First volume assures my place as a fan

books:

	• Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile Bill Willingham Vertigo, 2002 - 128 pages average customer review:based on 50 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A unique, fun take on fairy tales

Fables: Legends in Exile reprints the first 5 issues of the Vertigo Comics' series, Fables. The concept of the series is well done, original, and interesting. The classic fairy tale figures of legend were driven from their lands by a mysterious creature named "the Adversary". Left with no choice but leave their lands or die, the Fables fled to New York City, living in secret, judging, policing, and governing themselves.

This volume centers around the question, ` Who murdered Rose Red?" The beloved sister of Snow White is violently murdered, her apartment soaked in blood, her body missing. Immediately Snow White, who is now the Deputy Mayor of the Fable community enlists the help of Bigby Wolf, who is now the Sheriff. Together, they sort through a very unusual list of suspects, including Bluebeard, Jack (of Jack and the Beanstalk), and Prince Charming himself.

Personally, I love this volume and Willingham's take on the characters. Happy ever after rarely means just that, everyone has distinct personalities that are more mature and devolved than the original fairy tales had time to discuss, and the characters are flawed. It makes for a brilliantly fun read.

The only word of caution I have is this story has adult language and sexual situations, so keep that in mind when determining appropriateness. But for every adult out there, this is a great, fun graphic to read, with nice art and an original prose story by Willingham " A Wolf in the Fold".

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First volume assures my place as a fan

Reading it once based on word of mouth praise assured my place as a Fables fan. The gist is this: all of the characters from fairy tales - Snow White, Jack (of beanstalk fame), the Big Bad Wolf, the Three Little Pigs, Old King Cole, etc. - are real. Their fairyland realm was invaded, though, and 200 years ago they fled to our world. Set in the modern day, all of these characters live in secret in an apartment building in New York City. The first volume has Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf trying to solve a murder case.

How cool is that?

The first volume is set up with Jack (of the beanstalk) coming to the Big Bad Wolf with a case. It seems Rose Red may have been murdered. So the Big Bad Wolf gets Snow White (who essentially runs the fairy characters' apartment building) to help with the investigation, since Rose Red is her sister.

All it took was the first volume for me to be hooked. It was fun trying to pick out the characters from various fairy tales, the art was strong and the writing very good, and the story was fun to follow. It served well as a standalone trade paperback, while also hinting at bigger things going on in the wide world of fairly tale characters in exile. What's really find are the slight twists on the characters; Prince Charming is a real kick, and one of the three pigs is hilarious. One of the opening scenes features Beauty and the Beast in Snow White's office seeking marital advice, and it's a real kick. It's an 'adult' book, though, which makes it extra fun. I give a hearty thumbs up.

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Who killed Rose Red?

Bill Willingham, Fables: Legends in Exile (Vertigo, 2002)

If you needed any proof that the strength of DC's Vertigo line does not rest solely on Sandman and its offshoots, look no further. Bill Willingham's new graphic novel series Fables kicks off with a hardboiled detective story in the classic vein-- clues everywhere, suspects a-plenty, even the parlor scene at the end. The big difference here (aside from the obvious, that this is a graphic novel, a medium in which Agatha Christie never got round to working) is that the vast majority of the characters (we do see a mundy or two) are fairy-tale characters.

A creature we know of only as The Adversary has taken over the lands previously owned by the various fairy tale characters, and driven out of their homelands, they've ended up sharing a building in New York City (with the more nonhuman of them inhabiting a remote upstate farm; one of the more amusing bits of the tale, which I assume will become a running joke, is that one of the three little pigs escapes the farm and ends up shacked up on the Big Bad Wolf's couch with a bad attitude and a nasty sense of entitlement). The Big Bad Wolf is the sherriff; Snow White is (for all intents and purposes) the director of operations; the whole schlemiel is run by, of course, Old King Cole.

Our story opens with Jack (of the beanstalk fame) bursting into Wolf's office reporting that Snow White's sister Rose Red is missing from her apartment and that there's blood everywhere. Wolf, with Snow White tagging along at his heels, has to investigate, and thus begins your first hundred twenty-eight page journey into the contemporary lives of fairy tale characters. I say your first because I have every confidence that, once you have gotten to know these characters, you'll be going after the second book in the series posthaste. I know I will. *** ½

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Brilliant stuff for a fairy tale buff

For someone who learned to read with a tattered volume of the unexpurgated Grimm's Fairy Tales (in German!), Bill WIllingham's series FABLES (now compiled into a total of six volumes) came as something of a revelation.

Thing is, I'm not really a great fan of comics or 'graphic novels'. They are an acquired taste, I think, and I guess I never had a chance to acquire it. Thus may change now. I still don't think I'm ready for much of the genre/medium, but FABLES is in a different class. The 'graphic' aspect is almost movie-like. The pictures and panels are like story-boards with speech bubbles and story-captions and elucidations-supporting a narrative that's at the same time profoundly affectionate and reverent of its antecedents, as it is quirky, twisted and satirical.

The very first pages with 'Bigby Wolf' had me laughing out loud.

[Sidebar:
For those who don't get it: 'Big B Wolf'... We on the same page now?
For those who did get it without trouble: believe you me, there ARE those who DON'T get it without explanation, and when you explain it, it's like "duh, and so? why are you laughing?"]

I read the whole thing grinning like a demented chicken; then started from the beginning again; then went and ordered the remaining volumes. For someone who doesn't read 'comics' that's saying something.

FABLES has taken fairy tales (all of them, from all periods and places, including our own, modern movie mythologies) into the 21st century, with great affection for their spirit, mix-and-match with abandon and a breezy disrespect for political correctness.

The first volume, LEGENDS IN EXILE, introduces the main characters, and some smaller ones that gain prominence in later volumes, in the context of a detective story that could have been lifted from a Raymond Chandler or Mickey Spillane novel. Bigby, the detective and sheriff, is grim and cool and waiting to explode, but a romantic at heart. Snow White, one of Prince Charming's former wives, is a cynical, edgy deputy mayor who hides her vulnerability behind a tough exterior. There's sex and violence, blood and intrigue, laughs and cries, and characters that, outrageous as they may be, grow on you and won't leave you alone.

It's story-telling at its best. That I found it in a 'comic'... I'm still reeling from the surprise.

Till Noever, owlglass.com, Author: KEAEN, CONTINUITY SLIP, SELADIENNA

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10

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