Jack of Fables Vol. 2: Jack of Hearts

Jack of Fables is a fun read and the Fables books are different from most every other comic out there. Definitely more adult themed, if you're easily offended this is not for you.

I don't know about you guys, but I was especially fond of Lady Luck, and what she did in this story. I really liked her as a character, and overall, the entire book flowed along nicely, with the main story and the side-stories. I would have to say that out of the four Jack books currently available, this one would be my favorite.

Second volume to comic book series about a storybook hero, of sorts, and his adventures on his way to Vegas and while in Vegas. Will make you want to continue the series to find out what happens.

This is a worthy addition to the ongoing collection of stories of the Fables world of Bill Willingham, here assisted by Matthew Sturges. I have to confess that it is perhaps my least favorite of all of the Fables books, but it is a testament to just how good the series as a whole is that I still like it very much. My fear in starting to read the Jack series was that Jack was by far my least favorite major character in the Fables series. The first Jack book was a complete delight partly because Jack was overshadowed by the introduction of a whole new group of Fables. But this book puts him far more front and forward, and as a result the book suffers (at least for me). The volume is broken into two stories of unequal length. The first concerns his retelling of his earlier adventures as Jack Frost. The second, longer, and better part dealt with Jack's adventures in Las Vegas, as he accidentally marries the daughter of a casino owner and then gets involved in the intrigues that result from the vendetta another Fable -- Lady Luck herself -- has against the family he has married into. As always with the Fables books, the interest lies less with the overall story with the myriad of little details. And Gary the Pathetic Fallacy (my brother wrote his doctoral dissertation on the personification of nature in literature, which is one guise of the Pathetic Fallacy) is back, who struggles throughout the story with his mannikin girlfriend. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this. I have not bought the individual issues that make up the next volume, but I eagerly look forward to purchasing the next collection in the series.

The second trade paperback collection of this equally successful spin-off of Bill Willingham's FABLES doesn't flag or disappoint in the least. The wildly imaginative adventures of Jack Horner in all his many and varied "Jack-hoods" is intricately plotted and beautifully written. The characters, while reflecting accurately and unflinchingly their archetypal storybook origins, are fleshed-out, hard-living and -loving people at their arrogant worst, providing a wickedly pleasurable reading experience. This is neither Disney nor Little Golden Books fairy tales. There is a Dark Knight-esque undercurrent, despite Jack's eternal bright lightness and mythical blondness. Readers of Charles de Lint, Anne Rice, Pamela Dean, Neil Gaiman, and the adult fairy tale collections of Datlow and Windling will find pleasure with both this series and its parent, as would comics aficionados of the work of Linda Medley, Jeff Smith, Charles Vess, Grant Morrison, and Garth Ennis. Truly fabulous!