Fables, Vol. 2 Animal Farm by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham & Steve Leialoha

Check out the Fables, Volume 1 review HERE.

Fables, Volume 2: Animal Farm
by: Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham (artist) & Steve Leialoha (artist)

Ever since they were driven from their homelands by the Adversary, the non-human Fables have been living on the Farm—a vast property in upstate New York that keeps them hidden from the prying eyes of the mundane world. But now, after hundreds of years of isolation, the Farm is seething with revolution, fanned by the inflammatory rhetoric of Goldilocks and the Three Little Pigs. And when Snow White and her sister Rose Red stumble upon their plan to liberate the Homelands, the commissars of the Farm are ready to silence them—by any means necessary! – Goodreads

Its been almost exactly 2 years since I reviewed Fables Volume 1. Volume 2 takes place a little while after the first volume’s events as Red Rose gets her community service sentence for the previous book’s events to go on a trip with her sister Snow White to the Farm to check on what’s going on there. Its when the revolution happens and Snow White gets caught up in the situation as things go from bad to worse. The story here is a lot of fun. It reminisces a twist on not only further fairy tale characters from Goldilocks and the Three Bears to Three Little Pigs and makes them more vulgar than innocent but also a take on Animal Farm, hence the title of volume 2 with the revolution of the animals to want more and to overturn the Adversary which looms over them. It dives deeper into the Fables world with just this revolution alone.

Retaining much of its art style and story writing, Volume 2 still has a lot of its charm. I can’t say that its quite as fun as the first dive into Volume 1. I can’t quite grasp what felt like it didn’t live up to it. Maybe its because I really like the Bigsby Wolf character and this volume mostly revolved around Snow White. However, to be fair, it gave us a better look at this female protagonist and she is much different from other Snow Whites that has been brought to life in fairy tale spinoffs and movies and TV series. It always fascinates me how these fairy tale characters can have so many faces and how Snow White is always used. Regardless, she is a decent choice. In some ways though, the goal here was to give a backstory on the bond between the sisters, Snow White and Red Rose while also giving a little deeper look at Red Rose.

There’s not a whole lot to say about Volume 2. I still think the best part is the art style and the dialogue and the story that it tells. Pity that The Wolf Among Us Season 2 won’t be happening on video games but at least there’s still more volumes of Fables to read (hopefully) soon, once I get a chance to pick up the next one.

Archie, Volume 2 by Mark Waid

If you missed the review for Volume 1, you can find it HERE.

After a whole ordeal of getting this book in my hands, it finally got here and after a tiring week (or weeks), I’ve been in the mood for lighter reads and comic/graphic novels fit that bill perfectly. I’m actually thinking of diving into my other comics sitting around the house for a change of pace. I do have a pretty cool TBR list for this year that I hope to complete. Maybe I should post it so that you all can keep me accountable.

Regardless, back on track, I enjoyed the revamp of Archie. I still like the old comics and they give me fond memories and so much nostalgia when I see them around but the first book impressed me. I’m ready for the second one.

Let’s check it out!

Archie, Volume 2
By: Mark Waid (writer) & Veronica Fish (illustrator)

In the second volume, we are back to somewhat of a more traditional familiar territory. Archie is now determined to find any way to convince Mr. Lodge that he is useful and worthy of Veronica. At the same time, Betty amd Archie’s friendship is still cracked.

While I love the original Archie comics, Volume 1 did capture me quite a bit. Modernizing the characters but keeping the essence of their personality still there is probably incredibly hard and they did do a great job in the first one. It have us a look again at who everyone is and sets the stage for the story which is good for old and new people starting this series. Volume 2 was so much fun to read and I finished the book excited for the next one. This book had a lot of the silly Archie bits and showed us a story arc for Archie and Veronica while still giving space for Betty’s side. It worked really well.

Visually, Volume 2 still has wonderful illustrations. The color palette and the environment help with the tone and atmosphere. There are some pretty dramatic moments and it does a great job and reflecting it.

Overall, I don’t have a whole lot to say but I do urge those still unsure to give it a shot. It feels like the writer is truly finding his footing as to where to take the story and I am excited to read Volume 3 which was just released a few days ago and since my bookstore here had an online discount, I already put in my order for it. Hopefully it will be on its way.

On the same note of Archie, I have also wrapped up Season 1 of Riverdale and the TV binge post is coming up.

Have you read the modernized Archie comics? What do you think of it?