Babel Clash

Thank you to Bill, James and Matt.  It’s been a great conversation.

Peter & Max didn’t get its fair share of time as a featured title, so I want to take a moment to recommend it.  If you’re a fan of Fables, then you’ll love Peter & Max.  That’s a given.  If you haven’t yet read this award-winning comic series, then thankfully, the novel stands on its own merit.  Bill puts his own unique spin on the classic fairy tale of Peter Piper.  Learn the secret history of the Piper family and then enjoy a classic battle of wills and wits between Peter and his evil brother.  It’s a well told tale by a storyteller who now deserves equal admiration as both a novelist and a comic writer.

Now for our next guest.  I’m honored to welcome R. A. Salvatore to Babel Clash.  Salvatore is the author of the Drizzt Do’Urden novels, including the brand new The Ghost King.  Among his other notable series is the Saga of the First King.  The lastest volume in that series, the Dame, is also available in stores and on Borders.com now.

I’m pleased to announce and welcome our third guest. Bill Willingham, writer of Fables and author of new novel Peter & Max, joins James and Matt.

Bill, thank you for joining us!

Sometimes I’m jealous of the novels sold into YA.  I want them in the Fantasy & SF section.  Sure, I understand the publisher’s decision, but the books are so good and the appeal so broad that it seems a shame not to show them off all over the store.  One example that comes to mind is D. M. Cornish’s Monster Blood Tattoo series.  Those are some gorgeous books.

Speaking of Monster Blood Tattoo, there are illustrations!  Would you like to see more illustrated novels?  There are a couple of interesting adult illustrated novels forthcoming:  Peter & Max, a Fables novel & the Child Thief by Brom.  Is this a trend that you’d like to see catch on?

I’d love to read more fantasy that draws inspiration from classic folk legends and myths:  Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Aesop’s Fables and Arabian Nights.

Del Toro has done this as well as anyone with his Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth movies.

The graphic novel that reconnects with those old legends, that any fantasy fan is likely to love, is Fables by Bill Willingham.  He features Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White to tell brilliant stories.

So what do you think, does execution trump originality, or are you willing to forgive poor execution if the ideas are fresh and exotic enough?