Fables

Yesterday was a good day, a rare Saturday off, and a day I spent catching up on comics.

I get way too many comics and many of them end up stuffed in boxes unread. Yesterday, I was determined to make some progress in correcting that.

I started with Fables, the most entertaining and consistent book Vertigo is currently putting out.

Vertigo is the adult imprint of DC comics. Adult, in this instance, means mature subject and language. Originally a horror/fantasy line, Vertigo was founded with titles like Swamp Thing and Hellblazer. But it was a comic called Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman that brought the most success and attention to the imprint.

Sandman ended several years ago, although it remains in print, and various new iterations and spinoffs pop up every year.

The parameters of Vertigo have changed. Horror and fantasy remain the foundation of the line, but other genres like war, crime and western have flourished, and the variety is welcome.

Fables fall smack in the fantasy corner. It’s a simple idea, and one that’s used brilliantly.


All the characters from fairy tales and folklore are real, and many of them have escaped from their homelands because of the invasion forces of The Adversary. Centuries ago these refugees established a home in New York. It’s called Fabletown, a neighborhood where the human-looking characters live. Those Fables who aren’t humanoid, the talking animals, for instance, live upstate at a place called The Farm. The number one rule in Fabletown is to hide their true nature from us, the Mundanes or Mundys.

Nearly every character is someone you’ve heard of. Snow White, Old King Cole, Sinbad, Prince Charming, the Big Bad Wolf, Little Boy Blue, Jack (of Beanstalk fame), Cinderella, Pinocchio. Some are now law officers. Some are politicians. Others are criminals or spies or saboteurs.

As I said, it’s a simple idea, but a foundation that hundreds of stories can be hung upon. The latest issue is #54. The series has also been collected in several trade paperbacks and there have been some stand-alone graphic novels including the recent hardcover 1001 Nights of Snowfall.

There is also a spinoff series, Jack of Fables, which is up to issue #4.



Bill Willingham writes Fables and the art is by a variety of names, though Mark Buckingham does the lion’s share of the pencil lifting.

The characters in Fables are written as real people with all the hopes and jealousies and dreams and pettiness of us Mundys.

It’s a great ongoing work, one that should be viewed as a classic in the making.