We've infiltrated your pop-culture lexicon with our movies, our tv shows, our video games, our shaped macaroni and cheese dinners. But there's a much more sinister way we get into your system: Gateway Comics.
Chances are that if you know a nerd, at least once a book has been slid your way with the phrase; "I know it's a comic book but it's pretty decent. You should check it out", following what for all intents and purposes is a paperbacked Trojan Horse.
We know what we're doing. We've spent countless hours pouring through volumes both hardcovered and vast, through issues single and creased with wear. We know the ins and out of the stories and we know which ones to use and tailor to hook you. One of my weapons of choice: Fables.
You know their stories: Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio, Little Red Riding Hood. But what happens after that? After the proverbial "Happily Ever After"? "Happily Ever After" can only last so long, before new challenges arise.
After their Homelands are attacked by a new threat known only as the Adversary, the Fables escape to a new world, the Mundane World. Our world. Now characters like Snow White, Cinderella, and Bigby Wolf live right in a small hamlet of New York City. Only now Snow is single (after catching Prince Charming knocking boots with her sister, Rose Red), Bigby Wolf has put aside his Grandmother eating tendencies and acts as Sheriff, and Jack (of "and the Beanstalk" fame) is a shady shiester always looking for the next shill to cash in on.
The characters all live and interact with each other, and the tales that come out are as varied as the characters living them. Murder mysteries, political unrest, spy tales, romance, war stories, comedy and drama. Fables succeeds in what a lot of books strive to do, in that it delivers and balances a massive cast of characters, but it nevers stumbles along the way during this due to the fact that these are all characters you know all about. Fables has it all, and consistently delivers excellent storytelling on a monthly basis by a creative team that knows what it's doing.
Writer Bill Willingham knows his way around the fantasy genre. He has worked on TSR's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Comico's Elementals series, and most notably his work on expanding the universe of DC/Vertigo's Sandman with titles; The Dreaming, The Sandman Presents: Thessaly Witch For Hire, and The Sandman: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Dreams... But Were Afraid To Ask. Willingham has been working on Fables for over 7 years now with no end in sight, as Willingham has the ability to tap into other folklore and tales from around the world to further expand his cast.
Artist Mark Buckingham transcends the usual fantasy comic book art style and creates likable and noticeably distinct characters. Each and every character has their own particular look and style, leaving no two characters looking the same. Buckingham excels at showing these instantly recognizable characters often at various points throughout their history with no confusion of who you are looking at, which is helpful in a book with such a huge cast.
Rounding out the art team, I would be remiss to not include Fables cover artist James Jean. Jean has an incredible painted style that is can only be described as beautiful, haunting as well as thought provoking. Jean has rightfully won 5 Eisner Awards for his work on the series and marking himself as one of the top painters in the medium today. Jean has worked on every covers for the monthly Fables series from issue 1 all the way through 81. Which is no small task for someone whose main art medium is oil painting (he does digitally paint some pieces at times though). Not only has JJ made Fables leap off of the shelf monthly with his incredible work, he has also contributed to the covers to the trade dress for volumes 1 through 11 of the collected versions, the cover to the 2006 original graphic novel: 1,001 Nights of Snowfall, as well as a story within the OGN as well. I'm not even going to mention the oversized collected volume of all of his Fables covers and concept sketches.
Unfortunately, Jean has left the title with issue #81, and as of issue #83 the ongoing cover artist has been Joao Ruas, who has so far proven to be a worthy sucessor in stepping into such a lauded position.
Fables continues to truck along delivering it's special brand of fantasy-drama, helped by it's spin off book Jack of Fables, which follows the titular Jack of the Fables after he left the main title at #50. Fables has also been supported the previously mentioned 1,001 Nights of Snowfall, which deepened the back stories of some characters while shedding some light on what happened to the Fables before escaping the Homelands to the Mundane World. Willingham also is set to deliver an upcoming prose novel entitled Peter & Max about the Pied Piper of Hamelin, as well as an upcoming comic miniseries starring Cinderella titled From Fabletown With Love.
Fables has proven to be one of my favorite titles, and always finds it's way to the top of my must read pile the weeks it comes out. It also holds the distinction of being one of three titles that I purchase in two formats: single monthly issues and trade paperback.
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