all my trades and will not be going back to the series again. He should've ended it at his original ending.

Are you talking about issue #50?

He's talking about the belief among some people that Willingham meant to end it at #75. However, while it seems a logical place to end it, BW had long said he had a "Dave Simm plan" for Fables. My take on that comment has always been that it is going to consist of 300 issues, and as the first "over-arc" was 75 issues, then the next 3 will be as well. 75x4=300.

[Lightning Strike]

So I just finished Fables: Rose Red (TPB #15 I think)

Super great, wonderful. The horrific Literals/JoF crossover is LOOOOOOOOOONG in the past. This is such a great book. I really liked the extras in the back of the TPB (I'm assuming that the extras originally appeared in #100). I'm hoping that I get a B&N gift card for Christmas so I can get TPB #16.

I loves me some Fables.

That crossover killed the series for me. *SQUEE* was one of the worst things ever. The idea was clever, the execution was Secret Weapons bad.

Same. I sold off all my trades and will not be going back to the series again. He should've ended it at his original ending.

Are you talking about issue #50?

He's talking about the belief among some people that Willingham meant to end it at #75. However, while it seems a logical place to end it, BW had long said he had a "Dave Simm plan" for Fables. My take on that comment has always been that it is going to consist of 300 issues, and as the first "over-arc" was 75 issues, then the next 3 will be as well. 75x4=300.

Maybe I'm getting the issue # messed up because I read the trades, but was it the issue where Snow and Bigby kind of walk off to their home in the woods and everyone looks like they had a happy ending?

[xodacia81]

So I just finished Fables: Rose Red (TPB #15 I think)

Super great, wonderful. The horrific Literals/JoF crossover is LOOOOOOOOOONG in the past. This is such a great book. I really liked the extras in the back of the TPB (I'm assuming that the extras originally appeared in #100). I'm hoping that I get a B&N gift card for Christmas so I can get TPB #16.

I loves me some Fables.

That crossover killed the series for me. *SQUEE* was one of the worst things ever. The idea was clever, the execution was Secret Weapons bad.

Same. I sold off all my trades and will not be going back to the series again. He should've ended it at his original ending.

Are you talking about issue #50?

He's talking about the belief among some people that Willingham meant to end it at #75. However, while it seems a logical place to end it, BW had long said he had a "Dave Simm plan" for Fables. My take on that comment has always been that it is going to consist of 300 issues, and as the first "over-arc" was 75 issues, then the next 3 will be as well. 75x4=300.

Maybe I'm getting the issue # messed up because I read the trades, but was it the issue where Snow and Bigby kind of walk off to their home in the woods and everyone looks like they had a happy ending?

I think that happened twice. Once after he returned from his exile and again when the war was over.

[400yrs]

It has been a while since I read it, but either right before or right after The Good Prince was where it felt like his original plot plan ran its course. I can think of a hard end spot in the book and I don't think there is one, but I'm speaking more plot-plan-wise.

Thinking back, likely before The Good Prince. He likely came up with the plot for The Good Prince (which was a great story) and decided to continue on with the 300 issue plan. Everything I read after that felt like a mish mash of ideas that he was just coming up with, but which didn't really gel. Yeah, he/you can call that a second act, but it felt more like a continuation where there shouldn't have been one.

[ian_house]

Missed this thread up to now. It was good again for a while recently but I'm not so sure since the North Wind stuff went down (trying not to spoil too much for the trades guys). It's very close to being dropped for me.

[xodacia81]

It has been a while since I read it, but either right before or right after The Good Prince was where it felt like his original plot plan ran its course. I can think of a hard end spot in the book and I don't think there is one, but I'm speaking more plot-plan-wise.

Thinking back, likely before The Good Prince. He likely came up with the plot for The Good Prince (which was a great story) and decided to continue on with the 300 issue plan. Everything I read after that felt like a mish mash of ideas that he was just coming up with, but which didn't really gel. Yeah, he/you can call that a second act, but it felt more like a continuation where there shouldn't have been one.

I will have to say I do not agree and for several reasons. One, the point of the series was never exclusively about The War. Instead, it was always about making a new life. After a war, there is certainly a need to carve out new niches, and that brings me to my second point. What we are seeing now is how the aftermath is often a lot stickier than the war itself. Third, we got hints way back when the cubs were young that big things were coming and that is what we are currently seeing. I think Willingham has planned it out pretty much from the start and he's structured it in such a way that it could end and feel basically complete every 75 issues. Now at about #110, we have roughly 3 more years of the current over-arc. In a very real sense, it seems to me that the meat of the story is just starting, because the way I look at it, everything from Legends in Exile through War & Pieces, was prologue.

[xodacia81]

Missed this thread up to now. It was good again for a while recently but I'm not so sure since the North Wind stuff went down (trying not to spoil too much for the trades guys). It's very close to being dropped for me.

Oh, I'm digging the stuff with the Winds, if only because it connects right back to some of the hints we got about the future of the cubs.

[Elveen]

I've been told it gets better gain, but it's going to take time to get over the suckitude of the crossover (and Dark Ages). I LOVE(D) Fables but when someone says only a year of bad comics, there's just way too many other options out there. Like Infinite Kung Fu.

I buy books buy the hardcover or trade so if you have two trades that suck in a row, that's a problem unless I have severe attachment to something like the character (Deadpool--which doesn't apply because Deadpool has never been less than awesome sauce)

I can see you point. Crossover WAS puke in a big. But the last 2 trades, Witches and Rose Red were like a slip and slide as a kid, all day fun.

[xodacia81]

I've been told it gets better gain, but it's going to take time to get over the suckitude of the crossover (and Dark Ages). I LOVE(D) Fables but when someone says only a year of bad comics, there's just way too many other options out there. Like Infinite Kung Fu.

I buy books buy the hardcover or trade so if you have two trades that suck in a row, that's a problem unless I have severe attachment to something like the character (Deadpool--which doesn't apply because Deadpool has never been less than awesome sauce)

I can see you point. Crossover WAS puke in a big. But the last 2 trades, Witches and Rose Red were like a slip and slide as a kid, all day fun.

It's just been pure win since Witches began. But, that year of suck? Dark Ages/Crossover? Oh man. That turned a lot of folks off the series and I was almost one of them.

[Lightning Strike]

Dark Ages is aptly named.

Yep

[xodacia81]

Dark Ages is aptly named.

Yep

Dark Ages was a miscalculation in that I think launching into something that dreadful right after the end of The War changed the tone of the series too dramatically too quickly. When it was followed by the pointless and yet rather bleak Crossover, I thought Willingham had lost it. I gave the next arc a shot and am glad I did. The series recovered. However, it has taken nearly 2 years to get back to really looking that forward to the series each month. As to DA in particular, Mr. Dark was just too deadly and vicious a creature to unleash on the readers so soon and for so long.

[Elveen]

Dark Ages is aptly named.

Yep

Dark Ages was a miscalculation in that I think launching into something that dreadful right after the end of The War changed the tone of the series too dramatically too quickly. When it was followed by the pointless and yet rather bleak Crossover, I thought Willingham had lost it. I gave the next arc a shot and am glad I did. The series recovered. However, it has taken nearly 2 years to get back to really looking that forward to the series each month. As to DA in particular, Mr. Dark was just too deadly and vicious a creature to unleash on the readers so soon and for so long.

I have not read past Rose Red, but I don't really like Mr. Dark. He does not seem to fit. I like his back story, I like how BW is using him, I can even realize that Fables needs another big baddy now that the Adversary (as he was first constituted) is "gone". But MD, I just don't like him.

Spoilers....

Even the stuff with him and bellflower (F.T.) in Rose Red while cool, was not all that for me. I just don't like him that much.

But the cast of characters is outstanding. I really liked the Rose and Snow stuff. Anything Bibgy is cool.

The plot points introduced/moved along at the conclusion of Rose Red I'm totally into.

Geppetto planning "evil" and the toy soldiers
Whatever Ozma is going to do
The North Wind discovering the "other child"


WAAAAAY excited for the next TPB.

[xodacia81]

Dark Ages is aptly named.

Yep

Dark Ages was a miscalculation in that I think launching into something that dreadful right after the end of The War changed the tone of the series too dramatically too quickly. When it was followed by the pointless and yet rather bleak Crossover, I thought Willingham had lost it. I gave the next arc a shot and am glad I did. The series recovered. However, it has taken nearly 2 years to get back to really looking that forward to the series each month. As to DA in particular, Mr. Dark was just too deadly and vicious a creature to unleash on the readers so soon and for so long.

I have not read past Rose Red, but I don't really like Mr. Dark. He does not seem to fit. I like his back story, I like how BW is using him, I can even realize that Fables needs another big baddy now that the Adversary (as he was first constituted) is "gone". But MD, I just don't like him.

Spoilers....

Even the stuff with him and bellflower (F.T.) in Rose Red while cool, was not all that for me. I just don't like him that much.

But the cast of characters is outstanding. I really liked the Rose and Snow stuff. Anything Bibgy is cool.

The plot points introduced/moved along at the conclusion of Rose Red I'm totally into.

Geppetto planning "evil" and the toy soldiers
Whatever Ozma is going to do
The North Wind discovering the "other child"


WAAAAAY excited for the next TPB.

I'm pretty much with you on all that, E. As for the next trade, it arrives in December 2011. Yep, next month.

[Chiclo]

Dark Ages is aptly named.

Yep

Dark Ages was a miscalculation in that I think launching into something that dreadful right after the end of The War changed the tone of the series too dramatically too quickly. When it was followed by the pointless and yet rather bleak Crossover, I thought Willingham had lost it. I gave the next arc a shot and am glad I did. The series recovered. However, it has taken nearly 2 years to get back to really looking that forward to the series each month. As to DA in particular, Mr. Dark was just too deadly and vicious a creature to unleash on the readers so soon and for so long.

I have not read past Rose Red, but I don't really like Mr. Dark. He does not seem to fit. I like his back story, I like how BW is using him, I can even realize that Fables needs another big baddy now that the Adversary (as he was first constituted) is "gone". But MD, I just don't like him.

Spoilers....

Even the stuff with him and bellflower (F.T.) in Rose Red while cool, was not all that for me. I just don't like him that much.

But the cast of characters is outstanding. I really liked the Rose and Snow stuff. Anything Bibgy is cool.

The plot points introduced/moved along at the conclusion of Rose Red I'm totally into.

Geppetto planning "evil" and the toy soldiers
Whatever Ozma is going to do
The North Wind discovering the "other child"


WAAAAAY excited for the next TPB.

I will try to avoid spoilers here. It feels to me like Dark isn't so much the next big bad himself as he helps establish the next big bad, a woman named Leigh.

[xodacia81]

Dark Ages is aptly named.

Yep

Dark Ages was a miscalculation in that I think launching into something that dreadful right after the end of The War changed the tone of the series too dramatically too quickly. When it was followed by the pointless and yet rather bleak Crossover, I thought Willingham had lost it. I gave the next arc a shot and am glad I did. The series recovered. However, it has taken nearly 2 years to get back to really looking that forward to the series each month. As to DA in particular, Mr. Dark was just too deadly and vicious a creature to unleash on the readers so soon and for so long.

I have not read past Rose Red, but I don't really like Mr. Dark. He does not seem to fit. I like his back story, I like how BW is using him, I can even realize that Fables needs another big baddy now that the Adversary (as he was first constituted) is "gone". But MD, I just don't like him.

Spoilers....

Even the stuff with him and bellflower (F.T.) in Rose Red while cool, was not all that for me. I just don't like him that much.

But the cast of characters is outstanding. I really liked the Rose and Snow stuff. Anything Bibgy is cool.

The plot points introduced/moved along at the conclusion of Rose Red I'm totally into.

Geppetto planning "evil" and the toy soldiers
Whatever Ozma is going to do
The North Wind discovering the "other child"


WAAAAAY excited for the next TPB.

I will try to avoid spoilers here. It feels to me like Dark isn't so much the next big bad himself as he helps establish the next big bad, a woman named Leigh.

Yeah, I've been wondering that. There is also the whole thing with the "Great Powers" and how they seem to be passing. It's as though a true "new age" is coming.

[ian_house]

You've all pretty much highlighted my favourite elements on Fables too but they are all sitting on the sidelines as of late and have been for an awfully long time. Wake the adversary up, let Gepetto go mental, Get back into the city, destroy new haven etc!

[xodacia81]

You've all pretty much highlighted my favourite elements on Fables too but they are all sitting on the sidelines as of late and have been for an awfully long time. Wake the adversary up, let Gepetto go mental, Get back into the city, destroy new haven etc!

I don't want Haven destroyed. However, I do want to see more exploration of other locations and I can't wait to see how things tie together. As for the "old" characters, this whole over-arc has been about passing the torch and examining how the aftermath is often more brutal than the war itself. Look at what Bellflower and Osma said, regarding Dark. I think this is where the "old guard" starts to step aside. Right now, we have 40 issues until the current over-arc is finished and guess what? Just like the first time through, the story is better now than it has been in a long time.

[tarheelmarine]

Dark Ages and Rose Red were good, but F Men is better. It was lots of fun and some of the sub-plots eleven mentioned were involved.

I am going to spoil some stuff so if you haven't read the newest trade don't read below.

At first I was apprehensive about "superheroes" in Fables but it was a nice throwback to older comics. The art and coloring helped out with that in one issue. I definitely like how the Oz characters are going to be featured soon.

In reference to Mr. Dark, while I think the North Wind was a bit of a panacea for dealing with him, I do like how one of the cubs will be the new North Wind. How cool would it be for Ghost to be the New North Wind?

Rose Red finally met her mysterious benefactor, and I need to re-read to determine who it was (anyone feel free to tell me), if some of the premonitions of her came true then the future looks bleak for Bigby and Snow.

I am aso curious to know what creatures took Briar Rose.

Great TPB!

[ian_house]

Anyone read the Xmas issue? Alot of new mysteries popping up and quite a nice done in one story at the same time. It's bought the series an extra few issues of me reading.