Fables: Issue #28 - #49 [Oct 04 - Jul 06]

Foreword: I am a bit on the sick side. Nothing major, mind you, but the cold leaves me tired most of the time and after long study sessions with a class I am not very good at, my ability to deliver content is restricted greatly. Reviews will come, at a slower pace and a bit in a cluster near the very end, but such are the hazards, when takes a plunge in an event such as this. Now let’s move to the final review of the remaining Fables issues I have.

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Right after the invasion of the homelands Fables takes on a more epic spin, which is an alien experience for me, because I have read mostly superhero-ish long running series. Politics, war and espionage on a global level are not the main focus in these series. I felt both intrigued and worried that it might sour the satisfaction from reading Fables [I am not a great admirer of the political intrigue], but Bill Willingham handled himself appropriately and continued to supply surprise after surprise.

Plot-wise Fabletown community undergoes several shocks to the system, when the regiment is changed. Prince Charming becomes Fabletown’s mayor, winning convincingly thanks to that magic charm of his. Snow White takes a maternity leave to raise her six non-human kids on the Farm, while Bigby resigns himself and leaves Fabletown. Their substitutes are Beauty and Beast, who have trouble learning the ropes. The new government in general is shaky with few highs and lots of lows. This is best demonstrated with the angry protesters in front of the apartment building, acting as Fabletown’s headquarters. There’s a general state of distress in the community. Allegiance is questioned, peculiar murders occur, shocking revelations come to light and unexpected relatives pop into town.

We got a saga in the making with all the works. Willingham is quite good at tying secondary arcs with the main bulk of the story, dispelling the illusion that coincidences exist, when there is war on the horizon. The best about these secondary arcs is that they act as character studies, giving a more thorough look into characters, which aren’t the leads and at the same time tease readers with bits about the world, the situation in the homelands. The best example here is Boy Blue’s rogue trip into the Homelands with the Witching Cloak and the Vorporal Sword that can kill in one swing.

Boy Blue is a nursery rhyme character and rather obscure, which is why I didn’t expect him to be so fleshed out. Even with his innocent expression, the boy is a virtuoso with the sword. His strategic command over the Witching Cloak is impressive and he bargains with the enemy with a cunning wit. The metamorphosis from good-natured secretary to war hero / undercover spy is spectacular. Apart from Boy Blue, there are other interesting discoveries as far as characters go. For instance I’m a fan of Frau Totenkinder, who was a kick-ass witch back when dealing with Hansel and Gretel, but her wicked ways make a solid base for a torturer with no qualms about the methods she uses to guard her territory.

After the Boy Blue arc the nature of the Adversary becomes clear. The reader is introduced to who the dark Emperor is [awesomeness’ sake I remain quiet about his identity], but with that valuable piece of information provided, the overall POV of the story can shift. Along with the good guys, we get to see what happens behind the empire’s curtain, its origin and at the same time this small peek-through-the-key-key-hole poses the question, whether the empire can be so evil… The devil is in the details, as people and say. And even if I have my moral compass straight, the grey shades in both the Empire’s and Fabletown’s depictions add an extra punch to the whole rollercoaster ride.

I can only assume what can happen next [I wish I had the following issues], but my guess is it will be one notch higher in terms of action, drama, danger, strategic genius and espionage. Up the ante, as they say. The seeds are there. The Arabian fables are in the process of evacuation from their homelands, while Mowgli is sent to track Bigby and return him to Prince Charming in exchange for Snow White to return from the Farm with her children. In the mean time, the empire has planted spies in New York City… The ingredients for war are on the table and I’m positive that Willingham has something incredibly jalapeño flavored in the making.

Verdict: In one word, Fables embodies the Latin word excelsior [meaning superior and ever upward]. I admit that I would have preferred a different set of lines altogether that would’ve increased my reader-y satisfaction, but I don’t fully dismiss that Medina and Buckingham as artists, for their work adds something retro/vintage. The arrangement of the panels, shaping them like cathedral windows and the tiniest tiny ornamentations on the pages create a special mood that recreates the magic from the well illustrated and children’s fairy tale books.

Fables: Issues #11 - #27 [May 03 - Sep 04]

Fables seemed a bit too good to be true, but at the same time I understood what the excitement was about. The cover art is breathtaking and practically seduces you into thumbing it over and then there is the actual quality and consistency behind the production. Bill Willingham is still the creative motor behind this steaming machine. Even the art factor’s remained fairly stable and predictable. Mark Buckingham provides the lines for the main story arcs, while the filler issues are being illustrated by artists such as Troy Akins, Craig Hamilton, Linda Medley and Bryan Talbot.

I picked a certain pattern [the series inner rhythm, so to say], which suits me perfectly. Fables is a journey and every journey has its rest stops, where both story and reader can take a few short breaths, before setting off again. There is a main on-scene storyline and at the same time Vertigo provides readers with one shot issues in between arcs to examine further something about the Fabletown that has not been mentioned before or does not take a central role in the events, but contributes to building the atmosphere.

I have to say that this is a smart solution to a problem that is quite natural for a series with an enormous cast. Namely, giving characters and the world page time to flesh out enough to suspend disbelief and hook the readers to continue reading. Sure enough, the central string of story lines will provide enough about renowned figures from pop culture such as Beauty, the Beast, Blue Beard, Sleeping Beauty and all the Disney’s favorites. However, the reader would like some depth to the world, which can’t be summed up with fairy tale all-stars. This is where these filler issues come in, adding shades to the reading experience, layering the concept in our imagination and further captivating us beyond being able to not read. Such fillers include the final battle between the Fables and the Adversary, while the last boat of refugees crossed over to the mundane world, Smalltown’s origins, Cinderella’s double life and the Civil War adventures of Jack of Tales.

On-screen, tension rises high. Fabletown is still recuperating from the events of the revolution that bordered on a Civil War, but that doesn’t deter the universe from delivering blows after blows that may prove to be fatal. A Mundy [the regular non-fable] reporter reveals that he will expose Fabletown to the world. The reaction is lightning fast and resembles a brilliant heist movie. Goldilocks gets her chance to kill both Bigby and Snow. Blue Beard shows his true, treacherous nature and prince Charming plans to dabble in Fabbletown politics. There is death and unplanned pregnancies. The Adversary plans maneuvers against the fables in our world with a small scale invasion with Baba Yaga posing as Little Red Riding Hood and an army, consisting of wooden soldiers, carved by none other than Geppetto. There is a massive stand between the invading forces and all the Fables [from the city and the Farm] with fires, guns and spells flying around. Baba Yaga has her personal duel versus Frau Totenkinder [translates from German into Dead Children] aka the witch from Hensel and Gretel.

Fables is Disney X-rated meets 24 meets Alias meets Burn Notice meets Buffy… I can go on and on. The series has been written for adult readers, ’cause there’s carnage, death, sex and explicit language in high detail. Those that wish to remain their childhood memories as intact as possible at least as far as fairy tales go, I advise against picking up this series. However, for the other group of people that want their fables hard core this is a brilliant reading choice. Our own culture has become a thick catalogue with destruction, mayhem and all the risky, edgy deeds we wish we could do as a matter of stress release. From a psychological standpoint, our society’s structure and model leave us at the end of the day with stress, frustration and anger that we can’t find an outlet for. So, it’s up to entertainment with action in high volumes to bring up our adrenaline levels and get rid of our stress. This is what I call the good aggression in the same fashion that we have good and bad cholesterol.

Fables is in the good aggression category. Cussing, blood and violence have a solid share in its makeup, but beneath them there is brilliant plotting that demands the reader to connect the dots and solve mysteries behind who did what, when and why. There is a great deal of mental exercise involved with the aggression as an attractive side dish to the menu. Also, I think that Fables will prompt readers un-fond of reading in general to pick up folk tale books and see where the writer is coming from with some of the lesser known to them characters.

Verdict: Solid gold. I couldn’t have picked a better series.

Fables: Issues #1 - #10 [July 02 - April 03]

Mindless wander through the review blogs brought to me piece of information that there is a comic book series that starred all the fairy tale characters and more. My awareness that Fables existed built like a puzzle, until I read a guest review on the Book Smugglers site [actually a Guest Dare] and I got a detailed picture what I could expect from Fables, so I decided to hunt down whatever I could find as issues. The result is that I have around 50 issues [40 or so short from being up-to-date with the original run], which isn’t at all satisfactory, but I’m still young and a virile reader and will manage to secure the rest of these issues.

‘Fables’ has a simple enough premise to ensure it has a long, healthy run before a conclusion comes in sight. Maybe the series will even live as long as Batman with 600 issues and more, hopefully. The world, from where the fables originate, has fallen under occupation. With no alternative but to run, the fables hide in our mundane world to avoid death and enslavement. The human looking fables are located in the Woodland Apartment building in NYC, while the talking animals and all not so easily passed off as humans fables are located in an estate as far away from prying eyes, simply referred to as the Farm. The series is situation based and acts as the record of the fables’ lives in our world.

The ten issues I have read so far cover two large story arcs, which convinced me that the idea is a gold mine and it’s clear why Fables have persisted in the market. Bill Willingham’s name is one I’ll make sure to remember, because his writing is spectacular. One can tell that he is a natural born story teller with a vivid and unlimited imagination. The appeal behind having all the beloved fairy tale and classic novel characters re-imagined in our world in order to adapt to our world and then seen through the prism of immortality, is instantly magnetic. All adults, who have grown with the happily-ever-afters, know that real life is quite on the opposite, so to introduce the characters that set some standards on how perfect life could be/should be with not-so-pleasant grey realism is a double win, because then readers are hooked on nostalgia as well as the opportunity to see how well will these princes/princesses fair, when there’s no sure happy end predestined. At least this has been my reaction towards the series’ premise. The issues I have read confirm this theory for me.

What I loved was the reinvention iconic characters have received. Snow White is the woman behind the fable community. From a Disney innocent princess she’s become a frosty business woman, always in a suit. She’s divorced. Prince Charming is a money hungry Bohemian. The Big Bad Wolf is called Bigby and is the community’s sheriff, while Blue Boy is a secretary to Snow and Goldilocks is a revolutionary. I can continue with this list, but there is not a point to spoil your fun from discovering these yourselves and will move on to the first two arcs.

The series kicks off with a bang as the community is shook with the sudden and violent death of Rose Red [Snow’s estranged sister / part child extraordinaire]. Genre-wise this arc is pure detective crime mystery and is treated as such with issues titled like “Whodunit”. Bigby is on the case and while on the surface he seems to be messing around more than he is helping the end result is impressive. The reader is taken on a carousel ride with suspect interviews with Jack of Tales, the Blue Beard and even Snow White herself, while at the same time there is no corpse, no direct evidence and clues strewn all over, which later on assembled gives tribute to the best tales in this genre. I especially enjoyed the Big Bad Wolf as a detective/sheriff with timeless trademarks like the trench coat, cigarette habit, unshaved face and wise cracking mouth. It felt like reading through stills from an old 80s detective sitcom like Colombo. This impression is also left by the artist Lan Medina, who has a very classic technique, which is ingenious to the retro comics from a few decades back [80s, again?], though I wish I could pinpoint it exactly.

The case ends with a shocking revelation that the murder has been a hoax, conceived by Rose Red herself and her boyfriend Jack of Tales in order to get out of debt. With this blast-off I never needed any more coaxing into digging further in my stash. The second arc adds speed and momentum to series by introducing the Farm and the beginnings of a Civil War between the human Fables and the non-human fables. The politics have been handled by the three pigs, which aren’t little anymore, while the muscle behind the operation is Goldilocks and the three bears. Snow White has picked the wrong time to bond with her sister at the Farm and soon is prime target for assassination. Snow survives, but not without suffering a head shot first and making it only because she’s a beloved icon and the humans’ belief in her did the magic trick.

What I enjoyed here is the attention to detail and resourcefulness, with which Willingham has handled the arc. His characters are full rounded and compelling, even the antagonists. From their fairy tale roots to their modern incarnations everything is flawless from backstory in this world, to speech, manners and even clothing. Everything fits and modifications to the original essence of these beloved figures have been allowed in reasonable moderation. I love risk takers and Willingham doesn’t play it safe, willing to turn fable against fable and go as far as issuing executions to those that started the Civil War in the first place. Reading this arc was accompanied with a lot of ‘wows’ and ‘is this really happening?’. Mark Buckingham takes the position as artist and I barely noticed the transition, since his technique emulates Medina’s to a degree that the careless eye might notice the change after a few issues in.

Verdict: I am in the bouncing stages of pure, unadulterated joy. I give this series an ‘A’ with a whole lot of pluses. Can you believe that this is just the beginning? Vertigo, you amaze me as an imprint.