Review - Fables 112

Publisher
VERTIGO/DC

Writer
BILL WILLINGHAM

Artist
MARK BUCKINGHAM

What They Said
Don't miss the special holiday issue – and because you've been good all year, it's even got extra story pages! Christmas is here, and we know this holiday isn't always jolly for our favorite Fables. In this issue we get a glimpse into the future fates of our wild and dear Rose Red. 


What I Say
Its Christmas time for our plucky expatriated Fabletown residents, and they've received the greatest gift of all, a chance to go home.With the threat of Mr. Dark finally put aside, the Fables have returned to the upstate farm and are making plans for retaking their old residency in Manhattan. But before they move out they are taking a breather to celebrate the holidays. The Wolf family are also taking a break from the trials of choosing a new North Wind to spend possibly their last Christmas as a whole family. Meanwhile, Rose Red has an unexpected guest and goes on a Christmas adventure to see he possibly future as one of the newest Agents of Hope.

Over at DC proper right now, with their new 52 relaunch initiative there are a handful of titles priced at 3.99. Almost to a one they all feel lightweight and over priced. Some have back-ups, but some don't! 3.99 for 20/22 pages of story? What kind of insane madness has taken hold over there? This special issue of Fables is priced at 3.99 too. But that's okay because you actually get 30 pages of story. And not split over back-ups, but the actually meat and potatoes of the book. Reading this issue is satisfying. Its chunky and you really feel like you get your value out of it by the end. Remember issue 100? And how it cost 10 bucks for 100 pages? That was another really good deal too. Fables is nothing if not a really good value for your money. Stuff happens between its pages.

As to the story itself, I must admit I must have missed something along the way, because I was feeling a little clueless about Rose Red and her 'Agent of Hope' role. The fact that I don't recall the exact events that lead to this new chapter in her life is concerning. But regardless its certainly a change for the character, and its really interesting considering the character's storied history over the course of the book. The characters she meets on her journey, and what she learns about what it means to be an Agent of Hope is powerful stuff that's sure to shape her character and her fate for years to come. And yet, even with all this heavy life changing character stuff, there's still time for lighthearted humor and classic character interaction. Fables is nothing if not an ensemble book with many voices.

Mark Buckingham has always been a great artist, and his long run on this title has been nothing if not exemplary. That being said, a few things have been bugging me lately. First of all, the coloring just doesn't seem as eye popping as it once was (and lately I've been rereading the series in Deluxe Oversized Hardcover, and this change in coloring feels much more pronounced to me). And second of all the boarders. For those that don't know, for a very long time now pretty much everything Buckingham draws is constrained in a pair of static boarding images that often change with the portion of the story we're reading. For the most part its a very neat device for conveying the story's tone while we're reading. But lately I've just feeling like the boarders are compressing the art. There are no full-bleeds in Fables, panels are 'trapped' between these art boarders, and it makes things feel small and cramped sometimes. Full-page splashes are just end up being big panels, regular pages feel like they are losing valuable page real estate for more 'stuff'. The thing is, this has largely always been the case, but for some reason it been feeling more pronounced to me since issue 100. I'm honestly not sure why, but there you go.

I know it sounds like I'm bagging on a good thing, make no mistake Fables is one of my top titles every month. I'm not sure what I'd do without this contemporary fantasy stalwart on my pull list. A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.

Review - Dark Horse Presents 7

Publisher 

DARK HORSE

Writers

MIKE MIGNOLA, ANDI WATSON, NEAL ADAMS, HOWARD CHAYKIN, M. J. BUTLER, STAN SAKI, TONY PURYEAR, BRANDON GRAHAM, FELIPE MELO, and CARLA SPEED MCNEIL

Artists 

MIKE MIGNOLA, ANDI WATSON, NEAL ADAMS, HOWARD CHAYKIN, M. J. BUTLER, STAN SAKI, TONY PURYEAR, BRANDON GRAHAM, JUAN CAVIA, and CARLA SPEED MCNEIL

Editor

MIKE RICHARDSON

 

What They Said 

Mike Mignola's Hellboy is the centerpiece for the 7th all-star issue of Dark Horse Presents!

In addition, this issue packs the beginnings of two new stories--200 People to Kill and Skultar, a brand-new Age of Reptiles story by Ricardo Delgado, a new Skeleton Key story by Andi Watson, and continuing stories by Howard Chaykin and Neal Adams!

* Brand new Hellboy story written and drawn by Mike Mignola!

* New Age of Reptiles and Skeleton Key stories!

What I Say
Contrary to what the solicitation text says, neither 200 People to Kill or Age of Reptiles appear this issue. In their place we appear to to have gotten a new Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Saki and a one-off story by Brandon Graham. I'm going to call that a win on our part.

Another issue of Dark Horse Presents is upon us, and once again it provides us with ten 8-page comics as only the most creative folks in comics can bring us. I'll break things down once again just to keep things concise.

HELLBOY: THE AZTEC MUMMY - Mike Mignola graces us with a one-off Hellboy tale that is largely an extended fight scene book ended by some exposition to explain the set-up. Other then Mignola's exceptional artwork I found this story a little thin on the ground, it didn't feel like it economize its space resrictions very well. But it's Hellboy and Mignola. So its still OKAY.


SKELETON KEY: LOST PROPERTY - Those adorable time and space traveling rascals; fox spirit Kitsune, schoolgirl Tamsin, and Mr. Raccoon find themselves completely lost and trapped in a museum of lost things and the only way out is to get even more lost. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite strips running in DHP. The art style, though deceptively simple, is full of life and energy. Sight gags, little background gags, and general madcapness makes this strip EXCELLENT.


BLOOD PART 6 - More incomprehensible madness. GAWD AWFUL.

MARKED MAN PART 7 - The penultimate chapter to a rather good hitman story. Lately I've been getting more and more interested in Howard Chaykin as a creator. I've really warmed up to his art style recently, and though sometimes figures look a little weird, and sometimes its a little hard to tell what characters are doing its always very unique to look at. I wish I could say the same about the coloring, which feels overly digital, with lots of very mood breaking brightness too it. This seems to be Chaykin's preferred coloring style at the moment, but I sort of wish it would get dialed back a bit. This installment sees a number of plot threads come together with LaFarge and Hecht meeting for the first time as LaFarge heads to confront the bastards who murdered his family. GREAT.

SKULTAR THE UNCONQUERED PART 1 - A new strip. I'm honestly not entirely sure what the make of it. It starts out with typical epic fantasy, with a Conan style hero, Skultar, saving a township from soldiers stealing all their male children for a far off war. But it soon turns to a bit of parody with Skultar's sidekick who interprets prophecy concerning Skultar the Unconquered, predicting how Skultar should conduct himself, how to act, and being self aware of their cliche situation. Only he gets things a little wrong in the end. Like I said, I'm, not sure about this strip yet. The art is only so so, a little muddy in places, but it has potencial. We'll see where it goes next month. WE'LL SEE.

USAGI YOJIMO: BUNTORI - Stan Saki brings us a spooky one-off story of ghostly samurai, who don't know they are dead, locked in eternal battle. And only the rabbit ronin Usagi can bring them their peace. Usagi Yojimbo is one of those great long running comics that is both storied and accessible. And this short-story is no exception. Easy to jump right into, and tells a complete story. That takes a special kind of talent. And Stan Saki has no shortage of that. His art style is at once cartoony, but lavishly detailed with bold lines. This particular story is also in color, which is a nice change of pace but I'm not sure it strengthens the piece. Maybe I'm just used to it in black and white. FANTASTIC.


CONCRETE PARK PART 1 - In the near future rapid population growth is driving up organized crime rates as the cities of the world face massive food shortages. Issac is a young tough who watches his sister get gunned down, while Luca is a young up and coming gang leader out to solidify her position by making a deal with another local gang. Being the first installment there are still a lot of lingering questions about what this series is actually about. Art wise its not that impressive or exciting but it gets the job done. Another WE'LL SEE.

THE SPEAKER - Ah, Brandon Graham you brilliant bastard. King City was one of the best sci-fi series of the last 10 years and while I wait patiently here for his next series (Extreme Studio's Prophet revival) we get this unexpected surprise. Presented in Graham's typically experimental style, it tells the story of a man's Voice who returns after the man has passed away. If that sounds crazy, it sure is. The world needs more comic creators like Brandon Graham, he does more cool stuff in 8-pages then most creators do in 80. Chestnuts like this are why I read DHP. AMAZING.

THE ADVENTURES OF DOG MENDONCA AND PIZZABOY PART 4 - I liked this installment of AoDMaP a lot more then last month's origin story conclusion. We still have the 'present day' book ends that are rather humorously tongue and cheek, but the main meat of the story was also in good fun. Plus we get to see a bit more of chain smoking monster girl Puzzal in action, who I really want to see more of. Seeing more of Dog in an afro would also be just fantastic. I'm starting to warm up to this series a lot more, though the art still seems a bit dark despite its very cartoonish style. I get the feeling its been shrunk down a bit from its original dimensions to fit, as apparently the Dog Mendonca series hails from Europe, and probably isn't drawn with US standard comic dimensions in mind. FUN.

FINDER: THIRD WORLD PART 7 - I finished reading Finder Library Volume 2 and Finder: Voice GN this month, so I have Finder on the brain pretty good at the moment. Jaeger is still at his delivery job, this time saddled with a nearly impossible task, even with his amazing skills as a tracker. He winds up in the back seat of a very particular car, and what happens next blows his mind. This particular installment felt a little light thanks to a pair of single page splash-pages that didn't do a whole lot to move the story forward. But overall its as good as it ever was. MCNEIL's artworks is completely off the chains, and seeing Finder in color is one of the cooler parts of its inclusion in DHP. AMAZING.

So there we go. Another fantastic issue of Dark Horse Presents. Next month sees the launch of Brian Wood's new science fiction series The Massive. And Mignola is back with a new BPRD short-story. Also more Beasts of Burden apparently. And the final chapter of The Marked Man. And more Finder. Basically the next issue is going to be the best issue yet. Which is pretty much the case with every new issue of Dark Horse Presents. This book drives me crazy with how great it continues to be. Why aren't you reading it?!

New Comics for the Week of 12-21-11

Thanks to going out of town to see family for Christmas I'm now hopelessly behind schedual. As much as I want to I'm never going to get through the backlog of week's I'm behind on. There are certain reviews I still want to write up, but the fact is I'm going to cherry pick them instead of doing them all. Its the only way at this point.

At any rate, it is a new week and that means Five New Comics!

DARK HORSE PRESENTS 7. FABLE 112. LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 4. NEAR DEATH 4. SAVAGE DRAGON 177.

DARK HORSE PRESENTS 7 - Listen to this line-up. Mike Mignola. Howard Chaykin. Stan Sakai. Brandon Graham. Carla Speed McNeil. Good lordy that sure is a line up. Cover is very striking as Mignola is a master of cover design.

 
FABLES 112 - Tis the season. Long time series Fables brings in the holidays with this fab Joao Ruas cover. Santa! Death! Some little girl!

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 4 - This covers a little boring, but this book is on FIRE. Action! Adventure! Ultra-Boy!

NEAR DEATH 4 - Start of the series first two-part story. This series has some of the better cover designs on the stands. Some crazy rough and tumble gunplay going on here.

SAVAGE DRAGON 177 - Giant radioactive Osama Bin Laden. You're either going to loath it for its obvious shock value, or you are going to love it for its complete inanity. Either way Erik Larsen is in top form on the cover. Not sure I dig the old style logo though, and I've never been a fan of artificial 'weathering' of cover art. But some people dig it.