Fables Volume 9 through 14

A couple of years ago I tore through the "Harry Potter" series. It was something I wasn't sure I would ever read, but during the summer I finally gave it a go, and then I couldn't put them down. Through the end of summer and throughout fall, those were my books. The idea of late summer and fall were in those books. Some days, when I think about the cooler weather, "Harry Potter" comes to mind. 

"Fables" will become that series to me. It will be the pile of books I could not put down that one summer. People will ask, "Remember how last summer was excruciating?" and I'll be transported back on my couch, or on my porch, late at night with one of the "Fables" books in hand. 

It's epic storytelling and amazing use of characters great and small, as well as humorous dialogue mixed in with very serious settings, is the reason this series of comics will be something I continue to read until they're finished. 

And hopefully they never finish. 

The different characters that I grew to love in this series started with Bigby (the Big Bad Wolf) and Snow White, but I began to love characters like the Frog Prince, Red Riding Hood, Prince Charming and Little Boy Blue. I saw characters die, which made me so angry, and I saw character story lines that surprised me (Bufkin, the flying monkey from "The Wizard of Oz"), and I saw other characters like Frau Totenkinder (the witch from Hansel and Gretel) change, fight and be done with her time as a great and powerful person. I think a series can only be realized as successful when you allow characters to grow, change and sadly, die. We read to escape, but that escapism doesn't have to be tainted with perfect lives and shallow characters. 

I can't really go into much detail about plot without being confusing, but if you enjoy the re-thinking of fairy tale characters, especially with more bite, than you will fully enjoy "Fables."