Staff Pick - Fables series, by Bill Willingham

Written by staff blogger Eric Drew

Fans of fairy tales, legends and lore, myth, magic and mayhem will find exactly all these things and more in the on-going comic book series Fables.

First printed in 2002, author/creator Bill Willingham has guided this epic for the last seven years and shows no signs of stopping. In fact, the series is getting even bigger.

The Story: As a tremendous enemy laid siege to the Fable homelands, heroes and villains alike escaped to a place where their 'Adversary's' minions could not reach: our world, the 'Mundy' world. Now, having rebuilt their society over the last 300 years, Fabletown lies cloaked in the heart of New York city.

Snow White runs the Fabletown office with BlueBoy and Buffkin the flying monkey (easier than running a household for seven dwarves). Old King Cole is an ineffectual mayor, and must run against Prince Charming in the next election. The big bad wolf (aka Bigby Wolf) is sheriff, Jack Horner is the local miscreant, and the pirate Bluebeard has bought his position in the community. Non-humanoid Fables live elsewhere on the 'Farm' These include the rebellious three little pigs, Shere Khan and Bagheera, Thumbellina and the Cheshire Cat.

It seems that for as long as a Fable's story is told, the Fable lives forever. The more it is told, the more powerful the Fable.

And since they know about this, it is one of their highest laws not to fool with Mundy storytellers. Which is exactly what Jack Horner did in 2006, when he financed his own trilogy of Jack the Giant-Killer films. This super-charged him, made him a lot of cash, and prompted his expulsion from Fabletown.

Thus began his own irreverent spin-off series: Jack of Fables. On his wanderings, he travelled the American Fablelands with Paul Bunyan and three spunky librarians, cheated Lady Luck and the Belgian mob in Las Vegas, and escaped from / returned to / defended / destroyed the Fable prison Golden Boughs.

He also duct-taped Humpty Dumpty back together again.

In the Spring of 2009, Jack and the Fables reunited against an inconceivable foe in the aptly named mini-arc The Literals. Such characters included the Pathetic Fallacy (aka Gary) and the Genres. The plot? Save reality from being edited.

To close 2009, three new spin-offs loom. Peter And Max is Bill Willingham's first Fable novel, telling the story of the Pied Piper and his big brother, skirting the edges of the core narrative. Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love is a mini-series about Fabletown's best secret agent and shoe seller And recently promised by the scribe himself at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland will focus on the lone Big Bad Wolf as he seeks out a new home for his people.

To date, Fables has won twelve Eisner Awards from both writing and art. It has been optioned by both NBC and ABC for a live-action drama. Even the anthology Fables Covers: Art of James Jean sold out from its limited print run.

You could say its Willingham's golden goose.

Best of the Decade - Eric's Top Ten Graphic Novels for the Oughts

These are not necessarily the best of the best of '00 to '09. I'm sure I've forgotten a tonne and missed even more. And I know for a fact that I am heavily biased towards any character in a cape. Take the following with a grain of salt. In no particular order:

* Mark Millar became my new writer-to-watch when I discovered Wanted (Top Cow Comics, 2003/2004). Forget the movie adaptation; an Earth run by super-villains is both intriguing and violent. Our "hero" is a failure of a man, until he's informed he's the son of the world's greatest killer. Then the bullets fly. But he's also on my watch list because of...

* ...The Civil War mini-series (Marvel Comics, 2006/2007). All super-people are blamed for the tragic deaths of hundreds of civilians. America demands government control: the Super-Human Registration Act. Any Cape that does not publicly register their secret identity is branded a traitor. Teams are torn apart, bizarre allegiances are made. And it all leads up to some of the darkest moments in Marvel history.

* Neil Gaiman, whose works are often more dreamlike than super-heroic, surprised everyone with his re-envisioning of the Marvel universe. Four hundred years early. Marvel 1602 (Marvel Comics, 2003) takes our post-modern Capes and places them in the court of Queen Elizabeth. Beautifully illustrated and curiously plotted, this tale remains true to the characters and yet true to the period.

* Speaking of history, Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (America's Best Comics, 2000 / Top Shelf, 2002) is a mash-up of the best Victorian adventure tales . Like most of Moore's work, the first two volumes are compelling and clever, but quickly turns indulgent and weird. Nonetheless, this series dazzles with its literary references.

* More modern, and for Canadian content, check out Darwyn Cooke's DC: the New Frontier (DC comics, 2004). Two volumes summarize the entire Silver Age of DC comics...15 years in a solid, 50's kitch epic!

* And looking to the future, WE3 (Vertigo, 2004) is Grant Morrison's terrifying take on the future of war. Imagine: An Incredible Journey (Carl Burger, 1961) where the pets are armed with guns and cyber-implants! Bloody and tragic, and sadly not outside the realm of possibility. But then, who wouldn't want a robo-bunny with grenades?

* Fables and Jack of Fables, by Bill Willingham (Vertigo, 2002). See my previous post to know how much I love these series.

Fans of fairy tales, legends and lore, myth, magic and mayhem will find exactly all these things and more in the on-going comic book series Fables....

* Fans of writer/director/producer Joss Whedon received two amazing surprises in the Oughts. With his TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer canceled in its 7th season, the gang re-appeared in Buffy: Season 8 (Dark Horse Comics, 2007). What happens to the world when any girl could be a slayer? What happens when vampires become media darlings? What happens when the military declares war on magic? And also from Joss Whedon...

* ...Astonishing X-Men Series 3 (Marvel comics, 2004). Spanning four volumes, the world's mightiest mutants revel in John Cassaday's wonderful art and Whedon's exceptional writing. The team reforms, new and old villains arise, a dead hero returns and another dies. And Wolverine makes dollies.

* Last on my list (and quite possibly my number 1) is an entirely new series, practically its own brand. Running strong since its inception in 2000, Ultimate Marvel is a re-imagining of key characters, distilled and modernized. Top-rated artists and writers bring classic super-human stories to a new generation by darkening the heroes, sympathizing with the villains, and telling tales avoided in the core Marvel series.

Vertigo Publishing

I've just finished reading Scalped vol. 1, a graphic novel by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera. A prodigal son and sociopath returns to the Lakota reservation of his birth. His life was dark from the beginning, and it is clear he's become a dangerously troubled man with a long, strange past. Currently, he is blackmailed by his employers, loathed and feared by his tribe's criminal underworld, and estranged from anyone who might show him compassion or aid.

Just the kind of drama one expects from Vertigo Publishing.

Superhero comics, including DC's, tend to mix characters, and appeals to a variety of ages. Vertigo was born out of DC's desire for more gritty, mature storytelling, and stories that exist somewhat independently.

The most notable exception to this independence is John Constantine, star of the long running Hellblazer, who became a major mystical player in both the DC and Vertigo universe. His origin lies in Swamp Thing comics, a DC title, but he's appeared in everything with a magic bent.

Speaking of magic tales, Vertigo's long running Sandman by Neil Gaiman built this publisher a solid market niche. The first issue was released in 1989, and over 2 decades later it is still a key series for fantasy fans. Spun off from this 75 issue epic came Mike Carey's Lucifer, with the unlikely protagonist of...well, the devil. Both are far darker and stranger than most titles under DC.

Vertigo is responsible for Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, a politically charged thriller (did you remember the fifth of November?), Brian K. Vaughn's thought-provoking Y: the Last Man, the always ridiculous Doom Patrol (Grant Morrison) and the bizarre cyberpunk Transmetropolitan (Warren Ellis). 100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello is a noir crime series. Preacher, by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, is a no-holds-barred attack on bad religion. Unwritten, by Mike Carey, blurs between coming-of-age, mystery and fantasy genres. And of course my favourite Vertigo titles: Fables and Jack of Fables, by Bill Willingham.

Vertigo publications tend to be heady, heavy works. I recommend their titles to anyone who loves graphic novels but finds the superhero genre too light.