The all-purpose Vertigo thread

[vynsane]

It's totally off-topic, but go over the full career of Charlie Daniels sometime. He goes from a full-on hippie to a raging neo-con. It's actually pretty funny to listen to "Uneasy Rider" followed immediately by "Uneasy Rider '88." (The first is a classic, and the second is a dud, though the practically polar opposite political standpoints aren't the reason. The first deserves lots of spins. The second should probably be forgotten.)

this isn't surprising, given that most once-great artists, upon changing their political stance towards the right, end up leaving most of their creative power on the left. take for example...

[...]Airplane![...]

no, continue to laugh at Airplane!, because that was still back when david zucker was a liberal democrat. but "an american carol"... well, case in point per above.

[anarky]

Dennis Miller and Victoria Jackson are other great examples of people who left their talent behind with their left-leaning politics.

On the other hand, I think Kelsey Grammer has always been conservative (though maybe a bit moreso now, I mean, he did start a TV network based on the idea that all TV, including Fox News, was too far to the left). And he's always been funny.

The moral is: if you're talented, keep your politics where they started.

[anarky]

Unknown Soldier.

Holy balls, this is an amazing read. I'm just sad that A) the library only has two volumes out of four, and B) it's only four volumes long.

Really, do they just have pickier editors at Vertigo, or what? Well, judging by the fact that the mainline DCU publishes about 300 times as many books per month as Vertigo, I guess they do.

[anarky]

I have Fables Volumes 1-2 and 14. I've read 1-13.

I have and have read Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love and Jack of Fables 1-6. I also have Jack of Fables 7, but have not read it. And I've read 1,001 Nights of Snowfall and Peter & Max.

I just about shat myself a few times during a marathon reading of the Jack series. I didn't even catch who Bigby's horse in 1883 (Incitatus) was until he made the comment about once being a senator of Rome. I hope that's not the last we see of him. And I can't help but wonder if this means there's a Fable version of other near-legendary Roman historical figures. (We've not seen much of Rome, have we?)

Without spoilerizing, have any of the volumes I've not gotten to (or single issues of Fables that are uncollected so far) addressed who the stranger was who bought Jack's silver bullets in 1883 and went off to be a real-life Lone Ranger? (Or is he actually intended to be the Lone Ranger, but can't be named as such because of copyrights?) The comment about his Indian companion made me think Wicked John and Raven at first, but Wicked John was a dick like Jack, so I'm leaning toward the "we can't actually reveal him as the Lone Ranger without getting sued" angle.

[vynsane]

so I'm leaning toward the "we can't actually reveal him as the Lone Ranger without getting sued" angle.

i really need to refresh my memory, but i think that's it.

[anarky]

Few more odd questions:

So, Kevin Thorne apparently created the multiverse of worlds that the Fables occupy, and all the Literals (at least those that chose to remain Literals, went off to create a completely new multiverse? He comments about things that happened to characters that he never intended (like Snow White marrying the Big Bad Wolf).

Is Americana a typical Fable world? It seemed to occupy multiple points in time, which seemed unusual. Technology also exists there. Was Americana then completely untouched by Gepetto?

Do we ever find out what happened to the other Golden Boughs Fables? Do they keep the original forms, like Lion Without Restraint?

And what of Paul Bunyan? Why, if his book was burned, did Babe still exist? He started to flash out, but recovered, and there was no explanation. Obviously, most of Bookburners minions were total fabrications (like the Practical Cat), but, obviously, the legend of Paul Bunyan remains. So, uh, were all those Fables restored and now exist as if their tales existed in the Mundy world? (And, on that subject, what of Humpty Dumpty?)

[Rollo Tomassi]

Unknown Soldier.

Holy balls, this is an amazing read. I'm just sad that A) the library only has two volumes out of four, and B) it's only four volumes long.

Really, do they just have pickier editors at Vertigo, or what? Well, judging by the fact that the mainline DCU publishes about 300 times as many books per month as Vertigo, I guess they do.

I was blown away by how good that series was. Sadly, it got cut short due to low sales, and the series finale reflects that to an extent.



So, with the announcement yesterday of the "Dark" titles from DCs reboo..er..I mean revam...oh. I mean relaunch. I think it's interesting to note and remember that originally titles like Swamp Thing and Animal Man and Hellblazer were part of the main DCU proper and then got "grandfathered" into the Vertigo line as their storylines became more and more mature. And the recent Vertigo title Madame Xanadu was actually pretty steeped in DCU lore with appearances by the likes of J'onn Jonnz, the Phantom Stranger, The Demon, et al. So I guess everything is coming full circle. It just seems like everybody is peeing themselves on message boards like this is all bold new maneuvering and marketing, and I'm thinking it just looks a lot like 1987 for many of these new "dark" books. Now, will these new titles be allowed to have "Vertigo" level sales in order to survive? Or will they be amongst the first series culled?

[anarky]

Got around to reading "The Fulminate Blade."

Wow.

And not in the sense I usually say "Wow" regarding Fables comics.

It's not bad, exactly, but not good. It's forgettable and pedestrian as hell. If not for Willingham's name on it, I'd think it was a knockoff. It doesn't make sense on so many levels, it boggles the mind; I can see why the series got canned if they weren't planning to end it, like they said.

The high-tech world didn't seem to fit into the world of Fables. Is it supposed to be merely another Fables realm? There's no mention whatsoever of the Adversary. Possibly another world that was untouched by the Empire and gained advanced technology, then had enough time to forget what the hell it was?

The whole thing about the Empyrean bugged the shit out of me, too. I was hoping he'd be a cloud giant, since it's been established the cloud giants live above all other realms simultaneously, and this would've tied it in. Instead we get that stupid, "Oh no, I've not been stealing gold and eating virgins. What are you talking about? Eh, fuck it, let's fight to the death anyway."

The Babe bits weren't nearly as funny, either. Changing the picture each frame works against them.

Really, it seems like someone was up against a deadline, pulled out some shit-tacular script from middle school. and slapped Jack's name on it.

[vynsane]

a lot of 'jack of fables' takes place outside of any real context of the main book. i actually enjoyed the fulminite blade arc because of the decidedly different story style from 'fables' - i don't think the series would have been as good as a second stringer book dealing with what was going on in the main title, because the entire reason for jack leaving 'fables' and starting his own book was his assertion that he was too big a character to be contained in just that one story.

[anarky]

Yeah, but the story was so different from anything else in any Fables book or spinoff. Jack Horner probably could've carried it, but Jack Frost is so straightforward, to me he needs something else grounding him in the Fables world (and a sidekick carved from the Magic Grove and unrelated single-page Babe fantasies don't quite do it). There's only one more volume, which comes out next month, and I know Jack Horner will be back simply from the description that Jack Frost must face a dragon without knowing it's his father.

With every story previously, with whichever Jack in the starring role, no matter how farfetched they got, and no matter how unreliable Jack's narration seemed, the stories still seemed to fit into the Fablesverse. This one just sorta came out of nowhere.

All things considered, I really wouldn't mind Babe getting a recurring one-page bit in the main Fables title.

[anarky]

I must confess, I was worried Frau Totenkinder would be killed. Hopefully, even though she's retiring, we haven't seen the last of her.

I'm not misinterpreting #100, and Hobbes is dead, right? Hobbes is inspecting the trapped Mister Dark when he escapes, and we immediately see Mister Dark clutching a skull. I'll miss him. He was fun.

Didn't expect the ending with Nurse Spratt. She always seemed bitchy, but evil?

It'd be fun to see Jack Horner's treasure used to finally imprison Dark.

[anarky]

vyn, you might get a kick out of this wishlist for Fables figures. The dude, I think, is retarded. I don't mean that in a rude way. I mean he literally has to have his mom velcro his shoes and put on his helmet before he rides the short bus to take field trips to Wal-Mart so he can see how normal people function.

His exact words: "[after three 4-figure waves for Fables and one for Jack of Fables] the list just fizzles out towards the end there." But I couldn't even begin to list the incredibly obvious omissions. Of the top of my head, Mr. Dark, Frau Totenkinder, the Emperor, the North Wind, Sinbad, Cinderella, Bluebeard, King Cole. Fuck, in his hypothetical Jack of Fables wave, he includes Wicked John but not Goldilocks or Lady Luck. And that's not even counting smaller figures as potential pack-ins or multipacks (the cubs, Stinky, Reynard, Frank, Bufkin, etc) or the almost endless possible resculpts (most obvious being Bigby as a wolf or Beast as a beast, followed by things like Blue in the witching cloak and Flycatcher in armor).

Not a bright man there.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Criminy, instead of the AllPurpose Vertigo Topic, this has become Anarky's all purpose Fables wankfest.

Hurry up and read Brian Wood's DMZ. And Brian Wood's Northlanders. And Scott Snyder's American Vampire. And Scalped, dammit. Hoser.

[jjreason]

I think "wankfest" is funny.

[anarky]

You buy me some more comics and I'll read them and talk about them, wanker. Or are you just pissed this isn't "Rollo Tomassi's personal Snigtad Flornbi's ass-hair wankfest"? :p

I'll be at Comic-Con next week. If past experience is any indication, I should get plenty of half-price paperbacks there. I've already started on Scalped, but haven't gotten the first volume yet, so I've not read them.