Product Description

Get ready for Jack's adventures out West, as Smiling Jack Candle crosses paths with a grim sheriff from back East who carries no gun. Collecting issues #22-27 of the series Publishers Weekly says "any sophisticated comics fan will enjoy."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22960 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-10
• Released on: 2009-03-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781401221386
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Reposting as other review got eaten up: Outlaw Jack in Wild West with Lawman Bigby On His Trail...and the Pages are "Turning"
There is less humor than usual in the first storyline of this volume. Jack is in the wild west, and he's as wild as anything else out there. He's still messing with the ladies, but he's also robbing and killing and leading an outlaw gang. Bigby is dispatched to stop him--aided, transportationaly, by Incitatus, aka "Tate", the famed horse of Caligula and Roman Senate fame--from doing damage to mundies and drawing attention to himself. The spots of humor come in regular doses of Babe the Blue Ox having his delightful flights of fantasy. Always good for a giggle.

After the Western escapade--which includes an amusing behind-the-scenes use of the Lone Ranger--a new narrator takes over, Eliza Wall, to tell the story of the Page sisters, some backstory, some current. They've all had dealings with our Jack--ahem. We see how their relationships are damaged by Revise's partiality, but also the stresses of just being different people with different weaknesses, some stronger than others. There is a lot more pain in store, especially with Bookburner marching toward Golden Boughs, causing strife to Jack and his crew, the Pages, and bringing revolutionary thoughts to the fabley inmates. I will add there is a marvelous new Literal who shows up in the nick of time. Hee.

War's coming to Golden Boughs, and the NY contingent may not be out of this mess. We shall see in Vol 6.

Thoroughly enjoyable
The story of the Literals is a bit fantastic even for a story about Fables, but then I guess the Fables had to come from somewhere. This is a solid installment in the Jack of Fables series, but I curse the cliffhanger that made up the end of the book and am most eager for Volume 6.

Jack's getting good again...
Jack of Fables, the tongue-in-cheek spinoff of the award-winning, long-running, utterly-fantabulous Fables series, has always felt like writer Bill Willingham's playground for new ideas. While Fables has a well-formed plot with organized tributaries and a detailed universe, Jack comes across more as a bonkers, issue-by-issue madcap sort of tale.

Most of the time, this is brilliant - Willingham is clever and funny and the unlovable rogue protagonist is well-suited for a more adventurous narrative formatting. Occasionally (as in the previous two collections), the story becomes so experimental that the fun begins to disappear.

Fortunately, in Volume 5, Jack returns to his strength (short stories from Jack's past), combines with the strength of Fables (long-running, invariably dramatic plot conflicts) and mixes it up with Willingham's ability to frame narratives in unique ways (in this case, via the three Page sisters).

The long-running dramatic plot conflict - the brewing war between the Bookburner and Mr. Revise - suffers as it doesn't actually make a lot of sense. What with the complicated genealogy and the mind-boggling 'Literals', it isn't the most approachable of plots. By making the Pages the protagonists of this collection, Willingham helps make it more accessible - but aside from liking the sisters, there's not much else I can recommend about this aspect.

The short story - Jack's Wild West adventures with Bigby Wolf - is much more my speed, with a neat, clever narrative, interesting twists and some good laughs.

Overall, an improvement on the previous volumes, but there's still a while to go before it reaches the heady heights of its first two collections (or Fables, for that matter)