Fairest #29 – Review

By: Mark Buckingham (story), Russ Braun (art), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Some parties you want to be rescued from. This isn’t one of them.

The Review: Another one of those words critics and English majors tend to throw around a lot is “craft,” as in “There’s not much/a lot of craft in this work.” I’m not arrogant enough to come up with a definitive definition, but I’ll give you an idea of what I mean when I say “craft.” It’s the care, thought, time, and skill a person puts into their art. Craft alone doesn’t make great art; you need talent and inspiration for that. But without craft, you won’t produce anything worthwhile.

A foreboding sort of intro, I know. But I can’t help thinking about the distinct lack of craft in this issue, specifically where Meghan’s hillbilly uncle and cousin are concerned. You can appreciate Buckingham trying to subvert your archetypical wicked relatives—although this is probably the one series where he can get away with such formulaic characters—by showing Bobby and Joey aren’t as callous as they appear. But there’s nothing so subtle about these men’s changes; Reynard’s the one with the glamour, but he has nothing on their sudden, inexplicable transformation from cruel to excessively affectionate.