Peter and Max - Novel from Vertigo

PETER & MAX
Bill Willingham
2009
Vertigo Books

PETER & MAX is, as the cover proclaims, a FABLES novel. Do you know Fables, the Eisner award winning set of graphic novels from Vertigo? No? Doesn’t matter except to say you may want to set aside some reading time for them after you finish this book.
Willingham has created a universe where “Fables”, those characters we all love from our childhood storybooks exist, having come to our world seeking refuge from their own lands. They have gathered together here on planet earth absolving one another from all past transgressions as they battle against a common enemy.
In the comic version our heroes and heroines include such luminaries as The Big Bad Wolf, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Prince Charming and on and on. The wonderful mind that created this series has, in writing this book, revealed that his is a pure genius.
Peter & Max you see, is the story of Peter the Wolf, Peter who ate a pickled pepper. It is the story of the Pied Piper of Hamlin, and that of little Bo Peep and with Willingham at the helm it is a story that now belongs on a shelf all of its own.
This story opens with Bigby Wolf informing Peter Piper that his brother has been sighted. Peter must now set off on what will probably be his final quest. He must confront his brother and try to end his evil.
The story flashes back and forth between the quest of today and the story of Peter & Max. Peter and his brother Max played the pipes with their dad for living, a meager but happy existence belonged to the Pipers. And then, in one day their existence was forever changed. First father gave the only family treasure (Frost the Flute) to Peter and then the Empire stole their lands. The Piper family with the family of their good friends, the Peeps was forced to run into the woods……
Using the meter and legend of fairy tales Willingham will hook you quickly, reveal to you the underbelly of storybooks more decidedly than anything ever written by the Grimms. For Peter and Max must end with one brother killing the other, but how did we get to this part of the story?
Willingham uses the fairy tales of our youth and the nightmares of our imagination to deliver an entirely unique Noir Novel.
Ruth Jordan

By the way, to make the FTC happy we would like to let you know that we received an advance copy of this book so that we could review it in a timely fashion.