I'm reading the TPBs. I started at the beginning and am on... I dunno, seven or eight books in, anyway. I think my biggest problem is the dialogue. I think the plot is great, but the characters and dialogue aren't up to supporting it. That's not to say I think it's bad. It's better than an awful lot of stuff out there.

Yeah, that far in you should have a pretty good idea of all that. I'm sorry it's not as enthralling for you as it is for me, but fortunately there are mucho more comics out there to suit every taste. I admire your sticktoitiveness with Fables, when it's not your OTC.

Considering how popular it is, I think it must just be my taste that's wonky. But yeah, I'm not short of reading material at the moment. Living in the middle of nowhere really gives you the time to catch up n stuff that people have been telling you to read for years.

Fables I'm a bit meh about. I just don't see what all the fuss is about

FWIW, I felt the same way. I only bothered to read the first TPB, but the writing style was just too clunky to make me want to read any more. (The premise was interesting, but not different enough from the same elements in Sandman and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen* that I felt compelled to stick with it just in case the writing got better.)

(*And Lost Girls, of course, once that came along.)

Fables is one of those things that sounds good in premise form, but I feel enough personal antipathy toward Bill Willingham that I wouldn't be able to enjoy it if he wrote as well as Moore or Gaiman. And he's certainly no Moore or Gaiman.

Yay, comics! I got:

Wormwood #3. Meh. It has a couple of laughs, but I feel like Garth Ennis is treading water.

Phonogram #6. I have to reread the whole thing in one gulp now, but I really enjoyed it even if I got almost none of the BritPop references. Thank goodness there's a glossary.

Black Summer #0. I'll just quote Ellis's backmatter: "What happens when a superhero's pursuit of justice leads him to the inexorable conclusion that he must kill his President to save his country?" I suspect the answer is: "Mayhem!"

Army@Love #s 1-3. Excellent. Sort of Transmet meets M*A*S*H (the movie, that is). Vicious and dark and hilarious. FX should make it into a series. Also, I love that there's a character named Flabbergast. I think this is my favorite new book since Casanova.

Has anyone read SPN #2 yet?

Do you think that the unnamed hunter is someone we've seen or heard of in the show, or someone new? Continuitywise, I'd love him to be Bill Harvelle, but my vision of Bill is a little more rural hunter and a little less paramilitary badass.

I know it's not show canon, but the comic really makes John's choices more understandable. So far two of the people who formed Mary's (and presumably the family's) main support system are dead, and everyone new who helps out John is tied in with the hunting/supernatural world.

Also, love the Impala origins.

Oh, it would be great if the unknown hunter were Bill Harvelle!

And so fars as the Impala part of the story goes -- didn't John already have the car in the pilot?

You're right about the impala, sumi. I had forgotten that. So maybe he has two of them now?

Do you think that

Well, I think that he looks a bit too old. But the art is (IMHO) kinda crappy, so it may not be a good indicator of age .

didn't... pilot

I checked (because I'm like that), and while it does look like John is sitting on the Impala with the boys, you can also see the station wagon parked in the driveway. So one could wank that the uncle came over because of the fire. Or, John left the Impala with Mary's family because he had the boys with him and needed the wagon to cart them around.