Weekend Cooking/Cook the Books: Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

It's not often that I reread a book, with notable exceptions, but when this book was announced as the current selection for Cook the Books I was more than happy to revisit. I mean, last time I reviewed this book I used words like charming and delightful more than once!

When it came to creating this post, I thought that I had some thoughts to share but it turns out that the things I wanted to highlight were things that I highlighted last time, so I am going to re-share the majority of the review, and then add something new at the end.

This foodie memoir is a delight. Whilst there is still a hint of the precocious Lucy that we met in French Milk, it is much less of an obstacle to enjoyment, or at least it was for me. I think it also helps that rather than focusing on just one place (albeit Paris) for a very short period of only five weeks, this is an exploration of  a life long obsession with good food.

Knisley makes no apologies for the fact that she was introduced to really good food from a young age. Her mother is a chef and her father a foodie from way back and she spent her childhood years in the kitchens of restaurants. She remembers other kids bringing cupcakes to school for their birthdays but her mother would turn up with a blow torch to give the creme brulee a perfect crunchy top.

Lucy lived in New York with her parents until they divorced and Lucy and her mother moved to rural upstate New York - quite the shock to city girl Lucy. It wasn't long before Lucy's mother was involved in food again through farmers markets, catering companies and more, and therefore so was Lucy!

As well as talking about more exotic food and adventures, the author tells of her parents mortification at the fact that she still enjoys junk food like Maccas (McDonalds just in case you didn't get the Aussie vernacular), batches of chocolate chip cookies instead of anything more gourmet, of her shock at finding bits of marshmallows in breakfast cereals (I must confess I find this a bit shocking still!) and more.

We follow Lucy from New York to the country, to Japan, France and Mexico (which was a really fun story), to Chicago and then full circle back to New York. The one thing that stays constant is Lucy's love of good food, of being willing to try new foods, and of trying to recreate those foods. I loved the chapter where Lucy tried to recapture the elusive taste of a croissant that she bought in Venice to the point of being obsessed!

The thing that pleased me most as I was reading was how much it made me smile. In nearly every chapter there was some little quirky addition to the drawing or some tale that just made me happy to read. In one of the chapters, the author talks about going to Japan to visit friend and at the end of that chapter she gives a pictorial demonstration of how to make sushi rolls. In a very small corner, there are three pictures - one of a sushi mat furled, then unfurled and then worn as a hat. They are all tiny pictures, but it is the kind of detail that makes it worth the time to look at all the images closely!

As another example, there is a chapter about why Lucy Knisley doesn't feel guilty about eating foie gras. Let's just say it involves an incident with very aggressive geese. There were echoes of this story in my own family. My sister has a terrible fear of birds which has evolved over the years after being chased up a tree in our backyard by chooks, and then on another occasion being attacked by a black swan!

Now, I was somewhat determined to not cook something sweet to share with this review, but ... that's what ended up happening. I had asked my husband what he wanted to bake one weekend recently, and he said cookies. I had a new cookie recipe to try! So it was meant to be. 

Last time I reviewed this book I shared an image of the recipe for Carbonara. Today, I thought I would share an image related to Cookies, and then I would share what cookies would appear on this page if it was my story. Fair disclosure. I cannot draw to save myself so I am using photos instead. 

I've made....

Fudgy chocolate cookies from Nagi Maeheshi and Sugar Cookies

Melting Moments (Granny's recipe) and Chocolate and Pistachio Sable from Around the Table by Julia Busitil Nishimura

Ricciarelli from The Italian Pantry by Theo Randall and Giant Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies and Weekender Cornflake Biscuits

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies and Snickerdoodles

Soft Chocolate Gingerbread Biscuits and Florentines

Do you like the sound of any of these?

Finally, in case you are now in the mood for cookies, here is Lucy Knisley's recipe for her Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

I now have two more of Lucy Knisley's books out from the library. I am looking forward to reading them soon!

Weekly meals

Saturday -  

Sunday -  Smash Burgers

Monday - Pork Chops, mash and beans

Tuesday - Spicy Pork and Beans Stirfry

Wednesday - Mexican Chicken and Rice

Thursday - Beef Stroganoff

Friday - Takeaway

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

The Sandman, Volumes 1 and 2 - Preludes and Nocturne and The Dolls House by Neil Gaiman

A month or so ago I read Preludes and Nocturnes, the first volume in  The Sandman series of graphic novels. I was somewhat underwhelmed by the experience which surprised me as I had heard so many good things about the series. Actually, that is probably underplaying it bit. I didn't really like it much at all. I thought it was too dark, too gruesome and too disjointed for me. However, I was determined to keep reading, at least for another couple of volumes for several reasons. One is that this series is so well received that there has to be something good about them. Two is that it is Gaiman, who I have a bit of a hit and miss reaction to and three, my library has all of this series* so I don't have to keep on requesting them via interlibrary loans like I do for the Fables series.

Today, I am planning to blog about both volume 1 and 2.

In Preludes and Nocturnes, we were introduced to the Master of Dreams also known as Morpheus or The Sandman. He has been captured and imprisoned for 70 years, which has caused various reactions around the world. There are some people who have never awoken from sleep but never dreaming and there are others who have tried to take his place using his powerful artifacts to various ends.

In the first episode/instalment/whatever I should call them, Sleep of the Just, we see how it is that Sandman came to be captured, what the implications were and how he escapes. We meet some of the characters that I now know will appear in future episodes, including in the second collection.

In Imperfect Hosts, Sandman has to try and rebuild his strength and so retreats to the dream world but he must also try and recover the three artifacts that he has created in order to rule over his realm. The three artifacts have been scattered over the world and Sandman must track them down and recover them before he will be anywhere near as strong as he was previously. Not everyone will be prepared to give them up willingly though.

In the next three episodes (Dream a Little Dream of Me, A Hope in Hell and Passengers) Sandman searches for the artifacts - a sand filled pouch, his helm and the Ruby of Dreams - taking him literally to hell and back where he has to fight to regain his helm. We also what the effect of owning these artifacts has had on the humans who have become the owners of these items - sufficed to say it isn't good!

The most disturbing of the instalments for me was 24 Hours, where John Dee (the man who was in possession of the ruby) takes control of 6 people who just happen to have all been inside a diner. At first, I thought this was going to be a pretty harmless chapter but how wrong could I be. Dee forces these people to endure much including depravity, deceit, violence and more. Having said that, when one of the people in this instalment was referenced in the next book I knew exactly who they were and what had happened to them, so you definitely can't say that it wasn't memorable.

I can't necessarily say the same about the final two episodes, Sound and Fury and The Sound of Her Wings. I do remember feeling some sense of vague hope in the way this volume ended.

I ended up giving this book a rating of 2.5/5

Right from the first episode in The Doll's House (volume 2), I felt as though I was going to enjoy this book more and so it proved to be. Maybe I was just in a more receptive mind set now than I was a few weeks ago or maybe this volume is a better representation of the series as a whole. Who knows! I guess I will just have to keep reading to see.

There are two stories that I absolutely loved in this collection, and the first story, Tales in the Sand, is one of those so it was a great way to hook the reader into the story.

The Sandman team take us far away from all the places we have been previously and instead of the dark and gloomy world most of the stories are set in we are in the African desert. Here an African man takes his grandson out into the desert in order to perform the rites of initiation that will make him a man. After performing circumcision, the boy is told the story of the forefathers, of a life in a beautiful and prosperous city which was ruled by Queen Nada. However, Nada fell in love with one of the Endless, a love that could not be allowed much like the love that we see between humans and gods in Greek mythology. As a result, the city is reduced to dust and the people have been forced to live in the desert ever since. At one point the old man tells the boy that this is the man's version of the story and that he has no doubt that the women tell their own version as part of their initiation but they can never know each others version. Made me wonder what the other version was!

In The Doll's House, we meet Rose Walker who is the main character in this collection other than The Sandman himself. She and her mother have been summonsed to England to meet a woman named Ursula they have never heard of and they don't know why.  It turns out that she is a vortex, an anomaly that has been caused as a result of Sandman's absence and by the fact that four of the major arcana in his realm are off doing their own things. We also learn that Rose's family history, specifically the fact that her young brother Jed has been missing for many years.

In the next episode, which is titled Moving In, Rose returns to America in order to search for her brother leaving her mother in the UK to look after Ursula. The house that she moves into has a very unusual set f residents and we get to know them as Rose does.We also find out what has been happening to Jed over the years.

In Playing House, we find out what two of the missing characters of the arcana have been up to in Sandman's absence, which is in effect creating their own superhero version of the Sandman, which doesn't please him in the slightest. We see events through the eyes of the wife of Hector (the fake) who has been living in what seems to be a timeless void for a couple of years, with nothing changing around her, not even her pregnancy.

The next episode, Men of Good Fortune, is my other favourite in this collection. It moves away from the main story arc. We are taking back to a medieval pub where a man sits telling his friends about how he is going to choose not to die. Sandman takes him up on this and promises to meet Hob again in the same pub in one hundred years time and this continues on through the following centuries. Some times Hob is doing well for himself, and other times he is down on his luck but he is always at that pub on the exact day. I loved how you could quite clearly identify where in time we were with just a few words, or by the secondary characters (for example, Chaucer and Shakespeare). I just realised that my two favourite stories were actually outside the main story arc. Not sure what that says about me.

Back to the main story arc and Rose is on the trail of her brother in Collectors. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances she finds herself staying in the same hotel as a serial killer convention. This is a dark chapter, but it is fun as Gaiman and co poke fun at the convention scene in lots of ways.

After returning from the convention hotel, we are back in Rose's room in Into the Night. Despite being very tired she cannot sleep without dreaming, but the same is true of the other occupants of the house. We see into their dreams, their true desire dreams. Most of them were pretty much as you would imagine but one that I loved was that of Chantal who has fallen in love with a sentence, but now she cannot read it. So out there!

In the final story, Lost Hearts, we get to the final scenes between Sandman and Rose. He knows that he must destroy the vortex in order to save the world from destruction and that means that Rose must die. He doesn't believe that there is any other way despite the best efforts of one of the other arcana and Ursula. We also find out why Rose has become the vortex in the first place.

Overall, this collection was much, much better for me. There was a better balance between the dark and gloomy parts and the other parts. I will be interested to see if I continue to like the asides more than the main stories. Maybe part of the reason for that is that those stories need to be more fully contained in each individual issue rather than being able to finish them off in later issues.

I gave this a rating of 4/5

*Turns out volume 3 was declared 'lost' a month ago so I have had to request that one via ILL. Hopefully all the rest will be there for me.




Other artists for Preludes and Nocturnes include Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, Todd Klein and Karen Berger.

Other artists for The Doll's House include Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, Steve Parkhouse, Chris Bachalo, Michael Zulli and Todd Klein

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

Late last year I read Lucy Knisley's travelogue/graphic novel French Milk. Whilst I didn't really love it, mainly because of the precociousness of 22 year old Lucy, I did like the style of the book. When Relish became available on my library catalogue I decided to give her another go and boy am I glad that I did.

This foodie memoir is a delight. Whilst there is still a hint of the precocious Lucy that we met in French Milk, it is much less of an obstacle to enjoyment, or at least it was for me. I think it also helps that rather than focusing on just one place (albeit Paris) for a very short period of only five weeks, this is an exploration of  a life long obsession with good food.

Knisley makes no apologies for the fact that she was introduced to really good food from a young age. Her mother is a chef and her father a foodie from way back and she spent her childhood years in the kitchens of restaurants. She remembers other kids bringing cupcakes to school for their birthdays but her mother would turn up with a blow torch to give the creme brulee a perfect crunchy top.

Lucy lived in New York with her parents until they divorced and Lucy and her mother moved to rural upstate New York - quite the shock to city girl Lucy. It wasn't long before Lucy's mother was involved in food again through farmers markets, catering companies and more, and therefore so was Lucy!

As well as talking about more exotic food and adventures, the author tells of her parents mortification at the fact that she still enjoys junk food like Maccas (McDonalds just in case you didn't get the Aussie vernacular), batches of chocolate chip cookies instead of anything more gourmet, of her shock at finding bits of marshmallows in breakfast cereals (I must confess I find this a bit shocking still!) and more.

We follow Lucy from New York to the country, to Japan, France and Mexico (which was a really fun story), to Chicago and then full circle back to New York. The one thing that stays constant is Lucy's love of good food, of being willing to try new foods, and of trying to recreate those foods. I loved the chapter where Lucy tried to recapture the elusive taste of a croissant that she bought in Venice to the point of being obsessed!

The thing that pleased me most as I was reading was how much it made me smile. In nearly every chapter there was some little quirky addition to the drawing or some tale that just made me happy to read. In one of the chapters, the author talks about going to Japan to visit friend and at the end of that chapter she gives a pictorial demonstration of how to make sushi rolls. In a very small corner, there are three pictures - one of a sushi mat furled, then unfurled and then worn as a hat. They are all tiny pictures, but it is the kind of detail that makes it worth the time to look at all the images closely!

As another example, there is a chapter about why Lucy Knisley doesn't feel guilty about eating foie gras. Let's just say it involves an incident with very aggressive geese. There were echoes of this story in my own family. My sister has a terrible fear of birds which has evolved over the years after being chased up a tree in our backyard by chooks, and then on another occasion being attacked by a black swan!

Here, as an example of what you might expect if you choose to read Relish, is Lucy Knisley's recipe for Pasta Carbonara (click on image to enlarge!)

I am always a bit reluctant to use words like charming when describing a book, but sometimes there is just no better word, and this is one of those occasions. Relish is a charming, delightfully fun foodie memoir and I recommend it highly!


Rating 4.5

Synopsis

Lucy Knisley's mouth-watering graphic memoir will make you hungry.

Whether she's injuring herself - again and again - in pursuit of a perfect croissant or bankrupting herself on fancy cheeses, Lucy Knisley know what she wants: a good meal. The daughter of a chef and a gourmet, she comes by her priorities honestly. In this Technicolor love letter to cooking and eating, Knisley presents her personal history as seen through a kaleidoscope of delicious things.

Defying the idea of eating as a compulsion and food as a consumer product, Relish invites us to celebrate the meals we eat as a connection to our bodies, and to each other. Knisley's intimate and utterly charming graphic memoir offers reflections on cooking, eating and living - as well as some of her favourite recipes.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Jack of Fables: Vol 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape by Bill Willingham

After working my way through the first 12 or so volumes of the Fables series, it was time to start reading the Jack of Fables series before it crosses over to the main series again, and I have to say the thought of doing so underwhelmed me. I am always a completist though, so if it is best to read series in a particular order then I will definitely try to.

Part of the reason that I was underwhelmed is that I didn't really like Jack all that much when he made brief appearances in the main Fables series, so the thought of having six graphic novels to read where he is the main character wasn't all that appealing.

And I was right to be a little concerned because, compared to many of the other Fables collections that I have read, this wasn't my favourite. Having said that, in the end, I didn't dislike it as much as I could have!

When we met Jack in the main Fables series he was living the highlife in Hollywood where he was involved in the movie industry. Having been ostracised by the Fables community for revealing secrets, he is kicked out of Hollywood with a suitcase filled with cash (a mere fraction of his financial worth) and the clothes on his back. He doesn't get very far though as he is abducted off the streets and taken to the Golden Boughs retirement home. Mr Revise is the head of the home and his mission is to keep renegade fables imprisoned until such time as no one believes in them anymore when they can then disappear without a trace.

Jack being the arrogant womaniser that he is, it doesn't take long before he has hooked up with a woman, but that arrogance and self belief also means that he is not one to accept that it is his fate to be hidden away in this pseudo-prison so it isn't long before he is trying to gather together a group of characters to help plan an escape. This brings Jack into conflict with the man in charge of Golden Boughs, Mr Revise and his assistants.

Part of the fun of this series is seeing what other Fables characters have been put out to "retirement" at Golden Boughs. Some are obvious, others are surprising and some are characters that I have no recognition of at all.

In the end, I will continue with the series (completist, remember) but I will do so knowing that I am really looking forward to returning to the main story rather than really looking forward to this spinoff.

Rating 3.5/5


Synopsis

Think you know the greatest Fable of them all?

You don't know Jack!

After earning a fortune in Hollywood by cashing in on his own legent, Little Jack Horner - a.k.a. Jack the Giant Killer - is now the most famous Fable alive. Sure, he's been stripped of his wealth, and banished from Fabletown forever as a result, but Jack has always been a wanderer at heart, and the open road is like a home to him. So it's a real shame when he's plucked off the pavement and unceremoniously tossed into a gulag filled with other renegade Fables.

Within the walls of the Golden Boughs Retirement Home, however, Jack finds allies as well as enemies - and once he learns the ultimate goals of his jailer, Mr Revise, breaking out becomes more than just a point of pride. Of course, over all the centuries that Revise has run his prison, no one has ever escaped from it. But hey, he's the Jack of the Tales! How hard could it be?

Other contributors to this collection Matthew Sturges, Tony Akins, Andrew Pepoy

Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages by Bill Willingham

What's this? A review. Why, yes it is! Apparently having reviewed every previous instalment in the series is incentive enough to make me sit down and write a review of this book!

Given that it is the 12th book in the series (well more than that, but we will go with that seeing as it is the official title) it is impossible to review these without giving away anything that might not be known if you are reading the earlier books in the series, so, as always....

*****THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD*****

At the end of the last book, you could have been forgiven for thinking that life was going to get a lot easier for the residents of Fabletown. After all, the Adversary had been comprehensively defeated and the Flycatcher's newly established land known as Haven is thriving. Time to recover from the recent war for everyone involved.

Of course, in true Fables fashion, you would be wrong.

The Adversary has been bought back to Fabletown but because of the terms of agreement he is not to be punished. The citizens of Fabletown are not happy, as in really, really not happy to have this man be able to live freely among them, especially as he displays no recognition of how evil his deeds are, let alone remorse of any kind.

One of the dangers that is posed when there is a void in who controls a situation is that someone else, or something else, will rise up and take the place. One hopes that it will be someone better, but when it is a hidden power that in this first introduction seems far more evil than the Adversary ever was and that even Frau Totenkinder has no clue how to defeat, you know that it isn't a good sign.

With the end of the first major story arc, it was clear that the writers were going to have to shake things up a bit in order to introduce a new overarching story, and shake things up they did.

There are favourite characters who die, and we don't really know if they are going to come back again. After all, the life of the fables is determined by how many people believe in them. If the stories about characters are told and retold the corresponding fable will continue on and on. But what if one of the best characters in the Fables world is only a little known fable in the mundy world. What if no one tells his story? Can he come back again? It's all a bit meta really, but it is fun to try and think it through.

With one quick swipe of the artists pens, the whole face of Fabletown is changed and the consequences include having a population that is divided or in transit, political change and so much more. In effect, in this book the story starts again but without having to reintroduce us to the characters that we have come to love over the course of the series so far.

Most of this book was the darker side of the Fables story, so I was glad that the last section of the book focused on Mowgli and was somewhat lighter in tone. Even Bigby's brothers got some page time, and seem to have found an outlet for their energy and, um, skills!

I am not sure if the darker start was part of the reason why this instalment took me much longer to read than normal, or just if that is a general reflection of my reading at the moment, but it is unheard of for it to take me two weeks to read one of these books.

Going by Kelly's super duper guide to reading the Fables series (which she recently updated), I now need to step away from the Fables world for a little while and concentrate on the Jack of Fables books. Jack has been seen in the earlier books in the series in little cameo appearances. He always seemed a bit smarmy, a bit of a jerk, so I guess we will wait to see what kind of mischief he gets up to in his books.

As always, I have already requested the next book, or in this case the first Jack book, from the library via interlibrary loan.

Rating 4/5

Synopsis

The great war between Fabletown and the mighty empire of the Adversary is over, and the victorious free fables have brought their defeated enemy back from the Homelands to join them in exile. Their celebrations, however, are destined to be short-lived. As it turns out, not even beloved storybook heroes can escape the law of unintended consequences. In the post-war chaos of the Adversary's former realm, a terrible force is about to be unleashed - an evil that threatens not just Fabletown, but the entire mundane world.

Additional contributors include Mark Buckingham, Peter Gross, Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn.

French Milk by Lucy Knisley

Recently I have been feeling nostalgic for the time that I was young and carefree and travelling around the world. A couple of days ago I posted again about my travels to Budapest, and today I find myself contemplating the time I spent in France and travellign around other European countries as I try to get my thoughts together about this book.

Lucy Knisley is a young graphic artist who gets the opportunity to spend 5 weeks in Paris, staying in an apartment with her mother who is celebrating her 50th birthday. Lucy is 22 years of age and is looking forward to hopefully going to graduate school. She has left behind her boyfriend and is waiting to hear whether she has been accepted into the school she wants so whilst she is in France, she is still also very involved in her life back home.

She is a graphic artist and so it is an obvious choice for her travel memoir to take this form. There are also some black and white photos scattered throughout the narrative but they are not the primary focus (which is lucky because some of them are pretty average). It is really the drawings about Paris which bring the most satisfaction to the reader, or to this reader at least.

Somewhere in my many moves since I returned from the travelling I have lost my diary of my travels and in some ways I am glad. It does mean that I can't necessarily remember what we saw and did and ate every day and I have probably forgotten a lot, but I think I would be quite surprised at how different my thoughts and opinions would be about many of the things we experienced. I am also pretty sure that my travel plans would include a lot of different places than it did back then too, reflecting more of the things that I have become interested in or learned since that time. I wonder if Lucy Knisley finds that to be true of this memoir? There were times where she comes across as being a bit bratty and selfish and it might well be a bit shocking to look back and see it recorded for all time in the form of this book, or maybe she wouldn't be! For example, I found it quite amazing that someone who is planning to spend five weeks in France would have made no effort whatsoever to learn even the basics of the French language.


In the blurb, it talks about dealing with the shifting relationship between mother and daughter and with Lucy grappling with the onslaught of adulthood. Whilst both of these were elements of the narrative I didn't necessarily think that Lucy displayed any particular degree of growth in either of these aspects or even examine them in any great degree of depth. I was more engaged with the story being told when the focus was less on Lucy and her relationships (particularly her griping about the fact that she couldn't see her boyfriend) and more on the daily details. I can see that some people might find the "and then we had baguette and sausage for dinner" type of narrative a bit boring. However, as someone who finds the idea of being able to spend a few weeks just wandering the streets of Paris exploring the art galleries, museums, cafes, markets and more completely mesmerising, it was very interesting to me and her love of culture and food shone through. Click on the image on the right for an example of Knisley's art.

I would add the disclaimer that there is no way known I could do four weeks anywhere with my mother. It's hard enough when she comes here for that length of time.

As you can hopefully tell, I had quite mixed emotions about this book as I read it. There were elements that I thoroughly enjoyed and others that I really didn't! I was sufficiently engaged by Knisley's style to want to see more of her work. I have recently requested her book Relish via interlibrary loan, which focuses more directly on her love of food and cooking.

Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A place where young Americans can seek poetic magic in the winding streets of a beautiful city. The museums, the cafes, the parks. An artist like Lucy can really enjoy Paris in January. If only she can stop griping at her mother. This comic journal details a mother and daughters month-long stay in a small apartment in the fifth arrondissement. Lucy is grappling with the onslaught of adulthood. Her mother faces fifty. They are both dealing with their shifting relationship. All the while, they navigate Paris with halting French and dog-eared guidebooks.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Fables Vol 11: War and Pieces by Bill Willingham

Finally! 11 books into the Fables series and we get to the battle to end all battles between the people of Fabletown and those of the homelands. And by finally I don't mean thank goodness we finally got there and now we can move on or after an 11 book lead in we finally made it! I do mean both of those things in some ways but in other ways it is more a celebratory finally, especially seeing as I suspect that this might be just the first battle and perhaps there is more to come.

I should take a step back though. As I mentioned this is the 11th book in the Fables series so it is difficult at this point to completely avoid spoilers so the now customary warning applies


************SPOILERS AHOY *************


Structurally, this book has two story arcs which dovetail nicely into each other, and in turn help resolve the story arc that has been developed since the first book in the main Fables series.

The first story arc concerns Cinderella. A few books ago, we learnt that whilst Cindy appears to be a businesswoman who owns a high end shoe shop, she is also one of the top secret agents that Fabletown has. Before the coming showdown with the Adversary, Cindy has to pick up a package from the very south of South America. The success of the whole war hinges on her success and she must use her feminine wiles, every trick in the book that she knows and a whole heap of ingenuity in order to get the job done! I loved the way that all of the Cinderella pages were bordered by a frieze of shoes. it added a degree of fun and whimsy to a book that could have taken itself a bit too seriously in the build up to the big confrontation.

And what a confrontation it is. All the various factions in the Fables lands come together in order to try and defeat the Adversary once and for all. The leaders, including all of our favourites like Bigby and Snow White, have been training their troops hard in the use of not only magical weapons but also in mundy (human) technology - technology that the isolationist Adversary may not have yet seen. Boy Blue is our narrator and thanks to the magical cloak that he has he manages to take the reader to each of the different battle fronts to observe the action.

It was interesting to see some of the character development that is still happening even after all these books. For example, over the last several books, Prince Charming has been the mayor of Fabletown but he always seemed somewhat narcissistic and still a terrible flirt and womaniser. Whilst I have no doubt that that man is still just below the surface, we also get glimpses of the heroic prince who we known through many of the fairy tales we have grown up with. It would be easy for these characters to become almost caracitures of themselves the longer the series goes on, but the writers and artists seem to be able to identify characters with capacity for growth and added dimensions relatively easily.


They are also adept at planting just enough new teasers in the storyline to make continuing the series worthwhile even as the major story arcs are resolved. I've already requested the next book via interlibrary loan. I was interested in seeing the final twist in the tail when it occurs late in the book and the final line offers up some foreshadowing that suggests that there is still plenty more conflict to be had in future tales.


Rating 4/5

 

Synopsis

The final battle between the free Fables of the mundane world and the Empire occupying their former Homelands is about to begin, and the scrappy storybook heroes have already managed to even the odds considerably. With his previously unstoppable wooden soldiers neutralized, the Adversary is about to get his first taste of high technology in the form of steel-jacketed bullets and laser-guided bombs. But the ruler who conquered a hundred different worlds didn’t do it by fighting clean—and he’s still got a surprise or two left to spring on the residents of Fabletown.

Other artits who contributed to this collection include Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Niko Henrichon and Andrew Pepoy

Fables, Vol 10: The Good Prince by Bill Willingham

Before I get started on this review, I will mention that this is volume 10 in the Fables series. I am pretty sure I have managed to keep it spoiler free but at 10 books in, there may well be something that slipped through so


**************SPOILER WARNING**************

I am so glad that this collection was pretty much all about the Flycatcher. The overall story did move forward and there were some other interludes but mostly this was the story of Fly's transformation from secondary character, and in some ways comedic relief, to a character with a full and fulfilling storyline - a transformation which was enabled by the fact that we learnt his back story in the 1001 Nights collection which I read a couple of months ago.

With Sir Lancelot's help, the Flycatcher is transformed from humble janitor to gallant prince and he goes off in search of his people. His search takes him away from Fabletown down into the Well where most fables are banished to as punishment or when they die. Using a special magic, he is able to give the ghosts new forms which will stay in place unless they get too far away from him. Fly, or perhaps I should call him Prince Ambrose now, leads his new followers across the desert at great risk to himself, until he gets back to his own homeland, which will henceforth be known as Haven.

As the book progresses, we see that the development and strengthening of Haven is part of a grander plan which enables the forces of the dreaded Adversary to be weakened in anticipation of a future battle. There was one particular aspect of this weakening that I liked - the fate of the wooden soldiers.

I found the revival of characters that were previous gone as ... interesting. As soon as two of them were introduced my reaction was uh-oh, with good cause, and I can't help but think that these two will still manage to cause some havoc in future episodes. There were other more welcome returns as well.

In terms of the total storyline arc for the series, this felt like quite a transitional book, once again getting all the pieces lined up for when the main battle finally happens. I do hope that is soon because this build up has been happening for quite some time now. I also wonder what happens when the Adversary is defeated once and for all. Will there be another big build up to conflict against another enemy or will the focus change? This issue did also introduce, or reinforce, questions that will need to be answered over the coming issues. Questions like exactly what is Frau Totenkinder up to. I guess I will just have to keep reading to find out.

In terms of the other stories in this collection while I loved the small story that revolved around Snow and Bigby (sigh!) and their brood of kids, the illustrations on that one threw me for a bit, particularly in the portrayal of Snow. She didn't look anything like she has looked in previous stories. I know that one of the strengths of the series is that there are so many artists involved and therefore there will be differences at times, but to be so totally different was a bit disconcerting.

I have just requested the next Fables book via interlibrary loan. I wish that my own library had them, but I think I can still read the whole series from other library systems so it is all good.

Rating 4

Synopsis

Collecting issues #60-69 of the hit series, collecting the epochal "Good Prince" storyline. Flycatcher is drawn into the spotlight as he discovers the startling truth about his own past as the Frog Prince. At the same time, he learns that the Adversary plans to destroy his foes once and for all. How can the meek Flycatcher stop this deadly foe?

Other contributors to this volume include Steve Leialoha, Aaron Alexovich and Andrew Pepoy.

Fables: Sons of Empire by Bill Willingham

Gasp! Don't be too shocked, but this is a review, and not one that I had committed to (although I do have another one of those coming up early next week so there will be another review here soon).

The main reason I am making an effort for this book is that I have reviewed all of the other Fables stories that I have read so I don't want to break my record and because I would never be able to rely on my memory alone to remember all the individual stories that are included in this collection.

This is volume 9 of the Fables series, and so I will need to start with the now customary warning.....


***SPOILERS AHOY***

The first story in this collection picks up the action in the Homelands. After the bitter defeat that the Adversary's troops experienced in previous collection, the Homelands leaders come together more determined than ever to find a way to defeat the fables who live in Fabletown and they have no concern whatsoever about any collateral damage to the mundys who also live on Earth. First though the reader is introduced to each of them. Some we have met before like the head of the knight Bright Day but others are new - Lumi the Snow Queen for example. One of the more important seems to be Hansel (yes, the one usually associated with Gretel) who has previously been banished from Fabletown but is to be now sent back as the Adversary's political representative. In due course, we find out why he was banished in the first place - an unpleasant tale in itself.

Interspersed with these introductions is a little story about Red Riding Hood going to get a haircut. By the time we got to the end of the story I got why it was there, and eventually there were more clues as to why it was important, or more precisely why one particular character's reaction to said haircut was important, at first it did feel a little incongruous being placed where it was.

Heading back to the Homelands, and it is time for a brainstorming session about the fate of Fabletown (and Earth) with one of the solutions being suggested being four plagues - Pestilence, Fire, Winter and Famine. Whilst the more dastardly of the assembled group are all for this, there are a couple of voices of reason, not the least of which is Pinocchio. He is under a compulsion spell that means that he must remain loyal to his father, but that doesn't stop him from suggesting that the humans will not be quite as easy to beat as all of the others seemed to think.

Whilst this thread about the future dominates the first half of the book and so is relatively easy to talk about, it is the other parts of the collection that make it difficult to review. While I have talked on numerous occasions about needing to read in order, there are so many subplots that we just get the briefest of glimpses of in this collection but that hark back to previous books. For example, we have just a couple of pages about Jack getting into mischief again, and just a couple of pages about a human reporter who is sniffing around Fabletown. In and of themselves they don't necessarily move the story forward in great leaps and bounds, but they do tie previous storylines to this collection and I expect, in due course will be easily identifiable as the foundation that future story developments were built upon.

One of the things I liked about this collection is that there were some short stories where we got to meet some of the other characters who live in Fabletown. The first of these was about Rapunzel, who must always keep on the move, not being able to stay in one place for more than a couple of hours because her hair grows so quickly that mundys would notice if she didn't keep moving. In other short stories, there was also lots of kissing various animals in the hope of meeting a handsome prince or princess (not always successfully), the three blind mice searching for paradise, recruits to the mouse police on parade and so much more.

I loved spending more time with Bigby and Snow and their charming brood of kids (as always!), even when Bigby was being all dark and broody because he had to go and visit his father. I particularly enjoyed the Christmas story which explained to the cubs how Santa Claus manages to get all round the world in one night. It would have been such a joy to receive the Christmas cartoon when it was published as a single magazine.

I wasn't as keen on some of the more intense stories. I know that we are building up to the big confrontation between the Adversary and the fables who live in Fabletown but there were a few times where that build up just felt relentless. Whilst I generally enjoy the developing storyline around the big upcoming confrontation, it really is the more whimsical elements that I enjoy the most.

What the creators of this series do manage most of the time is to get a mix between the more light hearted storytelling and the dramatic big storylines. The last few pages of this collection are a perfect example of this. The team chose a few of the thousands of questions that they have been asked over the years that they have been doing the Fables cartoons and they did a few short stories to illustrate the answers - so much fun! Questions like what is Boy Blue's favourite song, who was Prince Charming's first love, how does Bufkin keep getting hold of the alcohol and who caught the bouquet at Snow White's wedding! Such fun!


Rating 4/5

The Best-Laid Plans

The free Fables living in the mundane world have struck a decisive blow against the Adversary, destroying one of his most valuable assests at the very heart of his empire - and setting the stage for an all-out war between the worlds in the process. Now, while the rule of the Homelands licks his wounds and gathers his forces, the denizens of Fabletown have a rare chance to savor the brief peace their victory has brought them. Everyone, however, knows that this is just the calm before the storm - and that even the winds themselves will have to choose sides before it's over.

Other contributors to this edition include Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Michael Allred and Andrew Pepoy

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall is part of the Fables series that I have been reading for a year or so. The difference with this book is that you can read it either as an introduction to the series or you can read it part way through the series. Kelly's guide to the series recommends reading it between volumes 8 and 9 of the Fables books which is exactly where I am reading it.

The main concept of this whole volume is pretty simple - Snow White is sent as an ambassador to a powerful Sultan. Due to some cultural misunderstandings (not the least of which is the acceptability of sending a woman as an ambassador) and quite a few delays, Snow finally gets her chance to speak with the Sultan. He is, however, a man who has been betrayed by women before and so to protect himself from betrayal he marries a new woman each night and then has her killed before daybreak. Little does Snow know before she goes to him, her number is up. However, we know that Snow is quite a resourceful woman, and she begins telling him different stories and manages to catch his interest so that he wants her to keep coming back night after night.

Really, this set up is pretty much only a frame for the real business which is the chance for readers to get to see the earlier stories of many of the Fables characters that we are now familiar with. For example, the first and longest story in the book, is Snow White's own story - not so much the whole wicked queen and poison apple business - but what happened after she married her Prince Charming, with particular note on what happened with the dwarves after. These were definitely not your Disney style dwarves! (Sneezy, Dopey etc would have been safe in this telling. Can't say the same for these dwarves necessarily).

One of the other stories that is told to the Sultan is that of the Frog Prince. A beautiful princess kisses a frog and a handsome prince appears. They are married and very happy together, raising a thriving family with many children. The fact that the prince reverts to his frog form on occasion is only a small problem, until his home is invaded and his wife and children are killed and he is unable to do anything to stop it. This was only a short story compared to some of the others, but it was quite graphic (as in sexually violent). And yet, it was also the story that gave me my biggest a-ha moment as it kind of explains why the character in the previous books in the series firstly likes to eat flies, and secondly is the way he is, which is that he kind of exists in a perpetual state of shell-shock.

Another of the origins we got to explore was that of Bigby. Who would have thought he was the runt of the litter! We get to see how determined Bigby is, fighting his way up from awwww...Bigby as a cub to ewwww...Bigby as a malevolent killer. You can see much of these early lessons in the man who is one of my favourite Fables characters.

We also got to find out about the witch and how she came to be in the new world, about how it was that Old King Cole became the mayor of Fabletown and why it became necessary to create the farm which is what started the tensions that led to him being ousted as mayor in the later books in the series. I think from a purely aesthetic perspective, the witch's story and how she came to meet Snow and Ruby Red was my favourite.

While I enjoyed the stories, particularly the whole back to the beginning vibe, there were a couple of things that bothered me this time.

Snow is telling the stories to the sultan with a view of keeping him from marrying her and then killing her before daybreak, and this apparently goes on for 1001 nights. That therefore means a different story every night and I think that this idea of different stories was part of the reason why each story had different illustrators. However, to me, the different stories didn't feel cohesive, because each of the stories felt really, really different from the others in terms of the artistic style, the dominant colour palettes etc. Now this happens to a degree with a normal Fables collection but usually there is one overarching story that is continuing the main Fables storyline, as well as a couple of other stories, with the main thread feeling pretty much cohesive from one edition to the next.

The other thing that happened at the very end where Scheherazade is next to be in turn to go to the Sultan after Snow White has survived for 1001 nights, and Snow White tells her the secret of her survival - it kind of felt as though it was undercutting the whole Scheherazade story as an individual tale.

On to the next Fables book then!

Rating 4/5

Synopsis

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall is set in the early days of Fabletown, long before the FABLES series began!

Traveling to Arabia as an Ambassador from the exiled FABLES community, Snow White is captured by the local sultan who wants to marry her (and then kill her). But clever Snow attempts to charm the sultan instead by playing Scheherazade, telling him fantastic stories for a total of 1,001 nights, saving her very skin in the process.

Running the gamut from unexpected horror to dark intrigue to mercurial coming-of-age, FABLES:1,001 NIGHTS OF SNOWFALL reveals the secret histories of familiar FABLES characters through a series of compelling and visually illustrative tales. Writer Bill Willingham is joined by an impressive array of artists from comic book industry legends to the amazing young painters of the next wave.

FABLES:1,001 NIGHTS OF SNOWFALL is both a welcome entry point to the critically acclaimed series and an essential part of Willingham's enchanting and imaginative Fables mythos.

Other contributors to this edition include Esao Andrews, Brian Bolland, John Bolton, Mark Buckingham, James Jean, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Derek Kirk Kim, Tara McPherson, Jill Thompson, Charles Vess, Mark Wheatley)

This book counts for the Once Upon a Time challenge.

Fables: Wolves by Bill Willingham

This book is volume 8 in the Fables series, and as such there will definitely be spoilers for previous issues, even more so than usual because I really, really loved this instalment. It may even be my equal favourite of all of them so far! You can read my reviews of the previous books in the series here.

*******SPOILERS AHOY********

This is the book that I have been anticipating for the last few instalments because, finally, Bigby Wolf is finally back! And I can tell you that I did cheer when I realised!

As much as I have enjoyed exploring the other fables worlds I was so pleased to see that this volume was so much more focused and that Snow White and Bigby were front and centre.

The first story is called Wolves and features Mowgli travelling the world searching the world for Bigby Wolf - a man who really doesn't want to be found. From the Russian seaports, Mowgli is almost ready to give up until he realises that he needs to stop thinking of the man he is searching for but rather think of the wolf that he is tracking.

Bigby has been trying to forget the past he left behind, including the woman he loved, and if he has to do it by living in the isolated forests, by drinking too much and consoling himself in any way he can then so be it.

Mowgli is however determined, mainly because Fabletown has a task that only Bigby can fulfil - ensuring that the Adversary gets some retribution for his actions against the Fables. The fact that this task may provide the means for Bigby to see both Snow and his cubs again is also a major factor of motivation.

Snow and Bigby have been separated for years because he is banned from going to the Farm and Snow is forced to live there until such time as her children can show that they can maintain a human form and therefore go unnoticed in the mundy world.

In my favourite section of the collection, which is called Happily Ever After, we get to follow Bigby on his seemingly impossible task but alternating with his story we also get glimpses of Snow trying to train her growing children to stay human so that they can leave the farm. I am sure just by the title of this story you can tell exactly what happens! As a romance fan...I loved it!    *sniff, sniff*

The final section of the book moves away from Bigby and instead focuses on Cinderella. In Big and Small we find out that Cinderella isn't just the owner of a high end shoe shop, but rather that she plays an important part in the diplomatic work related to Fabletown.

I loved the fact that we got to see some magic beanstalk action in this novel (and no that isn't a euphemism) and enjoyed visiting the cloudlands, especially as Cinderella tries to get a major peace treaty signed before the kingship changes hands AGAIN, but for me the undoubted highlight of this book is the culmination of Bigby and Snow's relationship.

It was interesting that there was a full script of the novel included in this editions, which I don't recall seeing before.

By following Kailana's handy dandy guide to the Fables series, I see that now I need to read the stand-alone volume 1001 Nights of Snowfall. I only wish that I didn't have to get every volume of this series through inter library loan. I get very impatient waiting for each new volume to arrive!

If you have any interest in fairy tales, even if you do not normally read graphic novels, I highly recommend this series! As you would expect, it is best to start at the beginning to get the full effect!

Other contributing artists for this volume include Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Shawn McManus and Andrew Pepoy

Rating 4.5/5

Into the Woods

The community of Fables living undercover in our midst has endured plenty of suffering at the hands of their longtime antagonist, the Adversary. Now it's time to return the favor and put the would-be conqueror on notice that the cost of subjugating this last stronghold of independent magic will be higher than even he can bear. The one Fable who can accomplish this mission, however, has hidden himself away in the wild and will take some convincing if he can even be found. Luckily for Fabletown, there's something more than a trip behind enemy lines awaiting Bigby Wolf's return.

Fables, Vol 7: Arabian Nights (and Days) by Bill Willingham

In the last volume of Fables that I read, we were briefly introduced to the concept of other Fables lands and in this volume that concept is explored in three of the four stories.

Given that this is the seventh instalment in the series, there might be ****spoilers*** in the following review for the previous books. You can read my previous reviews by clicking here.

The first story starts with the well established plot point about how badly Prince Charming is doing in his role as mayor. He now has a much greater appreciation that the job that King Cole and Snow White used to do in balancing all the needs of all the different residents of Fabletowns. It doesn't help that those broken election promises are still haunting him. I also wasn't all that pleased with one of the plot points to do with Prince I-really-should-be-called-Smarming.

Matters take a turn for a worse when suddenly a limousine pulls up out of the front of the building and just sits there. No one knows who it is or what they want. Meanwhile, the occupants of the limo are waiting for their formal welcoming party, the one that will show the proper amount of respect for Sinbad, head of the Baghdad fables. Prince Charming has no clue how to deal with such favoured guests, especially ones whose ideas of what are normal and not going to be accepted to the modern Fables community. Talk about culture shock!

The Baghdad fables have travelled to try and make an alliance with the American fables because it seems that the Adversary has turned his covetous eyes to new pastures and so they need to be able to fight against the invasion with other fables who have successfully defeated him in battle.

What they don't know is that the entourage from Baghdad have bought something with them that has the power to cause chaos throughout both the Fables and mundy world - a djinn. Almost unlimitless power contained within a small bottle. Who knows what could happen if it was released! The search is on for ways to combat the power of the djinn, should they need it.

I did enjoy the quick visit we made to the farm to see Snow and the cubs, and I loved seeing that Auntie Rose is the disciplinarian! Again, I missed Digby and I hope that he is back soon!

Of the stories in this collection though, I think that my favourite was The Ballad of Rodney and June. Rodney is an ordinary wooden soldier, fighting for the Adversary. When he is injured he is sent to June for repairs. She is also fully wooden, and works to make repairs on the wooden soldiers. They are smitten by each other, and soon Rodney begins to woo her. Except, he doesn't really know how to go about this. There are no emotional sparks between them when they kiss, and then they realise that they don't have all the necessary parts that humans do in order to procreate. The whole story is told in the form of a letter to Geppetto asking him to make them both human. What they don't realise is that if their wish is to be granted, there will be a terrible price to pay and they have no idea what that might entail.

I think I have one more Fables book to read before I need to switch over to the Jack of Fables series which interlinks with this one. I have already requested volume 8 from the library through interlibrary loan.

Rating 4/5

Culture clash

With the identity of the Adversary finally revealed to the citizens of Fabletown, it's time to begin making preparations in earnest for the defense of their stronghold in the mundane world - and that means forging new alliances with whoever remains unconquered by the Adversary's legions. But the arrival in Fabletown of a delegation from the Arabian Homelands shows just how tricky this kind of coalition-building can be - especially when one side is concealing Weapons of Magical Destruction.

Other contributors include Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Jim Fern, Jimmy Palmiotti and Andrew Pepoy.