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I've been reading a lot of comics this summer, and it's the greatest.

I just finished Ms. Marvel Vol. 3: Crushed and the series continues to be fun, as was Rat Queens Volume 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'Rygoth. I love to read about girls kicking ass! (See also, Nimona) One thing I really appreciate about Rat Queens and Nimona is that it's fantasy kick-ass fun, but there's underlying basis of pain. It's not always there or the focus of the narrative, but it bubbles up to color the story in a way that's really compelling. (Plus, now I have an excuse to yell I'M A SHARK! and see who laughs--new bestie test)

Oh, and I also read Lumberjanes which I loved for it's kick-ass girls and silliness, but also its friendship and their long-suffering camp counselor. I love these girls as an ensemble and their relationships. FRIENDSHIP TO THE MAX for reals.


Also in ongoing series... Fables Vol. 22: Farewell happened. The final Fairest, Fairest Vol. 5: The Clamour for Glamour comes out on Tuesday, but Fables is done. This is the series that turned me onto comics and my feelings about it ending are so bittersweet. I'm going to miss these characters and their stories and their lives and how Willingham played with meta-fiction and what happens when you put fictional characters in the real world. At the same time, the final volume was wonderful. I think it was a fitting tribute and end to the series and, in many ways, it was a farewell. It wrapped up the narrative arc nicely, left some loose ends, but not ones that will drive me batty, and let the characters say goodbye (sometimes very literally). I have been nervous lately because the last few volumes have been a bit of a blood bath, and there is some of that here, too, but... it's good. It's really, really good. My only complaint is that it's done and I very selfishly want more, more, more, more. (Also, I asked my friends at Secret Stacks what I should read to fill the Fables void, and they got Bill Willingham himself to answer and zomg.)

But also, I've been reading some new series!

I read the entirety of Y: The Last Man because Bellwether Friends did an episode about it. I am in love with Saga (which was also a Bellwether recommendation) which is also by Brian K Vaughn, so I thought I'd pick up all the Y before listening to their episode, so I'd be able to better understand. Y is the story of what happens when suddenly, all males (human and animal) drop dead. Except for Yorick and his monkey Ampersand. Science and governments want Yorick, but he just wants to get from New York to Australia where his girlfriend-maybe-fiance was when the gender-cide hit, but it also explores what happens when a gender dies. You get radical feminist movement burning sperm banks, countries that had higher gender equality do better than those who had more men in charge, and also a lot of people in deep morning. Plus little things-- it hit at rush hour so a lot of the highways are clogged with cars and what do you do with that many dead bodies? It was really interesting and good. I like the way it explored the different aspects of this new world as well as all the different theories people had for what caused it. (People have feelings about the ending. It wasn't the ending I necessarily wanted, but I think it was good for the story, if that makes sense. Fangirl Jennie was "eh" but literary critic Jennie was "oh, yes.") Also, let's talk Saga. I've read the four volumes that are out now and so good. It's about love and family and survival against the backdrop of intergalactic war! And their nanny is a ghost. (Basically, star-crossed lovers from opposite sides of this inter-galactic war have a kid and everyone wants them dead because there can't be proof that the two sides can get along and all they want to do is live and survive as a family, but always running puts strain on a relationship!) Also, let's just talk about how the romance novels are also political tracts wrapped in love story, because a romance reader, YES. There is meaning and metaphor and all the other trappings of HIGH LITERATURE in romance (and really, all genre) but it gets written off so often, but not here. That warms my heart.

I've also picked up the first four volumes of East of West. It's this story of a futuristic alternate history US where the country's fractured into several other countries and there's a religious cult and Four Horseman of the Apocalypse are reborn, except for Death, because he's left them for love and it all ties back to this religious cult and a prophesy and it's weird and not quite my usual thing, but really good at the same time.

Also for something amazing, but a little different than my usual fare, Secret Stacks also recommended I check out Pretty Deadly which is also about Death falling in love with a person. But this time it's Death's Daughter who's riding for revenge. And there's a girl in a feather cape and old man who travel from town to town to tell her story. It's hauntingly surreal and I cannot wait for more. (Please tell me there's more!)

What comics are you reading?


Books Provided by... my local library, except for Fables, which I bought.

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It’s the perfect storm! #Fridayreads and #BannedBooksWeek. You know all of us at Albert Whitman love books. Publishing them and reading them. Going forward, every #FridayReads we’re going to have one of our staffers talk about a book they’re currently reading. Today, we start off with our Director of Sales and Marketing Mike Spradlin:

I kind of chuckle to myself that ALA reports ever increasing challenges of comics and graphic novels in the last few years. Growing up, if it wasn’t for comics, I know I wouldn’t be the reader I am today. I read all of them I could get my hands on, and still do to this day. Right now I’m enjoying the Fables graphic novels by Bill Willingham, James Jean and Alex Maleev.

The story takes place in a contemporary world, where all of the characters from classic fables and fairy tales have been driven from their world, and forced to live among mankind. Many of them like Snow White and her ex-husband Prince Charming can pass as human, but many such, as the three little pigs, must keep to the shadows. All the ‘fables’ want is to unite and remove a mysterious, malevolent evil from their homelands that drove them into our world in the first place. But much like human beings, factions develop, trust issues abound and they find that even with a common enemy uniting is harder than first thought. It’s a great story, with terrific art and I highly recommend it.

Happy Friday and Happy Reading!

Fables’ Bill Willingham and frequent comics blogger Glen Weldon were among 24 writers selected for the Amtrak Residency Program, which allows writers to get creative while soothed by the clickety-clack of the railroad track as they traverse this great nation of ours. More than 16,000 writers applied for the residency, which grants the recipients free space on the rails to work on whatever they wish.

Willingham’s future projects include a novel, and Weldon’s book on Batman and Nerd Culture is coming next year.

Via

Fairest Vol. 3: The Return of the Maharaja Sean E. Williams, Bill Willingham, Stephen Sadowski, Phil Jimenez

Check it out! Prince Charming is alive! And back!

And that’s the best thing I can say about this volume.

After dying in the battle against the adversary, Prince Charming comes back (which we all knew he would eventually, right? He’s much too powerful) but doesn’t want to go back to the mundy and instead becomes a ruler in an Indus fable world. There he meets a woman, Nalayani, who’s come to ask for help. Her village lost all its men to the adversary and is now constantly being attacked by roaming bands and they’re about to be wiped out. Charming is also facing issues as there are those who aren’t fond of having a white foreigner ruling them.*

I do like Nalayani because she’s awesome, but she’s also a new character and not having lived with her for years, I just didn’t care as much about her as I did about Charming or some of the other Fables characters.

Charming… has lost a lot of character growth. When we first met him, he was an arrogant ass, but over the series he had mellowed and matured, but he’s reverted back to all jack-ass charm and lost what made him a deeper, more likeable character.

But here’s my real problem-- the great romances of Fables have all been a slow burn building up through multiple story arcs. If Charming is *finally* going to meet someone for him, someone “better” than Snow or Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, we need the slow burn. We need to get to know Nalayani, we need to see them get to know each other and fall in love. The whole execution seemed rush and I never bought that Charming liked her more than he likes most awesome women, and Nalayani’s affections seem to turn on a dime. Overall, its was just really disappointing.


*this is problematic, as Charming is set up as the good guy, and those who aren’t into colonization are the bad guys. It's kinda worked out in the end, but ergh. But this whole issue is ergh, so...


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Fairest Vol. 2: Hidden Kingdom Lauren Beukes, Bill Willingham, Inaki Miranda

This is a bit of a jump-back in time from where the main series is. With the “present day” happening in 2002, so the action is pretty firmly at the beginning of the series, with lots of flashback to Rapunzel’s back story.

So, like most fairy tales, Rapunzel has a dark edge that we tend not to retell. In the original, the witch discovers the prince because Rapunzel is pregnant. She casts Rapunzel into the desert where she gives birth to twins. The prince gets tangled in brambles trying to climb the tower, is blinded by the thorns and is also cast into the desert. They all wander around for like 20 years before they find each other, Rapunzel’s tears of joy cure his eyesight and only then do they all live happily-ever-after.

In the Fables world, Frau Tottenkinder is the witch that imprisoned Rapunzel. She casts her out, Rapunzel gives birth, and she’s told her children die during childbirth. She’s always known that they survived and has spent centuries searching for them. At one point, she tries to drown herself but washes up on the shores of a Japanese fable kingdom (named the Hidden Kingdom).

In the present day, she gets a message via attacking crane origami that there is news of her children. She meets up with friends and enemies from her old adopted homeland, and Tokyo’s version of Fabletown where the present is tied with the fall of the Hidden Kingdom to the adversary's forces.

I loved this one. I loved the look at Japanese mythology and fables, how they played in their homeland and how they survive in the modern Mundy world. I liked the old school “present day” with Jack running his schemes, Snow and Bigby in the business office and Frau Tottenkinder doing her thing on the 13th floor of the original building. It was a nice return to the beginning. But more than that, I loved Rapunzel’s story and her strength. We don’t see a lot of her, as she’s not allowed to leave Fabletown because of her hair and she’s been kinda shoved to the side in this series.

There’s also a tantalizing clue about the truth about her daughters, that I don’t believe we’ve seen the answer to yet. (I’m trying to rack my brain, as this happens so far in the past to see if we’ve seen them and not known it, or if they have yet to come up.)

This is my favorite volume in the Fairest spin-off series.

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The Unwritten Vol. 9: The Unwritten Fables Mike Carey, Bill Willingham, Peter Gross, Mark Buckingham

I was so excited for the one. Tom Taylor is trying to fix Leviathan and ends up in the middle of the witches from the 13th floor of Fables (which is my favorite comic) But, in the end… ugh.

Basically, it’s an alternate Fables universe where Mr. Dark has won and the Fables are barely hanging on (most won’t survive.) This is how alternate it is--Snow White is married to Mr. Dark and they’re keeping Bigby prisoner (and Mr. Dark has conquered all of Earth and is moving on to other realms.)

As such, the witches summon the “greatest wizard who never was, but might be” and end up with Tom Taylor as a stand-in for Tommy.

Now it’s a great concept--Fables who know they’re fictional, but they’re real and living in our world intersecting with this story about the power of story and where the line between fiction and reality is, and where it blurs. And it kinda touches on it, but not nearly as much as it could have, or should have. Instead, it ends up being a dark AU piece of Fables story, in which they get Tommy, Sue, and Peter to help fight their battles. It’s a rather horrifying look* at what could have happened in Fables, and it’s so Fables-centric, I’m not really sure what’s the point of having it as an Unwritten story instead of a Fables one. The only thing it really does is end in such a dramatic fashion to set up the Unwritten reboot. Not sure what this does to all the stories and threads that we still have resolve. I kinda wonder if Carey and Gross wrote themselves into a corner and this was the only way to get out.

That said, this series has kept me guessing the entire time, so I’ll withhold final judgement until we see what happens with the reboot.(But at the moment, I'm rather discontented.)

*And given how dark Fables has been recently, that’s really saying something. ALSO, when announcing the upcoming end of Fables Willingham has said that what comes up in the Unwritten crossover has consequences and now I’m really scared.

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Next week sees the release of the third trade of Fairest, the spinoff series of Fables which has seen a number of writers and artists tell standalone stories spotlighting the different female characters of Bill Willingham’s world. Return of the Maharaja, however, tries something a little different still – writer Sean E. Williams and artist Steve Sadowski introduce a new hero from myth to readers, in the form of Nalayani.

Coming straight from the epic mythology of Indian folkore, Nalayani is a dynamic, contrary, unpredictable sort of lead character; and her story dominates the third arc of the series. But Williams’ story not only brings in new characters like Nalayani – it also features some the return of some unexpected, familiar faces, to the shock of long-term Fables fans. I was lucky to have the chance to talk to Williams about his story, and he explained how it came together, the surprising twist appearance of a fan-favourite character… and giant monsters.

Steve: How did you get involved with writing this arc of Fairest?

Sean: I’d known Bill Willingham for years from working on another project together, and getting to be friends over the course of that time.  Then Chris Roberson started doing the Cinderella arcs, and he was in the middle of the second one when I had an idea for a FABLES story that I just couldn’t get out of my head. So Saturday night of SDCC 2010 I was walking between hotels with Bill, and I got up the courage to ask him if he’d be interested in hearing a pitch for a story. He said he would be, so I immediately got away from downtown and wrote up a full proposal.

The next night, as we were setting up Bill’s dead-dog party, I pitched him the story.  He said he liked it, and that they had something in the works that it might be a part of (which would become FAIREST; I think he was talking to Lauren Beukes about her arc already at that point).

Steve: Did you come with the pitch already in mind – what was your goal for the story?

Sean: Well, that’s where things get interesting.  So yeah, I had a whole pitch fleshed out, and was bouncing it between Bill and our editor, Shelly Bond, getting feedback and notes and tweaking accordingly.  Then I was in Minnesota that Christmas visiting the in-laws, and I drove down to visit with Bill.  We went to lunch, and he got all serious, and said that he wanted me to write a Prince Charming story too.  Which was great, but Charming’s dead, so it’d all be in flashback.

And who could say no to writing a FABLES Prince Charming story?  Which (spoilers!) was when Bill dropped the bomb that Charming wasn’t dead.  And my mind was blown.   So I reaffirmed that I’d be interested, and ecstatically drove back to the in-laws.  The next time I was able to get a hold of Bill was in March, I think, and I hadn’t heard anything, and I was starting to think the Charming thing was a practical joke, which Bill is known for.

I finally got a hold of him, and he told me it was a good news/bad news situation.  Bad news was that I wasn’t writing my arc as planned.  Good news was that Vertigo wanted the Charming story instead.  I can say this now since it isn’t happening, but my original story focused on Bluebeard, and for some reason Prince Charming is more popular than Bluebeard.  The only problem was that I hadn’t even thought about the Charming story, since I’d been working on Bluebeard for eight months.  So in the span of weeks I had to come up with a whole story for Charming.

The only thing Bill gave me to start with was that Charming had been blown through the gateway, and I had to come up with why he hadn’t been back to Fabletown in the intervening years, and go from there.

Steve: The story is notably set outside of Fablestown, and the American-centric adventures around it. What research did you do to look into the role of Hinduism, and how important was it to you that you set the story in India?

Sean: In thinking about what type of Homeland Charming would be sent to, I threw out a bunch of non-Anglo options.  Japan was the only one I had to stay away from, since Lauren was doing hers there, so the rest of the world was wide open.  I’d been to India a couple of years before, and had enough of a cursory knowledge of Hinduism to know that there was an endless supply of stories to draw from, so I set my focus there.  But unlike a lot of FABLES source material, Hinduism is a religion that’s very much alive today, and I wasn’t comfortable playing around with it willy-nilly.

I reached out to Dean Varun Soni at the University of Southern California (my alma mater) for his input, and (as a practicing Hindu), he walked me through what would be appropriate and what wouldn’t be, which really freed me up creatively.  With that in mind, I dove into reading the epics, looking for characters who would be a good foil for Charming, and revisited Kipling’s stories, which play a huge part too, like Tabaqui, and the Village of the Dead.

Steve: Your lead character, Nalayani, comes from the stories of Hinduism. What about her made her click as a character for you – what drives the original version of her, and what drives your take on the character?

Sean: In her original story, which is told in the MAHABHARATA, she’s described as “one of the five ideal women,” so that checked the “fairest” box off the list.  And what you have to remember is that there is no definitive version of these epics of Hinduism – who the good guy is in the RAMAYANA varies if you’re in the north or the south of India.  So I read a couple of versions of her story, which all centered on how she was married to this leprous sage Maudgalya, and treated him well and tolerated him for years, and he revealed himself to be this paragon and they travelled the world for the rest of their lives enjoying “the five pleasures” (which also checked a box off the list, since it was Charming she’d be partnered up with).

But she was insatiable, and as punishment for her lust, a later incarnation of her has to marry five men.  So the original story is basically “put up with your husband and you’ll be rewarded, but don’t be insatiable or you’ll be punished,” which isn’t exactly the story I wanted to tell, or thought that readers would enjoy.  There’s some of that original story in the arc, – Maudgalya has a cameo, and the leprosy in particular plays a role – but I really dwelled on the idea of “where are the gods?” in the Indu, the Indian Homeland.

Well, of course the Indu was invaded by the Adversary, so that had some effect on the world, as we see, and I realized the gods were gone: this was an alternate universe from the Hinduism people know and practice, and that Nalayani and Maudgalya never married, which changed her whole story completely.  She’s still a caregiver, though, so her whole focus in this arc is saving her village, which has been likewise devastated by the Adversary and all the fallout from the collapse of the Empire.

Steve: You got to work with the creative team of Steve Sadowski, Phil Jimenez and Andrew Dalhouse on the book – quite the team. What did they bring to the storyline, and how do you feel now looking back at the story as a whole?

Sean: As soon as I as saw the first pages Steve and Phil handed in, I knew we needed more animals and more wide shots.  Steve’s animals KILL me, they’re so gorgeous.  There’s a bit I wrote in the third issue that was supposed to be a throwaway beat, but Steve made the animal so alive that it became a crucial moment in the issue for me.  Mugger Ghat (the giant crocodile, from THE JUNGLE BOOK) has a much bigger part because of these guys.

There are several monsters from Hinduism throughout the book that I basically transcribed their descriptions, having NO idea how something like that would look, but Steve blew them all out of the water, and made them believable to boot.  He’s a genius.  And all the textures and tone that Andrew brought to the clothing and the scenery…it’s a gorgeous book.  We were really blessed to have these guys on board.

And, if I can add this, the fact that Todd Klein made a typeface based on Devanagari, the written form of Hindi, just for this arc still blows my mind to this day.

Shelly and Gregory Lockard were amazing editors to work with.  Their instincts were spot on, of course, and they never talked down to me, even though this was my first published comic work (although Shelly did gently chide me at our first lunch when I made the rookie mistake of calling word balloons “word bubbles”).  It’s just been humbling to work with the entire team, and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.  Hopefully the readers feel the same way!

-

Many thanks to Sean for his time! The third arc of Fairest, The Return of the Maharaja’, will be published by Vertigo next week. You can also find Sean online at his website here, and on twitter. 

So, I think the last two volumes of Fables really work together, as they have overlapping timelines for the main story, so I'm going to review them together.

Fables, Vol. 18: Cubs in Toyland Bill Willingham

Fables Vol. 19: Snow White Bill Willingham

Cubs in Toyland starts in the with main story right away. Therese has a toy boat that takes her to be the Queen of Toyland, but Toyland is a dark, twisted place. It's the island of Misfit toys-- toys that were all involved in the death of a child. They have hopes for a Queen that will restore them, but there is no food to sustain Therese. Meanwhile, Snow, Bigby, and Therese's brothers and sisters are frantically searching for her. One will find her, with devastating consequences.

It then moves onto some back story on Bigby Wolf, and destiny.

The first third of Snow White takes place in Oz, wrapping up the storyline of Bufkin. It's a good end to the story, and it was dragging a bit there and needed to be wrapped up, but I will miss him greatly in the lost business office of the Fabletown.

The last part of the book is where the "Snow White" title of the Omnibus comes from and covers the same amount of time, showing what's happening in New York when Therese goes missing. Now, here's a very cool thing-- the magical car that we got out the end of Fairest: Wide Awake has appeared-- so Bigby and Stinky are off through worlds, tracking the missing cubs. Meanwhile, the fencing instructor from Castle Dark? The one that Mrs. Spratt/Leigh was into? Turns out, he's Snow White's fiance, pre-Prince Charming days and he's come to claim her. Snow's having none of it, but he has some powerful magic working there. This, too, has devastating consequences.


So, I wanted to look at these together, partly because I'm super-behind on reviewing, but this time it works out, because these volumes play out so well. The main storyline in each volumes actually ends with more-or-less the same panel. (The "camera angle" is a bit different, but the scene, and dialogue, are the same.) Both storylines are heartbreaking and they both bring back some of the magic that's been lacking a bit. I wasn't a huge fan of the whole Mr. Dark storyline (I just don't think it every really got going or had the same gravitas as the Empire in terms of the Big Bad.) I think this hits at a much deeper, more emotional level in a way I think is a first for the series.

I read Cubs in Toyland a full year ago, and Toyland is so creepy, it still gives me the heebie-jeebies. I love the way the storylines play on each other-- ending Snow White with that same panel is the ultimate gut punch in a gut punch of a book. I don't know if this series has every really made me cry, but both of these did.

Also, let's give a shout-out for Ambrose Wolf. He's obviously the "loser" or the pack, but adult Ambrose plays a large narrator role in these stories, and it's great to see a glimpse of who he's going to grow into. Maybe not a hero, but a pretty great stand-up scholarly guy (with a wife I have suspicions about. Check out the color of her skin--is it because it's nighttime and it's shadow? Or is she actually green, and quite probably the Lady of the Lake?)

And, I love that the Fairest series is weaving in a bit right now. In general, I like that Fairest is about stuff outside of Fabletown, but it's weaving in in small, interesting ways. I'm intrigued.

Anyway, this whole set is super powerful and moving and I need to TALK ABOUT IT. Hit me up if you want to discuss.

Question-- the cover artwork for Snow White looks a lot like it was probably an alternate possibility for the cover artwork for the new edition of Legends in Exile (aka, Fables #1). What is the symbolism there?

Also, I had forgotten about the end story in Cubs of Toyland until I started working on this review. I have some hope about things now. If you haven't read them yet, it's very relevant to what happens in Snow White. I think. I hope.



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by Matt O’Keefe

It was a packed room at the show’s official panel for the comic for which the convention was named. Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Shelly Bond and company began the event giving out prizes to winners of the con scavenger hunt. The grand prize winners, a couple and their baby daughter, received first a song from Gene Ha, who sang “Blue Skies” to loud applause.  Willingham then blindfolded the mother and challenged her to identify several objects by feel alone. Whatever she identified, she got to keep. She wasn’t able to guess the first item, the pen with which Willingham wrote Fables #47, or the second, the dollar editor Shelly Bond told Willingham his first draft of Fables #97 was worth. She successfully guessed the third object: an engagement ring. The father proposed in front of everyone and she accepted, to more applause.

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Next it was time for announcements. Willingham repeated the announcement from Emerald City Comic Con that Vertigo would publish a Fables Encyclopedia written by Jess Nevins with a cover by Adam Hughes. He went on to tell the crowd that they were working on a companion book for a 2014 release, which would have interviews with the Fables creators and background on the series.

Fables editor Shelly Bond then talked about the upcoming Fairest original graphic novel also announced at ECCC which, like the 1001 Nights of Snowfall OGN, will be an anthology with art by a variety of artists. She revealed that Fables regular Chrissie Zullo would provide the framing sequence and that other illustrators included Mark Chiarello, Karl Kerschl, Adam Hughes, Phil Noto, Renae de Liz, Chris Sprouse, and sometimes singer Gene Ha.

Bond went through a PowerPoint presentation to talk about issues of Fables coming up in the next few months. She highlighted three future covers. The first teased the return of Boy Blue, the second showed Snow White kissing someone other than her husband Bigby Wolf, and the third showed Snow as Joan of Arc. She talked about the issue after the “Snow White” arc, which will be illustrated by Barry Kitson. In the issue Junebug, the daughter of former wooden soldiers Rodney and June, would visit the abandoned Fabletown.

Willingham opened the floor to a Q&A.

Asked about his unique borders for the series, Buckingham talked about how in the third arc of Fables, once he knew that he was the ongoing artist, he began to get playful and designed the borders so readers would know which character’s stories they were reading.

Plans to bring back Jack? Willingham pointed out that his death in Jack of Fables happened at some undisclosed time in the future, so his return to the main Fables series was a possibility.

An attendee asked the panel which character from Fables they most identified with. Gene Ha said Flycatcher because he was someone who didn’t reach his full potential until later in his life. Willingham joked that he was like Bufkin because he drinks too often and has too many books. Bond chose Thumbelina so she could beat Willingham to the punch on a joke about her height. Buckingham said he was like Wellstoff because when drawing he tends to sit around all day eating jellybeans.

Does Bill Willingham always have a big picture in mind when writing? Yes. Willingham said he could do a three page comic and still conceive the whole world in which the story takes place. His default setting is to think big.

Would Bufkin’s solo adventure be in the next Fables trade paperback? Yes.

Asked about spontaneous changes, Willingham told the audience that he was going to kill off Flycatcher in the March of the Wooden Soldiers arc, but Buckingham convinced him to reconsider. Flycatcher went on to become a significant character in the series.

TweetShould that have been a semicolon instead of a comma in the title? Oh boy, the things I worry about when writing up Mike Carey news. Today! Vertigo have announced a bathful of new books, with an encyclopedia and anthology for Bill Willingham’s Fables coming later this year, followed by a full original graphic novel from the creative [...]

Fairest, Vol. 1: Wide Awake Bill Willingham

A new spin-off series, this one focusing on the princesses. The main story arc picks up with a character who's been asleep for many, many issues.

Part of Fabletown's plan during the final showdown with the Adversary was putting the Imperial City of sleep with an ancient curse. All Sleeping Beauty had to do was prick her finger and the entire city would fall asleep until she was awoken with true love's kiss.

Enter a Bottle Imp with a master plan, a master thief (Ali Baba), a newly awoken Princess, and a newly awoken Snow Queen. The Snow Queen likes stories, and the Bottle Imp has one-- Sleeping Beauty's.

Y'all know how much I looooooooooove back story. And so much back story! I love how this one ties Sleeping Beauty's backstory with her newly awoken life. I love the mix of the Snow Queen with Ali Baba and the Bottle Imp. I love the look at what true love can mean in different circumstances--it's not always the fairy tale ending we wish for. And oooooo.... all the fairies! A great addition.

I also just really love what Willingham has done with princesses in general in this universe. Snow White is the tough as nails administrator who tamed the Big Bad Wolf. Beauty can't quite fill her shoes, but is no slouch. Cinderella seems all beauty and nice, but is a kick ass spy. Ozma looks like a child, but was able to step into Frau Tottenkinder's roles. So far, Sleeping Beauty has fallen asleep (but was willing to do so when strategically necessary). This one fleshes her out a little more.

And then, something that looks like a fun 50s comic noir, but turns into a SHOCKING revelation about one of our princesses.

I am looking forward to see where this series goes-- it's gotten off to a wonderful start.

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Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland Bill Willingham

Bigby is looking for a new place for Fabletown, someplace away from too many Mundys. On a tip from King Cole, he checks out Story City, Iowa, a place where Blue Beard had many investments. As he gets closer, he smells something in the wind that he recognizes, but can't place, which is troubling, but not as troubling as what he's about to discover.

Werewolves. Werewolves that are built from a Nazi experiment and faces from Bigby's time in WWII.

Ugh. Guys. I ordered this book over two years ago, as the release date kept getting pushed back. I had HUGE hopes for a hardcover one-off special story, all about Bigby.Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall is the only other hardcover one-off, and probably my favorite book in the entire Fables world. I was hoping for something of that caliber.

Sigh, it was not to be. The art is very pale and washed-out and that reflects the story, too. The political situation is not fleshed out enough, nor is the culture of Story City. There's lots of shape-shifting (werewolves!) so lots of nudity. To the point where it gets excessive. Overall, I just wanted so much more from this, and it failed to deliver. Maybe if it had been part of the regular arc, an omnibus of a 5-issue story arc with some other issues thrown in, it would be "not my favorite" in the series, but as a separate thing, it was disappointing, especially with all the build-up to it.

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I always wanted to like this series so much more than I did. It just never clicked and I kept reading out of loyalty. I did like the Page sisters and the crossover battle and the metafiction, but... that was just a part of the overall series. Jack never met an adversary like the Fabletown authority and it just never worked as well.

Luckily (?) it's done. And I have to say, I do really like the way it ended.

Jack of Fables Vol. 8: The Fulminate Blade Bill Willingham

At the end of Book 7, Jack had turned into a dragon and Jack Frost was still off being a hero. This book has no Jack, and it's all Jack Frost being a hero in a weird space/sci fi world. With your Babe the Blue Ox episodes (which I've never appreciated.) Anyway, I'm not entirely sure what this volume has to do with anything. I can't explain it into the larger plot besides pure filler.

That said, it is really fun and I do like Jack Frost, so I'm not complaining too hard about it.

Jack of Fables Vol. 9: The End Bill Willingham

Ok first off, I'm not entirely sure what's up with this book cover from Amazon, because that's not what I have.

ANYWAY! It's the last one! We have a dragon in the US! And a newly minted hero! Heroes slay dragons! But this hero doesn't know that the dragon is really his father!

BUM BUM BUM.

And that's all I'm going to say, because, well, SPOILERS.

BUT! I did like this one. I think it's a pretty strong ending to the series and one that I really like. It's fitting for all the characters (especially Jack of Fables) and it's fitting for the Fables universe in general. As much as I struggled with this series, I did not struggle with how it ends.


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It's Fables week! I am horribly behind on reviewing this series. There are several spin-offs in this sprawling universe, so we can cover a different aspect every day this week. We're starting with Fables proper, and I have four omnibus editions to look at, so let's get started.

Fables Vol. 14: Witches Bill Willingham

Fabletown is destroyed by Mr. Dark. Some are trapped in the business office, but most have evacuated to the farm. The first issue focuses on Mr. Dark and a bit of his backstory. The main story arc involves the witches trying to find a way to defeat Mr. Dark. We get into the witches politics and there's a lot of Frau Tottenkinder, which is always WONDERFUL. Ozma and Buffkin also play a big role, setting up the rising role of Oz coming up. (It's kinda fun reviewing these books so late, because I've read other books in this series and other spin-off series, I can see the set up and how odd things come into play later... Willingham is a master at the slow, twisty plot that eventually all ties together.

The end is a story in about a baseball game in Haven. We get some of Fly's personal life and the tough choices of justice that a leader has to make. I love Fly so much. So very, very much.

Fables Vol. 15: Rose Red Bill Willingham

Things are getting complicated. More Dunstan and Bellflower. Promises between the Beast and the Blue Fairy that's going to cause MAJOR drama in the future (not that we've seen yet, but it's going to come 'round.) But the main focus is Rose Red. She's spent the past few issues in bed, depressed and guilty and unable to lead when the farm and the community needs her most. We get A LOT of backstory on Rose and Snow. I love backstory. There's a throwaway about a world in a teacup on the back of a turtle-- remember this.

There's so epic battling. I really like how this battle ends. A lot of little stories, a new enemy made AND! some fun bits at the end-- fan questions, a prose story, a game... lots of fun little bits for fans (because let's face it, if you've made it this far, you're a fan.)

Fables Vol. 16: Super Team Bill Willingham

This is pretty light-hearted compared to the last volume. Pinochio thinks he has the answer, found in the comic books he loves so much. Too bad he's more into the costumes and names than an actual plan...

But, the Dark storyline wraps up, but how it ends opens up a new can of worms, and we're brought back the heart of the Empire, to wrap up some sleeping ends that were left there in the war. And here's something that happens in the master plotting-- one of these storylines picks up in the next issue of Fables. The other picks up in the new series, Fairest, which I'll review in a few days.

Fables, Vol. 17: Inherit the Wind Bill Willingham

BACK TO OZ! Buffkin leads a band of rebels, but not too well. Shocking ending that has me waiting at the edge of my seat for Fables Vol. 18: Cubs in Toyland (comes out at the end of January.)

This big storyline is that one of the cubs has to be chosen as a successor for the North Wind. Bigby and Snow aren't happy about this, and either are the other cardinal winds who want to chose the successor--one they can control.

Christmas opens up a whole host of other issues and questions. One leads directly to Cubs in Toyland, one opens up new questions about Rose Red's new role, and I'm just waiting to see what happens with Nurse Spratt. That's something that's been simmering for a long time and I can't wait for that to explode.

Remember that turtle and teacup? We get a whole issue about that.

There's a backstory story about a magician in the Empire, back when the Empire still ruled the home worlds. He ends up dead on the farm, which seems odd, until you realize that the discovery of his body is the first scene in Cinderella: Fables Are Forever, which I'll review later this week.

Stay tuned for more of the Fables universe!

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by Gabriel Neeb

The 2012 Convention is winding up and news about who will attend next year is starting to emerge.

At the Fables panel in Room 6DE, Fables creator Bill Willingham announced that he would not be attending the 2013 convention. This was not unexpected given a convention dedicated to Fables will take place in (snowy) Rochester, Minnesota from 22 to 24 March 2013. As the majority of the panel was a celebration of the series’s 10th Anniversary, the atmosphere of the panel, panelists, and attendees was receptive and tranquil. So when Willingham announced that he would not attend in 2013, it came as a mild shock to the audience.

However, for those who follow Willingham on Twitter he revealed an incident which occurred around 4:30 pm where:

Some ridiculous bodyguard of some pissant little minor TV personality, I couldn’t recognize, just threw a hand in my chest, to clear the…
…path for his pissant little celebrity, who’s actually been on TV once. Dear pissant little wannabe celebrity, next time come heavy. 

Later, Willingham was able to identify the “pissant little minor TV personality” as:
Okay, I found out the diminutive celebrity who needed the pushy bodyguard in order to feel adequate was some lost soul named Paul Scheer.

(I know, I’ve never heard of him either. Why did he need a bodyguard?)

Whether this incident was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” is unknown, but it seems reflective of some feelings of many long time attendees, that Comic Con has changed, and not necessarily for the better.

Paul Scheer has claimed on his Twitter feed, that he had no personal security and that:

Been wracking my brain. It might have been the SDCC security who we were forced to have. He was a dick. Not affiliated.

However intended, such a statement is a long way from any sort of reconciliation or apology. It is also a failure to acknowledge that whatever action that occurred against Willingham, was done on the behalf of Mr. Scheer.

Also unknown: will there be a Fables panel in 2013 at SDCC.

Bill Willingham, creator of the long-running Vertigo series Fables and it’s spin-off Fairest, has started teasing at some kind of big announcement or two which’ll be made on Twitter over the next few days. Specifically, he’s set up a twitter account called FablesCon, which seems to suggest a Fables-centric convention happening in March next year.

Checking to see who the FablesCon Twitter account follows, you can find writer Sean E. Williams and artist Phil Jimenez in attendence, along with power couple Adam Hughes and Allison Sohn. So already, it looks like a few big names have already agreed to attend.

This would be the next step onwards from recent events like Image Con and MorrisonCon; the former of which was a great success for the independent publisher; and the latter of which still has a terrifyingly large grinning Grant Morrison on the front page of the website. Fables has quite a strong fanbase – a fanbase of Vertigo proportions, but much more vocal than most – so it could be quite a popular event, especially with the guest-list Willingham seems to be preparing. A number of writers and artists have contributed to Fables over the years, so he has a range of creators he could invite. Maybe even James Jean! Swoon!

It looks at the moment like FablesCon will take place in late March 2013, which gives you all plenty of time to sew together that Reynard the Fox costume you’ve always wanted.