In 2012, the comic series Fables (reviewed here and here) did a 6-issue story arc featuring Cinderella (review here). Likely based on its popularity, and (I'd hazard) the increasing number of female comics readers, the women of Fables are going it alone. Well, mostly alone.
The first story arc of Fairest features Briar Rose, with male hero Ali Baba, a bottle imp, the Snow Queen, and a cool collection of powerful women deities. The initial premise was actually established in issue 107 of the Fables series (in trade 16), but you don't need to read it to make sense of the story. After all, most of us know Briar Rose and her story from tales of childhood. If not, here's you chance to catch up now and get in on the ground floor of what promises to be a great new series.
These are numbers 16 and 17 in the Fables series, so we're far into the plot by this point. I've provided an overview of the premise in my review of trades 14 and 15, so I'd recommend you check it out first (at this link) to get an overview of the series.
Trade sixteen details the efforts of the Fables living in Haven, a temporary escape from enemy Mister Dark, to develop a super team of fighters to battle against evil. Led by the powerful witch Ozma, with advice about Super Hero mythology from Pinocchio, the team begins training for the confrontation, only to have the need cut short by a sacrifice from unexpected corners.The bonus issue in the collection sets up the premise for the first story arc in the new Fairest series--which will focus on the female fables--with the story of Briar Rose. I've recently finished that first trade, so I'll post my review soon.
Trade seventeen focuses on the children of Bigby Wolf and Snow White--the grandchildren of the North Wind. To continue the family tradition of guarding the north, one of the children must be identified as successor, so a series of trials are held to determine which of the young cubs (actually flying children) will prevail. The bonus issue following this story arc involved Beauty, of Beauty and the Beast fame, so I'm guessing that trade two of Fairest will pick the story up as well.
Of all the comics still in process, the Fables series if my favorite, and it's a great one to start off with if you are considering an investigation of modern adult comics.
It's the end of the road for our hero Jack of Fables, the charming bad-boy featured in a 50 issue spin off of Bill Willingham's fantastic Fables series. I did a relatively lengthy write up for a combined posting of trades 5-7, so you can check out some of the back story there to learn what it's all about.
The raucous tales of Jack--and
his son Jack Frost--gallop over these final pages, complete with
favorite characters and a few new ones as well. Fare thee well, Jack.
See you between the pages of your many fairytales.
Inspired by the graphic novel Persepolis and my sister Sarah, I started reading comics approximately five years ago. Mind you, these are not the comics of my childhood years--when I was familiar with Richie Rich, Archie, and Scrooge McDuck--and I've generally kept superheros out of my repertoire. Instead, the comics I read are richly imagined tales written and drawn for adults. And, until you start reading them, you can't imagine how many options there are out there. I read approximately 10-12 series at this point, made manageable by the fact that I stick to trade compilations: 4-8 single issues comprising a single story arc bound in paperback without ads and the other filler of single-issue releases. In recent postings I've shared Jack of Fables and Cinderella with you, both of which are the offspring of the Fables series.
Fables is one of the first comics I read, and it helped to draw me into the world of adult comics. As I've mentioned before, the series tells the tales of common fable and fairytale characters, now living among humans (mundanes) in an enchanted neighborhood in New York City and battling adversaries who want to control them and/or remove magic and imagination from the mundane world. It's wonderful to see childhood characters come to life and be given real personalities, beyond their shallow origins.
One of the premises of the series is that Fables who have agreed to live in Fabletown have signed a compact which forgives their past sins, commits them to leave humans alone, and requires they maintain the anonymity of the community. Thus, the Big Bad Wolf--transformed into a human through the intervention of money and magic--has become Bigby Wolf, and serves as the town's Sheriff at the beginning of the series. Volume 14 focuses on several other characters with shady pasts: the Witches, including Frau Totenkinder (of Hansel and Gretel fame). In this volume, the Fables begin to take on their newest adversary in earnest: The Dark Man, who seeks to destroy the mundane world and thus threatens the Fable environment as well. In order to distance themselves from the Dark Man's evil energy (which has caused problems, such as Bigby and the Beast--usually friends--to lose control, revert to their animal natures, and fight), the human Fables have all moved out to The Farm, where non-human Fables must live in order to avoid detection.
In entry 24, I mentioned by love for a comic series called Fables, in which the characters from familiar childhood fables are physically and eternally (as long as their tales are told) living among mundanes (humans) in New York City. While the 6-story arc of Cinderella was a short diversion, the foray into exploring the character of Jack took on a life--and thus a comic series--all of its own. The two series converged briefly for a battle against the despot of the Fablelands, but, after that short interlude, Jack continued on in his merry (and irresponsible and philandering and silly) way.
It's important to know that, just as Fables' Prince Charming is the same prince in every story he's ever shown up in, so too is every Jack the same boy/man: Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack-be-Nimble, Jack Horner, and many more--all wrapped up into one character. As such, Jack has had many exploits, which he tells with immodest pride and exaggeration. Some of this is warranted, as the number of stories about him, and the frequency with which they are told, make Jack a truly strong and powerful fable. The charm of Jack's stories depend on blatant misogyny and unrelieved self interest, made funny by the sheer idiocy of his claims and an extensive cast of characters that serve as a foil for his bullshit.
Bill Willingham's Fables comic series is one of the first I began when I started my foray into comics and graphic novels. A world in which familiar childhood characters--Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Prince Charming, and the Big Bad Wolf--have escaped the Fableland's evil ruler and live amongst mundanes (mere humans) in an enchanted section of New York City is understandably attractive to a life-long reader and English teacher. Throughout the series, Willingham and a host of writers and artists develop a complex plot involving human and animal fables, war and love, fiction and reality, and good fun. The number of characters is quite extensive, so we learn just a bit of each over the course of the 100-issues-and-counting series. That's why I enjoy out-takes like Cinderella, where a single character is the focus of a 6-issue story arc.
I can't recall exactly when in the series readers learned that Cinderella was more than a shoe-shop owning, globe-trotting divorcée (her Prince Charming, after all, is the same Prince Charming of all the fables). In fact, Cindy is a deep-cover super spy, serving at the behest of Sheriff Bigby Wolf--and later the Beast--in an effort to keep the world safe for (and sometimes from) Fables.
In this six-issue collection, Cindy sets out to track down the evildoer who is introducing magical items into the mundane world--a extreme no-no, as it can draw attention to the Fables. She unwillingly becomes teamed with Arabian Fable Alladin, who has been sent by his people for the same purpose. I love this version of Cindy, who is no hearth-sweeping, downtrodden step-daughter, but rather a sassy, sexy, and sarcastic 007 (Get the book's subtitle now?). Cindy always has a trick or a snide comment up her sleeve, and in two or three places in the story, I guffawed aloud: a genuine GOL versus a plain LOL. This trade will, of course, appeal to fans of the main Fables story line, but it actually stands alone pretty well and may be a good introduction to those interested in checking out the series.
