Comic books I've been reading

I've been reading a few good comic books recently.

Fables is one of them. It's Vertigo title and it's written by a guy called Bill Willingham. For any comic nerds out there I'll tell you that it's a Sandman rip off and that will probably tell you much of what you need to know. However it is a good Sandman rip-off which makes it worth reading.

Fables is set in modern New York where there is a ghetto of fairy tale characters like Snow White and Bigby Wolf (the Big Bad Wolf) who have settled there after their fantasy homelands have been over-run by the shadowy Adversary (who is someone you will recognise but I won't say who). The ghetto is called Fabletown and is full of human looking characters while less human 'fables' such as the 3 little pigs and the Jungle Book characters have to live on a farm in upstate New York, away from mundane human eyes.

I know it sounds pish but if you can suspend your disbelief to watch Star Wars or Aliens you can read this. I bet it really fucked disney off.

Another good Vertigo book is The Exterminators, a story of man against insect. It's about a pest control firm who find themselves battling highly evolved cockroaches. The roaches have been given an evolutionary push by some unusual insect-poison. And there is an unusual scientist with a very dodgy past in Cambodia.....

I've heard that The Exterminators has just been cancelled which is a shame.

Finally I've just read the fist two books of Crossing Midnight (Verigo again) a fantasy style book set in modern Japan. It has great art and features characters inspired by Japanese mythology although it is written by Brian K Vaughn, an American writer. It has some new ideas for westen comics and is probably ripping off Manga big style but I like it and plan to read more.

PS = Get Next Wave by Warren Ellis if you don't already have it. 'Fing Fang Foom put you in his pants!'. Classic