Vertigo

Funny, smart and full of old-fashioned thrills and spills, Peter & Max: A Fables Novel brings Bill Willingham's long-running comic series to the world of prose in a way that's sure to please old fans and make some new ones.

I admit, I'm biased; I've followed and enjoyed Willingham's Fables since the release of the first collection, way back in 2003 so, in one sense, I was a sitting duck for this new 300+ page adventure set in a world where fairy tales live on in present day New York. On the other hand, having been a fan for so long, the idea of Willingham attempting to spin-off the at-times-very-visual comic (with a lot of credit going to the series' main artist, Mark Buckingham) into prose was worrying: What if the book showed that he was more talented at comics than prose? What if the novel tried too hard to overexplain things for new readers and, in the process, alienated old ones like myself? What if, away from the restrictions of the monthly grind, the novel would become an overindulgent, unsatisfying experience, as previous spin-off graphic novel 1001 Nights of Snowfall seemed at times?

Read the full review of PETER AND MAX: A FABLES NOVEL!