16
Mar
2010
Fables Vol 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham
I’d been looking forward to beginning the Fables series for some time, and I gotta say, I wasn’t disappointed!
The backstory, which is only hinted at–sort of a need to know basis–throughout volume 1 is extrapolated upon in a short story at the end. An evil emperor has taken over all of the myriad fable lands, forcing all of the fairy tale characters who live there to come to our world.
There has been an amnesty passed, forgiving all fables of their past crimes. In fact, the main character, the Big Bad Wolf, has taken on human form and is now the constable of the fable community.
It is in this capacity that he must track down the killer of Rose Red, the sister of his frenemy, Snow White, who is second-in-command to King Cole, the head of fabletown.
While the story of the murder investigation was interesting, it was the details that really made this work for me.
Those details are two-fold. The first is regarding the illustrations. About halfway or so through the book, there is a full two-page spread of fables fleeing the invasion. The only words on the page are a small box of text in the upper left hand corner, which reads “It took an invasion to unite us”. Fairies, goblins, geese, Robin Hood & Maid Marian, dwarves, etc., are running, flying for their lives. But the detail that I loved so well is in the bottom lefthand corner. There’s a small, green, naked, sorta ugly nymph-like creature who is running, carrying her baby. It really brought these fables as characters to life for me. That right there was the first moment I truly fell in love with this story.
And then I turned the page, and bam, I fell in love all over again.
In a series of boxes across the next two pages, it recalls the fables’ reactions to the beginning of the invasion. Here’s the narrative of a few of those boxes:
“When the Emerald Kingdom fell we tisk-tisked and tut-tutted in our homes…sad for the fates of those unfortunate souls, but we weren’t tempted to intervene. After all, they were always odd folks, and ever so far away. It wasn’t our business. Then the Kingdom of the Great Lion feel, and again we did nothing, because we always found the old lion to be a bit too pompous and holier -than-thou for our tastes.”
OMG, I started cracking up at the Aslan is holier-than-thou bit. It was that mix, the sort of graveyard literary humor, that really sucked me in.
Truly this is one for lit lovers, as well as an allegory of our own world and time.
Buy Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile on Amazon
If you like this book/author, you might like:
(my reviews in blue)
The Unwritten Vol 1 by Mike Carey and Peter Gross
The Sandman Vol 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman
The Sandman Vol 2: The Doll’s House by Neil Gaiman
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Grimm Fairy Tales Vol. 1 by Ralph Tedesco
Manga Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare and Kate Brown
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
A Lion Among Men By Gregory Maguire
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by A.N. Roquelaure (AKA Anne Rice)
Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner
Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce
Feminist Fairy Tales by Barbara G Walker
Politically Correct Parables by Robert Martin Walker
Fractured Fairy Tales by AJ Jacobs
Other works by Bill Willingham:
Fables Vol. 2: Animal Farm
Fables Vol. 3: Storybook Love
Fables Vol. 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers
Fables Vol. 5: The Mean Seasons
Fables Vol. 6: Homelands
Fables Vol. 7: Arabian Nights
Fables Vol. 8: Wolves
Fables Vol. 9: Sons of Empire
Fables Vol. 10: The Good Prince
Fables, Vol. 11: War and Pieces
Fables Vol. 12: The Dark Ages
Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover
Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall
Peter & Max: A Fables Novel
Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book One
Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book Two
Jack of Fables Vol. 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape
Jack of Fables Vol. 2: Jack of Hearts
Jack of Fables, Vol. 3: The Bad Prince
Jack of Fables Vol. 4: Americana
Jack of Fables Vol. 5: Turning Pages
Jack of Fables Vol. 6: The Big Book of War
Jack of Fables Vol. 7: The New Adventures of Jack and Jack
Day of Vengeance (Countdown to Infinite Crisis)
House of Mystery Vol. 1: Room and Boredom
Sandman Presents, The: Thessaly – Witch for Hire
Sandman Presents, The: Taller Tales
Ironwood Book 2
Shadowpact Vol. 1: The Pentacle Plot
Robin/Batgirl: Fresh Blood
Robin: Unmasked!
Proposition Player
This reading awesome comics thing you’ve been doing? I love it
Hooray for Fables – and it gets even better.
I KNOW!!!! Isn’t Fables AWESOME! I fall in love with it all over again every time I look at it.
Yay, glad you liked it! I’m rereading all the Fables comics now, and things are getting pretty tense in Fabletown. Hope you’re able to get hold of the rest of the volumes!
I’ve heard amazing things about these!! I’ve got to check them out!!