Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Book One by Bill Willingham

Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Book One is the compilation of the first ten issues and two story arcs of Bill Willingham's popular comic series Fables. Many of the characters are well-known and beloved by children and adults alike as they are taken from classic fairy tales and legends. However, they have changed greatly in this gritty modern reboot of popular fables and continue to evolve as they confront murder, mystery, and rebellion while fighting to remain hidden amongst normal humans.

The first story arc of Fables, "Legends in Exile", exhibits the aloof and stern Snow White and the reformed Big Bad Wolf (known as "Bigby")  racing to solve the killing of party-fiend Rose Red, Snow White's sister, and sets the background, settings, and themes of the rest of Fables. Rose's apartment is found trashed and spattered with blood by her boyfriend, Jack (of The Beanstalk), and he races to the head of security of Fables, Bigby. Bigby is charged with uncovering the mystery of Rose Red's disappearance and apparent murder by the director of operations of the fable characters, Snow White, before the largest gala of the year occurs.

There are several suspects: Snow, Prince Charming, Jack, and Bluebeard. Snow White has a very strained relationship with Rose because she caught her ex-husband, Prince Charming, cheating on her with Rose. Prince Charming's fling with Rose (along with his womanizing tendencies) caused his life to go downhill. Jack is Rose's current boyfriend, but they have had several blow-ups in the past, leading her to go out with other men and most likely making him very jealous. Bluebeard, a sophisticated male with a history of murdering his wives on their wedding night, is found to be secretly engaged to Rose. As the gala draws slowly near, it is a race against time to figure out "whodunnit?", and it remains suspenseful until the climax.

As Bigby investigates just what exactly happened to Rose Red, more details are revealed about the fable characters' home of New York. The fairytales that humans know existed centuries ago in a different dimension; however, they have fled their homelands to the “mundane world” by the wrathful and tyrannical being known as the Adversary and founded their own hidden community of Fabletown in New York City. A General Amnesty was passed once all the Fables came to New York, saying that anything that they have done in the past cannot be brought up again so that everyone can get along and Fabletown remains hidden.

The second story arc of Fables, "Animal Farm", delves into a seething rebellion by the more unique and less human-like characters in Fabletown's farm community in the countryside. Many of the characters on the farm despised being trapped within its boundaries because of their appearace and long for the days where they could roam where ever they pleased in their homelands. A gun-toting Goldilocks and the Three Little Pigs, taking advantage of this displeasure, start a underground movement to disregard Fabletown laws and return to their homelands to fight the Adversary and take back what is theirs. When Snow arrives for a routine inspection of the farm, she initially is ignorant of the rebellion, but upon discovering it, she must fight for her life and end the rebellion before needless killings occur.

Before even cracking open Fables, readers must first become interested in it. The cover is a vital component of intriguing potential readers and enticing them to crack open the novel. Fables does very well in interesting potential readers with its vivid and life-like depiction of certain scenes from the book. The rather jarring contrast between the faded background and the bright images draw the eye and forces people to pay attention. This is further helped by the fierce scenes depicted. The tiger pinning Snow White, various, typically-benign creatures such as the rabbit and pig holding various weaponry, and other images make potential readers question, "Why is that rabbit holding guns? What on Earth is that blue creature holding a knife? Who are the two women, and why is one of them trapped underneath a tiger of all things?"
 
The content art pleasantly contrasts the cover. While the cover art is realistically drawn, the inside is drawn more closely to the more familiar style of classic comics, such as Superman or Batman. The vivid imagery and detail evident in each panel draws the reader in and highlights important details that may have been missed otherwise. However, sometimes the reader can be distracted by the sheer presence of color and detail and may look over important character or plot details, potentially confusing them down the road, such as when Snow is dealing with a complaint. There are virtually paragraphs of information in each panel that the reader must slog through to continue, decreasing the enjoyment of the art; this could have been avoided by condensing the information or spreading out the information through the section or even the entire story arc.
 
There is also the traditional comic aspect to consider. While for the most part Fables utilizes the common grid panel pattern of comics (typically using four to six panels per page with a uniform gutter and border throughout), it is not afraid to break the mold with other styles to great effect. The incorporation of different border styles is used to indicate key scenes and dialogue or past events such as viewing suspects' memories as Bigby interviews different characters. Overlaying small panels over a full-page panel provides additional detail and gives a clearer progression of time, such as when Snow is discussing Beauty and the Beast's marital issues. Varying artistic styles for chapter divisions adds more variety to the graphic novel and relates each issue back to the cover, tying them together.
 
Even though there were liberties taken with the artistic styles and the grid patterns of panels, Fables included established elements that are usually found in comics or books. All of the traditional elements of writing are clearly developed and defined within the novel. The setting of Fables in New York City, while stereotypical, does nothing to detract from the story, and one could almost imagine this tale occurring in any major metropolis. The two obvious storylines present are clearly defined at the beginning of each issue, continuously focused on throughout the arc, transitioned well, and established a clear background for the overarching conflict with the Adversary. The characters of Fables, while mostly familiar, have realistically changed to reflect the variations within their storylines, the struggles they faced, and their living in the mundane world. It is hard to imagine Snow White as anything but sweet, caring, and princess-like, but Fables' depiction of her as a tough businesswoman makes it much easier to do so.

In any comic or novel, one of the key ways characters express themselves is through dialogue (or lack thereof). However, the presence of dialogue rarely vanishes throughout the entire novel. While for most of the time the dialogue is vital for reader understanding, the reader occasionally struggles against a sea of superfluous words to get to key points in the novel. However, for the most part the dialogue is useful and balances well with the panel art throughout Fables. It should be noted that some of the language used is considered crude and there are depictions of violence at many points, so it may not necessarily be appropriate for younger children.

Fables is not your "happily-ever-after-sunshine-and-daisies" fairytale collection but a gritty modern reboot of the classics with some major plot twists and radically-changed characters. Despite the occasional presence of large amounts of dialogue, the book balances excellent artistic styles with interesting plots and engaging dialogue. While this is mainly geared toward teenagers and young adults, Fables can be understood by anyone who has knowledge of the classic fairytales. However, no matter the readers' age, the only thought they will have when they complete the story is "Where can I get the Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Book 2?"



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Willingham, Bill (w), Lan Medina (a), and Mark Buckingham (a). Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Book One. New York: DC Comics, 2009. Print.

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Clare Leahy
 
Brianna Collender

Travel Review

Travel Review

We begin Yokoyama’s Travel as three men stand in a deserted station, ticket in hand, waiting for their train. A shining silver bullet zooms past, and the doors open; the men board. As the train picks up speed, the men begin to walk the length of the train, looking for seats. They pass a multitude of different seating and people, ranging from rows upon rows of military-type men to pairs of empty seats in front of large windows. While they’re walking, they pass many people, some of which who watch the men with interest. They pass men in a meeting, two people sleeping, a woman sitting alone, and a man reading a newspaper depicting scenes of disaster and catastrophe as they walk through the train. Eventually, the three men find an empty compartment and sit down. At various points through their voyage, they look out the windows of the train. The sky varies from overcast to cloudy with beams of sunlight shining through, foreshadowing a rain storm to come. The train passes strange-looking landscapes, such as a mountain with a boulder at the very top. As the countryside rattles by, the train comes into a more urban area, filled with odd houses and buildings. However, it seems as though every building is deserted, and soon the train passes out of the village and back into the countryside. Another train passes by, filled with passengers, and the sky darkens.

A light rain begins and slowly gets heavier until the landscape through the windows become distorted. Soon it is storming and the sound is overwhelming for the three passengers. After witnessing lightning, the weather begins to clear and the passengers look through the window to see a gorgeous glistening lake. As they come to a stop near the lake, the passengers watch as military personnel exit the train and the station and as two new passengers enter the train and into the car that the three original passengers are sitting. The train continues to travel next to lakes and eventually enters a mountainous area, where they pass a waterfall, cross a dam, and journey through cliffy canyons. One of the original passengers closely observes one of the new passengers in their train car until the new passenger notices. Two of the original passengers smoke the cigarettes that were purchased at the beginning of the story. As the train travels through the mountains, they pass wild animals along with hunters and hikers.

After they pass through this mountainous region, they soon arrive at a train station and go through an urban area. They pass many apartment complexes, skyscrapers and a very busy highway. Our characters then pass through a densely packed mall and go up a ramp to join several other large trains. Just before stopping at another station our travelers see many railroads and various turns for each train to go. This station is much larger than the previous one; they arrive between platforms 19 and 20 with dozens of escalators leading up to the upper deck where there are people watching the trains arrive. One of our characters puts his book away and exits the train at this station and watches all of the new faces depart with the train. The train departs and passes through another highway as well as several cranes while there are about half a dozen trains flying by. They go by some painters and see a helicopter landing on a roof of a building near them. We arrive at another station and our characters exit the train and proceed to go to the upper level. Our original travelers walk through a nice little forest with a path in the middle to end up at a nice little body of water which seems to be their final destination.

In Travel, everyday occurrences are made to seem exciting and intense. This is so the reader’s attention is focused on the excitement of travelling as opposed to the usual interests such as destination and scenery. The reader finds themselves engaged in the vehicle’s architecture and odd looking passengers. Yokoyama’s art style allows for this. Also, the overuse of speed lines and odd shapes let the reader, for some reason, become more interested in the common events that happen in our own world more than the exciting, imaginary world he has created outside of the train. For example, Yokoyama gives multiple views of every action, and uses speed lines to intensify events such as a raindrops falling from the sky or lighting a cigarette. It is odd that the attractions should be the ordinary rather than the imaginary.

Throughout the novel, various themes are present as the protagonists travel on the train. Three major themes of in the story were the weather, architecture, and people, which help the readers put themselves in the story. During the journey, the weather continually changes from harsh winds to torrential rain. As a reader, I can picture myself sitting on the train and looking out the window and experiencing the weather. When reading the book, you can imagine hearing the sound of the rain as it hits the window and the howling of the wind. Furthermore, Yokoyama includes various types of Japanese architecture. The uniqueness of the buildings and sculptures helps us place ourselves in the setting of Japan and visualize the depth and width of the scenery. Lastly, the people that the protagonists encounter is one of the strongest themes that easily place the reader in the scene. Yokoyama distinguishes the supporting characters with one specific characteristic. The man with the sparkling eyes and the man with the book are examples of people who stand out in the novel. When we travel places, we notice people along our journey and usually what makes them stand out is a certain aspect. All in all, Yokoyama uses these themes to help the readers identify with the protagonists and picture themselves on train.

The artistic style employed by Yokoyama in Travel is one of extreme simplification. Most objects are so simplified, that they become abstractions and at some times are unrecognizable. For example, the faces of the people on the train are so simplified that there is absolutely no emotion visible, and the characters become almost indistinguishable. One review by Publishers Weekly states “Everything and everyone is abstracted until nothing is left but a few identifying features; some sequences, as when the train passes through a rain shower, are almost pure pattern.” This level of abstraction results in a very aesthetically interesting novel, as a significant portion of the reader’s time is spent trying to figure out what is going on. Another major point of Yokoyama’s drawing style is his employment of motion lines. He doesn’t specifically try to blend the motion into smooth transitions; instead, he uses jarring, hard lines to indicate motion.

As a Western reader, even after familiarizing yourself with style of the book and the fact that, staying true to Japanese style, one must read each page from right to left instead of the traditional Western left to right, the story stills seems confusing. It’s almost as if we’ve missed something along the way. Maybe it’s because we are not used to being content in the travel of life and are merely focused on our destination, but reading a story about riding on a train leaves us feeling a bit empty and simply saying “So what?” If you are reader looking for a challenge in comprehension, looking to slow down in life and enjoy the simplicities, or merely looking to try a new style of reading, then Travel is the book for you. Otherwise, I’d avoid it completely.

Works Cited

Publishers Weekly. “Yuichi Yokoyama: Travel”. November 2008. Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Yuichi-Yokoyama-Travel/dp/0981562205

By: Brittney Hanson, Brian Page, Lydia Matthews, Molly Pachay, Elson Yu, Lizz Knowlton, Amber Farrell

Children of the Sea by Daisuke Igarashi

Children of the Sea Review

For our manga we chose to read Children of the Sea by Daisuke Igarashi. We liked the novel as a whole for its beautiful pictures and mysterious storyline but as a whole we felt the novel felt slow due to the fact that it is merely the introduction to the series where it introduces the plot line.

The Children of the Sea is about a rough tomboy girl who has trouble making friends, who meets two unique children, Umi and Sora, and uncovers a few mysteries of the sea, revolving around glowing lights and “ghosts of the sea”. The manga begins with a woman on a boat telling her grandchildren a story. We assume that the woman is Ruka, since she states that she is in her story and immediately following after we follow around Ruka on her adventure. In the beginning of the story we learn more and more about Ruka. She is very passionate about Handball, but in the very beginning of the story she is kicked off of her team because she pushes another girl after the girl had stepped on her foot. She is very distant to her mother, although her mother is the only parent that she lives with, which is shown through the rarity of her mother’s face appearing in the comic, although Ruka does talk with her mother a few times, and how Ruka talks about her mother. After Ruka is kicked off of her Handball team, she decides to go to Tokyo to see the sea, where she meets Umi, with whom she begins to make a close connection. Ruka’s father learns of her scuffle at Handball and offers her to work with him at the aquarium as a “punishment” for getting in trouble. Umi is often at the aquarium, and so Ruka sees him more often. Umi’s guardian is a man by the name of Jim Cusak, who shows up many times throughout the volume after Ruka’s meeting with Umi. Jim has been searching for people who think the same way as him, Umi and Sora, who we meet in later chapters. Ruka thinks the same way as them and also has shared a similar experience where she met a “ghost of the sea.” We learn that Umi, along with his brother Sora that we meet in later chapters, was raised by Dugongs. They adapted to their life when they were young. They became excellent swimmers and sensitive to sunlight (the sun dries them up, so they need to immerse themselves in water often). Another mystery that we learn is the unexplained glowing lights that appear on Umi and Sora when they swim in the sea. Spotted fish are attracted to Umi and Sora when they swim in the sea and eat glowing lights that fall from Umi and Sora. We come to believe that there is a connection between Umi, Sora, the mysterious disappearing fish, and the glowing lights. This mystery will most likely be further explored in subsequent volumes.

Children of the Sea Volume 1 can be considered a haunting manga. The narrative style makes this story seem like another world, mysterious, and hard to put down. The book starts with a mysterious woman wearing shades and a hat on an unknown boat in the middle of the sea. She starts the book with “I’m going to tell you a story about the sea”. This is the opening of the actual story. The reader is hearing the story of the mysterious woman. The mysteriousness of the woman is quickly captivating and the reader is suddenly drawn into the book. The story is told is chronological order except for the few excerpts where random people tell their stories of the mysteriousness of the sea. These excerpts indirectly answer the questions concerning Umi and Sora’s past. The different panel transitions used in the book brought a lot of closure to throughout the book. Closure is the logical assumptions that the reader makes between panels. It’s how we connect panels in the reader’s mind. Action – to – action and subject – to – subject are the two most popular transitions in Children of the Sea, Volume 1. Action – to – Action features a single subject during their progression of actions between panels. This type of transition brings about the most closure. (McCloud 70) Subject – to – Subject transition is when the scene or idea remains the same but between each panel a new character or object is the focus. (McCloud 71) Overall the narrative style of Children of the Sea really emphasizes the mysterious nature of the sea but overall, the novel.

Perhaps the most engaging part of this manga though is not the narration of the story itself, but instead the drawing found in the panels. The artist found in Children of the Sea is stupendous. Daisuke Igarashi combined a classical manga style with more realist elements. The background and people are something not common to either western or eastern comics. The background is both extremely detailed and extremely unique. Due to this manga’s focus on marine life, we see a lot of intricate drawing of different animals. Even pages that in most comics are simply there, such as the copy write page and page before the title page, have hidden treasures on them. Daisuke Igarashi adds delicate drawing of marine life and the sea on these pages which really showcases the beauty of the work he is drawing. We especially appreciated the table content which was made to look like an old map of the sea, complete with drawings of sea dragons. This style creates a world as soon as the reader opens the book, even though Igarashi’s strokes are short and resemble sketch marks. The lines don’t always completely connect, but they seem perfect for the novel. Even the characters seem extremely realistic. The shading and lines emphasize the difference of each character and makes them each look individual, making the story more real to the reader. The drawings as whole found in this manga are beautifully done and help create a realistic-looking world for the story. Though this manga maybe slow and doesn’t have a concrete plotline, the drawings and character development still creates a world of mystery and intrigue.

In conclusion, we can see the Children of the Sea is an original piece. The story is one which readers can easily be absorbed into because of its ability to lure in readers. The manga can be considered slow and doesn’t have a solid plotline but the illustrations create a beautiful work of art. Overall, Children of the Sea is a book that must be read.

Works Cited

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. New York: HarperCollins Publisher, 1994. 70 - 71. Print.

By: Haley Ramirez, Saniya Rattan, Monica Kozbial