We've had a good run folks, but, I think it's time to move on.  I've had this site for about five years this year.  I've had a lot to say on it.  I've told personal stories, expressed my thoughts, and did my best to be entertaining.  But, I feel that it's time to get a new start.  That's why after tonight, I'll have no new posts on this site.  I'm still going to keep this up for viewing if you guys want (I mean, it's free, so why not, right?).  But no new posts.

I've decided to move to wordpress.com.  The new site is :

More info there.  It's been real folks.  See you at Wordpress.

Well, we're here.  The end has arrived at another school year, and we are all getting ready to go through with our summer plans.  And, let me tell you, my summer is going to be packed with stuff.  At some point, I'm going to New Jersey for a friend's wedding, Las Vegas, Madison (Wisconsin; in order to find a place to live), and then off to San Diego for Comic-Con.
     Speaking of comics, it's probably time for me to end the rather long and drawn out "Suggested Readings" supplement on this blog.  It's bordering on three months since I first posted on The Sandman, and letting this go any longer would be ridiculous.  So, without further ado, let me turn to Bill Willingham's Fables...

Fables
Writer:  Bill Willingham
Artists:  Various
In the last couple of years, there's been a renewed interest in old fairy tales and a lot of works putting a new spin on these old characters have come out as well.  The most famous of these would probably have to be things like the movie, Enchanted and, of course, Wicked.  In many ways, Fables is in this same vein (though, more like the latter than the former, as you'll see later on).  The basic premise is this:  characters from fairy tales have been driven from their "Homelands" into our "Mundane" world by a figure known only as "The Adversary," and for the last few centuries, have been living in a small neighborhood in New York City's Upper West Side (and those that cannot pass as human have to live on an isolated spot of land known only as "The Farm" in Upstate New York).  And, despite their fabulous origins, these individuals are ultimately people like us.
     The series has many different figures in its scope (which is actually part of the fun of this series), but it seems fair to say that the main focus in on three characters:

• The Big Bad Wolf (aka Bigby Wolf)
  
• Snow White
• Prince Charming

The story begins in 21st century New York, and introduces us to Fabletown, the neighborhood in the Upper West Side where all of these fairy tale refugees live (on Bullfinch Street, if you must know).  Snow White is the vice mayor of Fabletown, though really, she's the one running the day to day business of the town.  Prince Charming, her ex-husband (after being caught with Snow's sister, Rose Red) comes back into town to live among his own kind (after wearing out his welcome among the remaining royal houses of Europe, with which he's been hobnobbing and mooching off of for years).  Bigby is reformed, able to take human form, and acting as the police force among this small community in Fabletown.  The story focuses on these three, among others, as they deal with issues that arise from their interactions with the mundane world, internal strife among fables (the name they call themselves to separate themselves from the "mundies," i.e. normal folk like you and I), and issues with the Adversary who has tracked them all to the mundane world.
     The series is good for a number of reasons.  First of all, given the source material, it could easily have gone wrong.  But, by focusing on the more ancient material from which our sanitized versions of fairy tales have come (as well as some clever innovations to fill in the blanks), Willingham and the various artists he's worked with have created a very complex and engrossing story.  In addition to that, he's done a decent of job of paralleling real historical events into his story.  For example, the story of the Fables being driven into the mundane world is suppose to parallel Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust and settling the State of Israel. 
     Second, the character development is handled very well.  Willingham has done a great job of taking these archetypal characters and elaborating on them and fleshing them out into "real" people.  His work on the three main characters is probably the best way to show this.  Prince Charming is actually not much of a Prince Charming.  Don't get me wrong, he's dapper, hansom, clever, funny, etc.  One might even say, "classy."  All the things that catch a woman's eye at first.  But, once you get past that initial impression, he's actually a real cad.  The first time that we see him, he's at a restaurant where he can't afford to actually pay for his meal.  So, what does he do?  Seduce his waitress, have her pick up the check, go back to her place, have a one night stand, leaves before she wakes up, and to top it off, leaves a note which instructs her to pick up his dry cleaning the next day.  A real prince, no?  But, in addition to this playboy mindset Charming exhibits, there is a serious side that shows itself when the Adversary's forces arrive in New York.  And, while he does appear to live like an overgrown frat guy, as time goes on, we see how that life wears on him and how deep down, he regrets the ways that his lifestyle has ruined his past relationships with Snow, Briar Rose (aka Sleeping Beauty) and Cinderella.  His way of fleshing out and developing his characters, in the process creating sympathy for figures we've come to fear and love to hate (e.g. Bigby, and Frau Totenkinder, aka the witch from the story of Hansel & Gretle). 
     Third, Willingham has created a very elaborate world in which these characters can live.  He's done a lot of research into the actual stories, gotten to know the kinds of worlds these figures inhabited, and then has done a lot of work on trying to create a "realistic" way of incorporating them into the real world.  He's done a great job of elaborating how these folk adapt to living in this world and synthesize their own ways of life with it.  For example, how magic and technology work together.  And, given the fact that his source material is practically inexhaustible and out of copy right, he has plenty of cool things to work with. 
     Finally, Fables is able to straddle genres very well.  One story arc will be a murder-mystery, another will be a political thriller, and the one after that will be a spy story.  It all works because of the back story lends itself to just about all of them. 
     On the whole, I recommend Fables highly.  It's a great read.  Plain and simple.  It has something for everyone.  Unlike Sandman and Bone, Fables is still ongoing, and the list of collected editions that I am listing will not ultimately be complete.  But, as of now, here are the collected editions:

1. Fables:  Legends in Exile
2. Fables:  Animal Farm
   
3. Fables:  Storybook Love
   
4. Fables:  March of the Wooden Soldiers
   
5. Fables:  The Mean Seasons
6. Fables:  The Homelands
7. Fables:  Arabian Nights (and Days)
8. Fables:  Wolves
9. Fables:  Sons of Empire
10. Fables:  The Good Prince
11. Fables:  War and Pieces
12. Fables:  The Dark Ages  [Release Date:  August 29, 2009]
    

One final caveat, as you might have guessed from my description of Prince Charming, this series is not for kids.  There is sexual content, but, it is also very violent at time.  But, this last part seems fitting, since the old versions of these stories were pretty violent themselves.  If you have the stomach for it, have fun with this one.

On that note, I end my suggested reading list.  I hope that you've enjoyed it, and perhaps gotten some good reading material out of it.  I have no plans for my next blog post, so, I don't know when I'll post next or what I'll do it on.  The future, like so many things, is open.  Have a great one, and I hope to post more later.

Having just watched the Battlestar Galactica finale, I'm thinking about how one goes about creating a show that takes place on an epic scale, which takes place over the course of a relatively long period of time.  When you write something like that, you have to balance planning with creativity.  If you start out with a micro-managed plan, then you run the risk of stifling your creativity by forcing the story to go an unnatural direction.  On the other hand, if you don't really have a plan of how to end it, then you run the risk of writing yourself into such a corner that you cannot possibly give your story a good ending.  If you can avoid these two extremes, the scylla and charybdis of planning, you have the potential to do something incredibly impressive by coming up with a fantastic ending to a sprawling epic.  All of which leads me to the following review...

Bone
Creator:  Jeff Smith
While The Sandman is not the kind of things that you should give to kids, Bone is definitely more kid-friendly.  But, this is not to say that it's strictly a kid's story.  While I hate to compare it to something like The Hobbit, it definitely has the same range of appeal.  Something that parents can read with their kids and can actually enjoy.  The story is a mix of sword and sorcery, comedy, and epic, and all of it works together rather well.
     The story begins when the Bone cousins (Fone Bone, Phoncible "Phoney" Bone, and Smiley Bone) are ran out of their home of Boneville, the consequence of one of Phoney's recent schemes perpatrated in the course of a mayoral race.  While unfortunate, this is nothing new.  Apparently, all this has happened before...and will (probably) happen again.   Phoney, the drama king he is, bemoans his wretched fate, while Smiley (who reminds me of Art Carney's character from The Honeymooners) and Fone are a little more reserved.  (As I said before, this is nothing they haven't experienced before).  However, in the middle of their travels, they find a mysterious map and end up in a place that is known only as "The Valley."  At this point, Fone (who fulfills the role of the everyman character) is separated from his cousins when they are attacked by a locusts swarm.  Fone is almost killed in his escape by two rat-like creatures, but is saved by a mysterious dragon (who tends to pop in and out of the series when Fone and others need help).  Fone and his cousins independently make their ways to a small village in The Valley called Barrelhaven, and to the home of a beautiful young girl, Thorn (for whom Fone immediately develops a crush), and her elderly though still vivacious Gran'ma Ben, as well as local tavern owner, Lucius, all of which seem to have mysterious pasts, which seem to have involved the rat creatures.  But, there's more:  strange things have been happening in The Valley.  The rat creatures are more agressive, attacking humans and other animals in The Valley with a viciousness that they previously lacked.  Then there is a mysterious and sinister hooded figure...
     Bone is a great series because of the fact that it has a great plot, terrific backstory, and really develops its characters well.  Fone bone as the smart, courageous everyman with a romantic streak (and an overly high opinion of the novel Moby Dick) is a great character to identify with.  Phoney as a character that you can't help but watch as he schemes, and can't help but love to see get his comeuppance is endlessly entertaining.  Smiley, on the other hand, is...well, you'll have to read for yourselves (truly, the comic relief of the series).  There were many times that I laughed out loud reading some of the stories.  The stories are very addictive, too.  There were a couple of nights where I stayed up till sunrise reading it.  And, bringing this back to the point made earlier in the post, the story has a bittersweet ending that works pretty well.
    The story can be purchased in one huge volume, or it can be bought in nine parts:

1. Out from Boneville
2. The Great Cow Race
3. Eyes of the Storm
4. The Dragonslayer
5. Rock Jaw:  Master of the Easter Border
6. Old Man's Cave
7. Ghost Circles
8. Treasure Hunters
9. Crown of Horns

Have fun with this one, and I'll try to post on Fables really soon (though, no promises).  Later.