Riculously compulsively readable. I am going back now to read the "Top Ten" tales. I just wish there were more. ALan Moore has never been so diarmingly charming and enjoyable.
Definitely a good read for Fables fans inbetween installments of that beloved series... if only there were more of this series- nsarky witty fun with lots of pop culture riffs- read it... you won't wish for this hour(or less) of your life back at all. ( )

I don't know anything about "Top 10", and I don't like much about your standard "hilarious modern take on medieval world" genre stuff (Fables I like because of the general awesome of getting to see all your faves in one spot, but Neil Gaiman andTerry Pratchett and shit? Eugh.). But this is a lot of fun. I gues they're in some kind of future superhero world with teleporters to other dimensions and shit, and one of them comes from a giants-and-ogres world originally, and they go back and slay a dragon. Sounds generic, but Moore puts a lot of heart into this--the appealing surprise ending,the AMAZINGLY WELL DESIGNED dragon, and all the little jokes and cute moments (spot Trogdor! chuckle at the shify elves! Even the old joke where Death is self-conscious and called "Dennis" is pulled off with aplomb). All in all, this will tide you over nicely on a bus ride to UBC. ( )

Smax, the sneering, antisocial big blue "tank" from Top 10, gets his own book, which falls after volume 2 of that series. This is Moore at the comedic end of his mile-long range; you'd never know it was the writer of From Hell and Lost Girls.

I'm very fond of Smax, both the character and the book. Moore creates another world, with fairy slums and mystical portents, affirmative action quotas for adventuring parties, and a Death named Dennis. It's whimsical, but Moore gives it a bite.

The only thing that doesn't ring quite true are the three or four panels that are a parody of the Harry Potter series. I'm a fan, and even I have to admit there are many good jokes to be made at Harry's expense - but I would have expected Moore to find better ones than these. Still, it's so short it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the rest of the book.

Smax' sad story is revealed, and he sets out on a quest to redeem himself. Toy Box, the pretty-in-punk protagonist of the first Top 10 collection accompanies him as "wizard". After some truly gorgeous art and a slam-bang of a climax, we arrive at a deliciously unconventional resolution for our big blue boy.

Cannon and Currie produce art that's a little more cartoonish and bright than Top 10's brushed-metal exterior. The panels are wallpapered with pop culture and literary allusions; read it with a friend and try to spot half of them. ( )

And now we find out about the mysterious background of Jeff Smax, one of the stalwarts of the Top Ten police force: he's from a fantastic parallel world. Alan Moore starts with a world dominated by the tropes of fairy tales and high fantasy quest fiction and infects it with all the worst traits of our own world: bureaucracy, inflation, suburban sprawl, and scams. The result is hilarious-- and even against this background, he manages to depict a very grave villain indeed. ( )

A knight off to kill the Dragon, and sleep with his sister, or a knight off to sleep with his sister and kill the Dragon. The knight, however, is Officer Jeff Smax of the Neopolis police force. There are some secrets about his family and his past he does not want his co-workers to know about, and of course, his partner is pissed.

http://graphicsf.blogspot.com/2006/11... ( )