Books: Peter and Max

I resisted being pulled into comic books until I was in college. Before that, comic books were for weird boys like my brother. But after freshman year and a few too many literature classes, comic books because one of the things I could read and enjoy no matter how high my burnout level. They were also one of the few things I could read without automatically finding 6 layers of symbolism in every sentence.

My interest in comic books (and my brother) eventually led me to Bill Willingham's Fables comics. For someone who grew up loving fairy tales and stories, these are a great grown-up version of the characters I  used to love. The series is based around the idea that the storybook characters that we know as fairy tales and fables are real, but were driven out of their own worlds and into ours by an army driven by an evil character known as "the adversary." The story of all these "fables" living together in their own community and trying to fight the adversary creates a wonderful new, if very dark, fairy tale. Even if you aren't a huge fan of comic books, these are absolutely worth reading for anyone interested in fairy tales.

Peter and Max, also by Bill Willingham, is a novel based on the ideas and characters of the entire Fables series. This could be a great place to start if you're interested in the idea but not ready to commit to becoming a comic book reader--you don't need to have read the comic books. You will benefit if you know at least the gist of some common fairy tales and nursery rhymes--in particular, the Pied Piper, Little Bo Peep and the Peter Piper nursery rhymes. The story is based around the lives of Peter Piper and his brother Max. Peter is living in the current-day Fables world with his wife, Little Bo Peep, while they are both being hunted by his brother Max. It is full of unexpected twists--for instance, the idea that Little Bo Peep was once an assassin and that the Pied Piper was once just part of a family of travelling minstels. It's hard to talk too much about this book without giving away some of the twists and turns that make it so delightfully entertaining, but I will say that the way the book develops the lives and personalities of characters who are so familiar and yet so vague is extremely satisfying. Reading this book is like meeting a childhood friend or bully decades later and finally learning what that person is all about and what really drove them to be your friend or enemy as a kid. You get all the pleasure of finally figuring out why you felt the way you did so long ago, as well as the surprise of seeing the unexpected futures of people who once seemed so familiar.

I liked it. Read it, and when you're done, get started with Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile. The trade paperback version makes it look a tad less juvenile, and chances are by the time you're done with the first one, you won't be worrying about much except for what happens next.