Fables by Bill Willingham
Words cannot adequately express my love for Bill Willingham’s Fables. I have read the eleven available trades, the special edition book of side stories, and four trades of its spin-off, Jack of Fables, and I find myself incredibly depressed to learn that it will be months before I get another volume. In recent years, fairy tales have made a comeback in popular literature. Gregory Maguire has launched a career reworking classic fairy tales, and other authors are following suit. I even took a college course devoted entirely to fairy tales. While I hope that this resurgence in interest in classic children’s stories doesn’t become overdone, I’m loving it while its still fun and Fables is one of the funnest comics I’ve ever read.
Fables presents a world where fairy tale characters live in a specific neighborhood in New York City known as Fabletown. Those characters that can’t pass as human (such as the Three Little Pigs) are forced to live on the Farm, Fabletown’s massive farm in upstate New York. The series stars an ensemble cast that are slowly introduced over the first few trades, as are bits of backstory and history. The Fables have been driven from their Homelands by a mysterious and all-powerful Adversary. The different arcs present the overall goal of all characters, which is to return to the Homelands, and while numerous characters are presented, a few strong leaders present themselves. Snow White is the deputy mayor of Fabletown, the Big Bad Wolf (now Bigby) is sherrif, Prince Charming is seeking to become the new mayor, Boy Blue is the town’s main errand runner, and Snow’s estranged sister Rose Red is the leader of the Farm.
Fairy tales all follow a pretty standard formula. There are only a few characters, with very few actually being given names. There’s the good girl, there is the wicked girl (or stepmother), and a trickster figure somewhere in between. Most male and female fairy tale characters fall into one of these catagories. Something traumatic happens, typically with the nice character being victimized by the bad character, the good character flees “into the woods” where he/she faces tribulations typically by threes, learns to stand up for themselves, and returns to assert their new authority and independence. Fables does not follow this exactly, but similar themes are followed. All of the characters are various shades of grey, neither completely good or bad. Willingham even makes characters that you should hate likeable. Prince Charming is the best example of this. Thrice divorced, shaking up with any woman with money that he can steal, he is a horrible excuse for a human being. But he is still immensely likeable.
One great aspect of Fables is that nearly every arc is presented as a specific type of genre fiction. The first arc is a murder mystery, with the last issue actually being called “The Parlor Scene” where everything is revealed. The second arc is the story of a revolution, a modern retelling of Orwell’s Animal Farm. There are romances, there are intrigue stories, there are war stories. All different story telling methods are employed, but they never seem disconnected from each other. The whole work flows together beautifully. As the story progresses, the rules of how the universe works are shown, and they are reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. The Fables have powers that normal people (we’re known as mundies) believe them to have, and the more widely known the Fable is, the more powerful they are. A character takes a bullet to the head, but because everyone knows her story, she makes a perfect recovery. There is another case where characters die, but someone has to fill their place in the stories. This sort of meta-level examination of literature is fascinating. Jack of Fables, the spin-off series featuring Jack of beanstalk fame, goes even further, developing a race called Literals, personification of literary devices like the pathetic fallacy (giving human emotions to inanimate objects).
I would recommend this to anyone who loves comics, and to those that have never read comics before. Because the characters are those that everyone knows, but in new situations, it is immediately accessible and highly addictive. I recommend this to everyone because anyone who loves to read will find pleasure in thinking about what the characters of their favorite stories are up to after the “Happily Ever After.” There are some minor language, sexual, and violence issues, but nothing horribly offensive. The only problem I have known people to have with the series is having to wait for more. I’ve long said that comics are a deep, dark hole, and amazing series like Fables are the reasons I never want to find my way out. Until next time, folks.
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