Jack of Fables Vol. 4: Americana (Paperback)

~ Bill Willingham (Author), (Author), Various (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

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Jack and his merry band of misfits (at the moment including Gary, the Pathetic Fallacy, Humpty Dumpty, and a very begrudging Raven) head into Americana (the American Fableland) on Jack’s never-ending quest for pelf. Also on the treasure trail is Hillary Page, a librarian from the Golden Boughs, with Paul Bunyan and, as a sort of divining rod, his blue ox in tow. As usual for Jack, things get complicated, what with teaming up with Miss Page, gluing Humpty together again, and the Bookburner and his zombies after them. Another rip-rollicking adventure, with slick, self-centered, total-cad Jack in fine form. Fables and Jack fans won’t be disappointed.

Product Description

Jack hits the road in seach of a lost city of gold in this new collection featuring issues #17-21. Aided by his sidekicks Paul Bunyan, Humpty Dumpty, Gary the pathetic fallacy and the mysterious Hillary Page, Jack's in for the adventure of a lifetime!

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Vertigo (December 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401219799
• ISBN-13: 978-1401219796
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,648 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jack on a Treasure Hunt through the Americana Folklore Landscape..and we get ZOMBIES!, December 16, 2008

By	Mir (North Miami Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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Sly, greedy, self-centered, up-to-no-good Jack is back, and he's on a hunt for the treasure of Cibola. Accompanied by Raven (who had previously--erroneously--been Wicked John's companion), a glued-back-together Humpty Dumpty (with one key missing eggshell piece), and the Pathetic Fallacy, he's off to get the loot.

But Jackie-boy and his sometimes quite-reluctant crew are gonna have to deal with another quester crossing their path: One of the Page sisters who has a personal mission into Americana, and she's got a regrowing Paul Bunyan and the hilarious Babe the Blue Ox (still having snarfolicious fantasy adventures in his own head) for bodyguards.

If you like zombies, be prepared for a hilarious use of them (and a social commentary, no doubt, about the "good old days" of the American pre-sixties heydays). A new character--powerful and sinister--is met up with, too. There's a touch of roaring 20's speakeasy days fun as well. And boinking, cause it's Jack, after all.

When Jack's Americana adventure is concluded, there's a detour to a one-shot story: "Gary Does Denmark," where the Pathetic Fallacy tries to put on Hamlet with Fabley folk, and you know it's just not gonna go easy or work out normally.

Enjoy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great volume in a part of the best franchise in comic art, January 31, 2009

By	Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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My initial reaction to the news a couple of years back that Jack of FABLES fame was going to get his own spin off was almost complete indifference. Jack was far and away my least favorite FABLES character. The odds that I would enjoy the spin off nearly as much as the original series, which I still think is the best ongoing comic series in existence, was slim at best. So imagine my surprise when I found out that I not only didn't dislike JACK OF FABLES, but loved it!

And the series just gets better and better. Interestingly, while Jack is European in origin, the JACK OF FABLES series has worked more in the vein of American folklore. At least half of the characters were born in the New World, as opposed to the inhabitants of Fabletown, all of whom are immigrants from lands invaded by The Adversary. Not that the characters in the Jack series do not suffer from oppression. Indeed, they suffer from a far more insidious threat, the Revise family. As we learn over the course of time (made most inexplicit in the most recent issues (Revise himself explains his life's work in great detail in Issue 30, while AMERICANA collects issues 17-21, so I won't offer spoilers by going into any detail here), the greater family truly loves to muck about in robbing the world of the magic of the various fables. Revise merely . . . well, revises them; his brother Bookburner eliminates them. Interestingly, we still haven't quite learned what caused these folk to become such enemies of stories and fables, especially given that the partriarch of the entire clan is Jack's dedicated sidekick Gary, the Pathetic Fallacy.

AMERICANA sees Jack, Gary, Raven, and a superglued Humpty Dumpty off in search of treasure, a search that causes them to intersect with one of the Page sisters, Paul Bunyan, and Babe the Blue Ox, whose rich interior life is one of the delights of the series. In their escapades they encounter numerous zombies, a host of figures from American folklore, and Bookburner, the most sinister member of the family fathered by Gary that we have yet to discover. His goal is pretty much as his name suggests, to rid existence of stories (they upon burning they do revive, drained of color, as part of his own ghostly army).

The upshot is that while FABLES is still far and away my favorite series from the imagination of Bill Willingham, JACK OF FABLES has become a must-read series in its own right. I still don't like Jack in the least and the less time he spends in each story, the better. But this truly is an ensemble cast and it is the rest of the characters that makes each issue such a joy.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun, December 17, 2008

By	M "CultOfStrawberry" (Gnawing away at your reality) - See all my reviews

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The story of the Revise family continues to unfold... it feels weird to think of concepts as real persons (the Pathetic Fallacy, for one) and I have been enjoying Jack's story as much as I have been enjoying the mainstream Fables series. And I also enjoy Jack's attitude and glib comments (especially towards the third Page sister) Overall, this was a lot of fun to read, and I am anxious to see what else Jack will do next! :)