Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Reviews from a non-comic book reader


Doug tasked me with reading and reviewing, Fables - Animal Farm.  He wasn't really expecting a review, since I gather that this has been out forever, but wanted to see what my non-comic book self thought of a work he likes.

Contrary to what Doug says, I do occasionally read comics, mostly Walking Dead, but I will grab other volumes as interest strikes; 28 Days Later, The Stand, etc.
Sadly my fable background has lapsed and with some of the characters I spent most of my time trying to remember the original myth.  I found this distracting rather than enriching.  Like with Rose Red, WTF, I cannot remember her or her role, wasn't she just some random sister?  But this is ultimately a problem with me, not with the story.

I did like the art work, and I thought it was huge for bringing the writers' reality to life.  I don't think that this would have been as successful as a novel.  It's an example where some beautifully illustrated work can quickly wrap the reader up in a world that would otherwise take pages and pages to explain.

I found the transitions a bit abrupt and the whole story just kind of thudded to an end for me.  But this has always been one of my problems with comics in general.  I read, alot, and fast, so I head straight for the words, ignoring the rest.  That's great if you're working through 800 pages of The Passage by J. Cronin, (which was fantastic and rightly earned a boatload of praise), not so great if mixed media is critical to understanding.  I am working to change the pace when I read comics.

Overall, I liked it.  The idea is cool, I really liked the art work, the story was compelling, although short.  I will read more in the series, but only as other reading is cleared out of my queue.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Well I was discussing wih Olivia. She read Volume 2, Animal Farm. And not Vol 1. She will read that next.