Peter and Max by Bill Willingham
By Brian Prisco | Posted Under Book Reviews | Comments (12)
It is only recently that I’ve gotten deeper into graphic novels. I was put off by the superhero genre because I never knew where to start, and the mythology seemed to complex and everchanging to keep up with. Yet, I soon discovered that there were awesome graphic novel series that were encapsulated — short runs with incredibly stories. I started with Jhonen Vasquez, but soon branched out to Preacher, Watchmen, Sandman, and eventually Y: The Last Man and Runaways. And yet, my favorite quickly became Fables.
Fables dabbles in the realm of fairy tales, building a brutal and graphic legend off the original stories. The Fables — our heroes — have been forced out of the lands of their stories by a dire force called The Adversary, forced to live among humans in secret. All the characters are there, mixing Grimm with Goose with Scherazade effortlessly. But they’ve been radically transformed: The Big Bad Wolf is now a pseudo-Wolverine tasked to be Sheriff of the Fablelands. Old King Cole is mayor, the frog prince is a janitor. It’s imaginative and far reaching, morphing into a massive missive that deftly weaves new characters and stories as it grows.
Willingham decided to write a novel that incorporates the Fables legends while also acting as an aside to the comics. It tells the story of Peter and Max, two brothers who grow to a showdown of dire consequence. Peter is Peter Piper, and also Peter Pumpkin Eater, his blind wife is Bo Peep. And yet without seeming gimmicky, Willingham creates a masterful story weaving in several fables and crafting a brutal legend around Peter’s quest to defeat his evil brother Max.
While I really enjoyed the story, it didn’t necessarily work for me outside the graphic novel. I couldn’t understand why this needed to be a text-based novel and not illustrated. The story feels really stretched to fit the 300+ pages, and it kind of wanes in the middle. I wished it were better, because all the clever nuances that make Fables great are here, but the story simply can’t hold out the entire length of the novel. It’s not a terrible novel, and for fans of Fables, it’s a necessary read. But after having enjoyed much of what Willingham’s done with his characters, I was simply unimpressed by this effort.
This review is part of the Cannonball Read series. For more of Prisco’s reviews, stick around. He’ll have Jonah Hex up this afternoon.
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Comments
Posted by: Anna von Beaverplatz at June 18, 2010 9:55 AM
It is only recently that I’ve gotten deeper into graphic novels. I was put off by the superhero genre because I never knew where to start, and the mythology seemed to complex and everchanging to keep up with. Yet, I soon discovered that there were awesome graphic novel series that were encapsulated — short runs with incredibly stories.
I sometimes wonder if you are me, Prisco.
Too bad about this novel (which I did not even know was a novel... thought it was a standalone graphic story). I'll probably read it anyway, eventually at least. I'm still back at somewhere around book 9 or 10, and haven't even started on Jack of the Fables yet. Does it need to be read at any specific point for the comics to continue to make sense? I'm assuming not, I'm just curious because of your statement that it's a "necessary read" for fans of the series.
Off-topic, but: Does anybody know if Y: The Last Man is going any further, or is it done?