Once Upon A Time - My Review of Jack of Fables: The (Nearly) Great Escape

I've been wanting to pick up a Fables book for a long time and the Panels comic book read harder challenge gave me the perfect excuse under the topic of "read a fantasy comic". The book I picked up at the library was Jack of Fables: The (Nearly) Great Escape by Bill Willingham.

I have played the first chapter of The Wolf Among Us by Telltale Games on the Xbox 360, which I loved and so I did have a little insight as to the Fables and how their world works.

The story was really great and very interesting, I loved all the characters (except Jack, but I think that's the point). It was weird, in a good way to see all the characters that I grew up reading about as grown ups themselves and doing "grown up" things like smoking, drinking, swearing and having sex.

The artwork was brilliant too and worked brilliantly with the writing, I loved searching each page to see which fairy tale characters I could spot in the back ground.

I absolutely loved this book and I am hoping to add it to my own personal collection at some point in the future, as well as all the other volumes.

I started reading this book on the 22nd of February and completed it the same day
I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads

Something a Little Different - My review of Hinterkind Vol 1: The Waking

Since last year I have been working my way through the graphic novel and manga sections at the library. I was genuinely amazed that we even had these sections as I live in a relatively small town. On Monday, I went to hand in my read books and pick up a new stash (I'm sure you know how libraries actually work). One of the books I picked up this time was Hinterkind Vol.1: The Waking World by Ian Edginton and illustrations by Francesco Trifogli. I have heard nothing but good things about this series on Twitter and other social media, so my expectations were very high and yet when I came to write my review, it has been slated pretty much across the board on Goodreads. Definitely seems to be a Marmite kind of read!

Looking at the book, the artwork is done really well, but feels primitive, this however as you read through matches the story and the way in which it is written. The artist has done a great job of matching the tone and mood of the writing.

The story itself is an eclectic mish-mash of post apocalyptic settings with references both to "current" modern time and fairy tales. It took me quite a while to get used to these things being used all together, so I am glad that I read this as a graphic novel instead of individual comics as I probably would have given up after issue 2. At one point a giant type creature utters the line "FFFIFUFHM IZ SMEHLL BLUD OVA HUMUN!" and this nearly finished it for me there and then. I love fairy tales, I love post apocalyptic stories, but these two combined just felt very jarring to me.

I stuck with it and I have to say that I am glad that I did. No it wasn't the best thing that I have ever read (or anywhere even close), but it was certainly interesting to the point that I would like to see where they go with the story. There are no punches held with characters coming and going (though I think we've met all the main protagonists now) and there are side stories which I feel will be good to follow. If I see the next instalment in the library I will definitely pick it up, it's not something I would go out and personally buy though.

I started reading this on the 12th of January and finished it on the same day
I gave the book a (low) 4 star rating on Goodreads