Fables: Snow White (volume 19) by Bill Willingham

I thought I’d dedicate my sunny Sunday to sitting outdoors, enjoying the blue skies, and devouring my newly arrived copy of Fables, volume 19. Devour it I did, and boy, was it delicious!

I think I’ve made it perfectly clear by now that I’m a huge fan of Fables. So what did I think of volume 19?

First and foremost, it’s Fables! Which is practically synonymous with awesomesauce. Is there any way I’d give a Fables volume less than a 5-star rating at this point? I adore everything about this series, and this volume definitely delivers.

We get a great wrap-up of the Bufkin story to kick things off on a light note, but the rest of the volume takes us to some pretty dark places… and leaves off with a cliffhanger of sorts that makes me want to jump out of my skin (or call up the author and say, “Do something! Take it back! Make it all better!). The action in volume 19 overlaps time-wise with the events of volume 18, which mostly took place in a different world. In volume 19, we see what everyone else was doing while the cubs went missing — and it’s intense and quite unexpected. We split our time mainly between the new Fabletown and the kingdom of Haven, and as always, it’s wonderful to spend time with beloved characters — who by now feel like old friends.

My chief complaint about this series is that I binge-read it when I first started, reading the first 15 or so volumes straight through. Now that I’m caught up, it’s a long six-month wait in between volumes, and I feel like my head might explode by the time the next one is published in 2014!

I guess the bright side here is that I’m behind on the Fairest spin-off series, so at least I don’t have to leave the world of Fables entirely just yet.

Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan
Volume 1: Pride and Joy

As if I needed any further convincing… reading Runaways just cements the fact the Brian K. Vaughan can do no wrong! I’d been hearing for years that Runaways is essential reading. Okay, okay, people — you were right!

I sat down and read the first volume of this series, Pride and Joy, and I can see what all the fuss is about. Granted, volume 1 really just lays the groundwork, but the premise is a doozy! As the book blurb makes it clear, all teens think their parents are evil. But in Runaways, this group of six teens is actually right about their parents. After stumbling accidentally onto their parents’ secret membership in something called The Pride, the kids realize there’s a lot more to their parents’ get-togethers than they’d been led to believe. And these kids aren’t powerless either. One way or another, whether through their own inherent super-powers or just access to some really cool toys, these six have to use their strengths to outwit their parents, hide away from all sorts of nefarious bad guys, and maybe try to figure out what the heck’s going on… and stop it.

I don’t know where all this is going yet, but I absolutely intend to find out! Volume 1? Total win.

And hey! There’s a psychic dinosaur involved! If that doesn’t spell awesome, then I don’t know what does.

Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan
Volume 2: Teenage Wasteland

After a break of oh, at least an hour or two, I couldn’t resist and continued on with volume 2, Teenage Wasteland. And all I can say is… this is going to be good. I love the story so far, I love the exploration of each teen’s developing powers, and I love the context of a big bad conspiracy of evil parents trying to control the world — if only they can get their own kids under control first.

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to finally read Runaways… but I think it’s safe to say that I’m hooked now, and will probably gobble up the entire series much more quickly than is probably good for me. Then again, who needs to sleep?