Space Station Mir

19. Fables Vol 2: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham Sadly, I did not find the second volume as charming as the first. Animal Farm attempts to riff on the Orwell novel of the same name and on William Golding's Lord of the Flies , in my opinion, less than successfully. This story is darker and more grisly than the last. Its most redeeming quality, in my view, is its inclusion of some extremely obscure fairy tale characters; among my favorites, Weyland Smith. It's likely that more Fables will appear on my reading list, however, as they come recommended and supplied by a friend and have the virtue of being easily consumed in 1-2 hour sittings. In other news, I'm almost finished with The Dwarves and very excited to talk about it some more!

14. Fables: Legends in Exile by Bill Wallingham Illustrations by Lan Medina, Steve Leialoha, Craig Hamilton, Sherilyn van Valkenburgh, Todd Klein I read my first graphic novel! I tried with Maus , I tried with Watchmen , but I finished Fables . I should have remembered to start slow, as when learning a new language. Fables is a delightful and familiarly narrative tale about fairy tale characters exiled from their homelands by a villain called the Adversary. Those who were not enslaved or massacred managed to escape their various worlds to the "mundane" world (that is, Earth), where the Adversary seems uninterested in pursuing them. Centuries after the General Amnesty, when all characters were forgiven for deeds committed before relocation, we pick up our story in New York City. The Big Bad Wolf, known as Bigby, is sheriff of Fabletown. Snow White is its deputy mayor. And Jack, of beanstalk fame, reports a terrible disturbance at the apartment of Snow White's lesser ...