[BOOK REVIEW] Fables: Animal Farm Volume 2 by Bill Willingham

Title:  Fables:  Animal Farm Volume 2

Author:  Bill Willingham

Artist: Mark Buckingham

Genre: Fantasy / Adventure


Year Published: 2003


Year Read: 2012


Series: Fables #2


Publisher: Vertigo Comics


Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Gory Violence)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

Animal Farm…

In comic form!

Brief Introduction:

After reading the first volume in Bill Willingham’s popular “Fables” series, I was a bit interested in reading the second volume of this series, hoping to find out more about the Adversary who took the Fables’ land from them.  But in “Fables: Animal Farm,” we are actually introduced to a revolution on the Animal Farm where Fable characters who are not human or cannot maintain a human form reside.  “Fables: Animal Farm” is a great follow up to the first volume that will have you wanting to find out what happens next!

What is the story?

Ever since the Fables were forced out of their homeland by an evil being called the Adversary, the Fables who were non-humans were forced to live on the Farm so that way they would not be under the suspicious eyes of the mundane world.  Unfortunately, a revolution seems to take place on the farm as the non-human fables decided to take back their land from the Adversary and then try to rule both Fabletown in New York and the Farm itself and it is up to Snow White to stop this crazy revolution before it is too late!

What I loved about this comic:

Bill Willingham’s writing!:  If you have seen the title of this volume entitled “Fables: Animal Farm,” then you will definitely know that this story is pretty much similar to George Orwell’s classic novel, “Animal Farm.”  To be honest, I never would have thought that Bill Willingham would include a novel that is a satire on the Russian Revolution into his “Fables” series which mainly includes fairy tale and folktale characters, but I will admit that I was really impressed with the direction he took this story!  I loved the way that Bill Willingham included famous animal characters from fairy tales and folktales such as Shere Khan from “The Jungle Book,” Brer Rabbit, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Three Little Pigs and wove them into a sort of satirical tale that is based on the animals of the farm forming a revolution against the people who rule over the Fables.  It was also interesting seeing how Goldilocks and the Three Little Pigs were leading the revolution, which put an insane spin on our favorite fairy tale characters.  Bill Willingham did a great job at portraying the relationship between Rose Red and Snow White and it was quite shocking seeing how Rose Red treated Snow White although Snow White tried to make amends on their relationship and once it is revealed about why Rose Red hated Snow White so much, you cannot help but feel a little sorry for her throughout the two volumes of the “Fables” series.

The artwork:  Mark Buckingham’s artwork is truly brilliant to look at as the characters look truly realistic and I love the facial expressions on the characters, especially whenever Snow White is upset, you can actually see the tears and the frightened expressions on her face which made me truly feel for her throughout this book.  I also loved Daniel Vozzo’s coloring on the artwork as the artwork has dark coloring that truly reflects the dark atmosphere of this story.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this book:

Now, I did have a couple of issues with this volume that mainly revolves around the plot of this volume.  Now, I understand that this story is about the animals and the non-human characters having a revolution on the Farm because they felt they were being treated unfairly compared to the fables who live in the city, but I felt that this story just came out of nowhere since it was never mentioned in the first volume about there being problems on the Farm.  Also, I felt that there was not enough focus on Snow White and Rose Red’s relationship since the bulk of the volume was focused on the non-human fables fighting against the fables from the city and I wanted to see more from Snow White and Rose Red’s relationship throughout this ordeal.  Also, the ending felt like it lost some steam after the first half of the volume was pretty exciting with the revolution going on and then suddenly, the story starts to slow down towards the end. 

~A bit of a warning~

This volume is definitely more violent than the first volume as there is a lot of gore and violence regarding the revolution.  Anyone who is not a fan of violence in graphic novels might want to skim over the violent scenes in this volume.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, despite my gripes with this volume and the fact that this volume and the volume before it has not answered my question (WHO IS THE ADVERSARY?), “Fables: Animal Farm” was a great read and I am still excited to see what will become of the fables after the ordeal in this volume.