I reviewed most of this series at the late lamented Epinions, although for some reason I never reviewed the first three trade paper backs. Maybe this is why.
Imagine all your favorite (and not-so-favorite) characters from fairy tales, folk tales, and children's literature living in Manhattan right now. (Except for the not-so-human characters, who are living on an extensive farm/estate in upstate New York.) Refugees from their own scattered kingdoms and realms, all conquered by a creature known as the "Adversary," they live in a particular section of town, which they have named "Fabletown." They have their own government and spend a fair amount of effort keeping the "mundys" unaware of their existence. King Cole is the Mayor of Fabletown, and Snow White is his deputy, who manages the day-to-day affairs of the Fables -- the real power behind the throne, so to speak. The Big Bad Wolf, now known as Bigby, is the sheriff. (He has taken on human form for the past few hundred years.)
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The first half of this volume, "Legends in Exile," fills in the background a bit and gives us the first adventure: Jack (of Beanstalk fame) comes huffing into Bigby's office to report a terrible crime: He has been keeping company with Rose Red, Snow's estranged sister, and went over to her place only to discover the apartment a blood-spattered shambles. It's Rose's blood, alright, but there's no trace of her at all. Bigby, being a naturally suspicious sort, immediately comes up with a list of suspects, starting with Jack. The list soon expands to include Snow White and Bluebeard -- one of the few who escaped the Homelands with his fortunes intact.
The second installment, "Animal Farm," finds Snow and Rose (no, she wasn't dead, and no one ever really thought she was) on their way to the Farm on Snow's annual visit. They read the farm to find Weyland Smith, the Administrator, AWOL, and the farm being run by the Three Little Pigs. It soon turns out that there's a revolution brewing, led by Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
I had read this volume of the series as background for a ficlet at Green Man Review, but with the backlog I'd built up of material for review, never went back to it until recently. It's worth following, I think: these are fairy tales for adults, and in many respects probably closer to the originals transcribed by the Brothers Grimm and other collectors than the versions eventually published for children. The characterizations aren't what we might expect -- Snow White is a little rigid, not very sympathetic, and more than a little arrogant (and you'd best not mention the Dwarves in her hearing, if you know what's good for you) -- but the cast is highly entertaining, from the Frog Prince, now in human form, who keeps getting sentenced to community service for eating flies in public, to Beauty and the Beast, whose main marital problem is that the glamor that keeps Beast looking human works more or less, depending on how mad at him Beauty is at any given moment. Reynard the Fox, in "Animal Farm," lives up to his reputation as a trickster, and Goldilocks' relationship with Baby Bear is bound to raise a few eyebrows.
The art is a group effort by Lan Medina, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and Craig Hamilton. There's good stylistic consistency throughout, and while layouts tend to hew closely to the standard frame-follows-frame of Western comics, there's a nice openness to the renderings that keeps it from getting monotonous or claustrophobic, even in the crowd scenes.
Collects Fables #1-10.
(Vertigo, 2009)
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The first half of this volume, "Legends in Exile," fills in the background a bit and gives us the first adventure: Jack (of Beanstalk fame) comes huffing into Bigby's office to report a terrible crime: He has been keeping company with Rose Red, Snow's estranged sister, and went over to her place only to discover the apartment a blood-spattered shambles. It's Rose's blood, alright, but there's no trace of her at all. Bigby, being a naturally suspicious sort, immediately comes up with a list of suspects, starting with Jack. The list soon expands to include Snow White and Bluebeard -- one of the few who escaped the Homelands with his fortunes intact.
The second installment, "Animal Farm," finds Snow and Rose (no, she wasn't dead, and no one ever really thought she was) on their way to the Farm on Snow's annual visit. They read the farm to find Weyland Smith, the Administrator, AWOL, and the farm being run by the Three Little Pigs. It soon turns out that there's a revolution brewing, led by Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
I had read this volume of the series as background for a ficlet at Green Man Review, but with the backlog I'd built up of material for review, never went back to it until recently. It's worth following, I think: these are fairy tales for adults, and in many respects probably closer to the originals transcribed by the Brothers Grimm and other collectors than the versions eventually published for children. The characterizations aren't what we might expect -- Snow White is a little rigid, not very sympathetic, and more than a little arrogant (and you'd best not mention the Dwarves in her hearing, if you know what's good for you) -- but the cast is highly entertaining, from the Frog Prince, now in human form, who keeps getting sentenced to community service for eating flies in public, to Beauty and the Beast, whose main marital problem is that the glamor that keeps Beast looking human works more or less, depending on how mad at him Beauty is at any given moment. Reynard the Fox, in "Animal Farm," lives up to his reputation as a trickster, and Goldilocks' relationship with Baby Bear is bound to raise a few eyebrows.
The art is a group effort by Lan Medina, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and Craig Hamilton. There's good stylistic consistency throughout, and while layouts tend to hew closely to the standard frame-follows-frame of Western comics, there's a nice openness to the renderings that keeps it from getting monotonous or claustrophobic, even in the crowd scenes.
Collects Fables #1-10.
(Vertigo, 2009)
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