Beauty and the Bullet: Fables vs. 100 Bullets

By Aaron Cooper

When I reviewed The Losers , I commented on how impressed I was at the affordable price range for a trade paperback. At $10, the risk is worth taking to try out new series. What I didn’t realize was that this was standard practice among first volumes of Vertigo titles, so I recently took the opportunity to pick up a couple more titles that sounded fascinating based on the hype surround it.

I decided to go head-to head between Fables and 100 Bullets.

What: Fables – Legends in Exile Writer: Bill Willingham Artist: Lan Medina

Fables is an interesting concept. Imagine all the legends and fairy tales you ever heard as a kid were somewhat real, and the protagonists now live among us as average citizens. This is the overwhelming premise that Bill Willingham works with, where classic characters such as Snow White, Prince Charming, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast are all real people with everyday problems, as well as the burden of knowing what they once had and were. Unfortunately, this leads to Fables biggest flaw. Everyone is depicted as a bit too apathetic, if not downright bitter, in the ‘real world’ with a lot of hang-ups. No more ‘happily ever after’. Since the original tales were mostly morality plays, characterization was lax to begin with. Willingham has to step up and fill in characterization in order to progress his story and keep our interest. On a similar note, Lan Medina’s art is fine, even if some of the characters look generic, almost interchangeable at times. Yet his art is clean. I would just like to see a bit more fairy tale quality to it, like P. Craig Russell or Charles Vess. Perhaps I’m missing the point in the art direction. With that being said, the initial setup and back story is interesting enough to see where the overall direction this series goes in. I just hope the characters become a bit more interesting as individuals.

What: 100 Bullets – First Shot, Last Call Writer: Brian Azzarello Artist: Eduardo Risso

I can pretty much guarantee that I’m the last person in comic fandom to jump on the 100 Bullets wagon. Don’t ask me why. Everyone I know told me to read it. Perhaps it is because I’ve seen far too many ‘must reads’ come and go, with many not living up to expectations. I’m not up on all of Brian Azzarello’s work. I enjoyed the Sgt. Rock graphic novel, but the Batman Broken City storyline left me wanting. With 100 Bullets, the quality surpasses the hype. The writing and the art blend perfectly into a modern crime noir story that infuses current trends and slang with good old-fashioned storytelling. This is obviously Azzarello and Risso’s baby. The only reoccurring characters are the one hundred bullets and the men offering them to whoever is willing to take them up on an offer for revenge, for murder, with no repercussions. What transpires in volume one is amazing. I can’t wait to get more volumes.

It should be noted that both of these series are enjoying long, healthy runs with major happenings and changes in both plot and characterization, and though I preferred 100 Bullets over Fables this round, I look forward to continuing both series and enjoy some more quality output from DC/Vertigo.