Mike Suggests some Bill Willingham

I'm an unabashed fan of graphic novels. Wait, let me stop trying to act like I'm not a nerd and call them by their rightful title: comic books. Those of you who have asked me for a recommendation of what comic you should read have probably been subjected to at least ten minutes of me gushing about how much I adore Bill Willingham and his long-running comic, Fables, which may be the greatest ongoing comic and second only to Neil Gaiman's Sandman series in my comic pantheon.

Bill's work is very similar to Neil's in that he's taking the stories that reside deep down in our cultural memory--fables, folk tales, etc.--and remixing, revamping, and recombobulating them into something completely new and fascinating. Like most authors, before tackling the entire cosmos of humanity's rich storytelling past and writing his magnum opus, he had to cut his teeth and what he had written (and, sometimes, drawn) has finally been collected for the fanboys and fangirls into the aptly named Bad Doings & Big Ideas. So for those of you out there who have shared my passion for all things Willingham, you can't say I didn't tell you. And for those of you who have never heard of him but enjoy the works of greats like Neil Gaiman, what are you waiting for?!?