Fables (comics)

AUTHOR: Willingham, Bill

ARTIST: Mark Buckingham (penciller); Lan Medina (penciller); Craig Hamilton (inker); Steve Leialoha (inker); Daniel Vozzo (colorist); Todd Klein (letterer); James Jean (cover artist); João Ruas (cover artist)

PUBLISHER: DC Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 2002-

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2002-2011

Publication History

Fables is an ongoing series published by Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics. Author Bill Willingham wrote for such titles as Elementals (1984-1988), Proposition Player (1999-2000), Coventry (1996-1997), The Sandman Presents: The Thessaliad (2002), and The Sandman Presents: Thessaly—Witch for Hire (2004) before pitching the idea for a series in which characters from fairy tales live in modern-day Manhattan disguised as ordinary people.

Having at his disposal a large number of characters from which to draw, Willingham set an elementary rule for the series: He would use only characters that were already in the public domain. Thus, while he originally thought of casting Peter Pan as the villain responsible for driving the Fables into exile, he changed his mind when he discovered that the character, created by J. M. Barrie, was still under copyright in Britain.

Fables began as a monthly series in 2002. Written by Willingham and usually drawn by Mark Buckingham, the comic has won acclaim as an engaging and literary contemporary graphic narrative, inviting comparisons to Neil Gaiman’s groundbreaking series The Sandman for its inventive use of myth and legend.

Plot

Fables concerns the adventures of a group of characters from fairy tales and nursery rhymes who live in modern-day New York disguised as ordinary mortals. The Fables, as they call themselves, have been driven from their magical realms, the Homelands, by armies led by a mysterious enemy known only as the Adversary. Those who can pass for human occupy a city block in Manhattan, which they call “Fabletown,” while the talking animals and enchanted beasts reside on a farm in upstate New York. The Fables must cope with the annoyances and aggravations of modern society, while having to contend with the pitfalls and disputes that are specific to the lives of quasi-immortal magical beings.

The first story arc follows the leading characters as they attempt to solve a crime that threatens to dissolve the fragile community of exiles. Rose Red, the wayward sister of Snow White, is the apparent victim of a murder. However, the Big Bad Wolf, or Bigby, head of security for Fabletown, manages to unravel the mystery at the annual ceremony during which the Fables commemorate their lost homes. The murder turns out to be a hoax, planned by Rose Red and her boyfriend Jack Horner, to enable her to escape her obligation to marry the wealthy Bluebeard, who had provided her with a large dowry as part of their engagement.

The next story line adroitly reworks George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945). Snow White and Rose Red visit the Farm, where the talking animals reside, only to stumble into a conspiracy led by Goldilocks and the three bears to overthrow the rule of the human Fables and then invade the Homelands with modern weapons specially modified for use by animals. After Snow White outmaneuvers the rebels, the community is threatened with exposure to the world of the “mundies,” or ordinary humans. A newspaper columnist confronts Bigby with evidence he has gathered attesting to the Fables’ magical nature, though he mistakenly concludes that they are vampires. Briar Rose’s enchantment, which puts people to sleep whenever she cuts her finger, enables the Fables to ensure that the nosy journalist takes his secret with him to the grave.

Meanwhile, Goldilocks joins forces with Bluebeard. She wishes to kill Snow White, while Bluebeard seeks vengeance against Bigby, who has humiliated him on repeated occasions. Bluebeard casts a spell on the pair, sending them to the Pacific Northwest so that Goldilocks can murder them in a remote location. Snow White and Bigby manage to escape with their lives, while, back in Fabletown, Prince Charming kills Bluebeard in a duel. However, a shadow is cast over their triumphant return when Snow White learns that she is pregnant, having slept with Bigby while both were under the enchantment.

The mysterious Adversary at last moves against the refugees by sending the witch Baba Yaga, disguised as Red Riding Hood, and an elite force of wooden soldiers to attack Fabletown. The wooden soldiers demand that Pinocchio, their eldest brother, be turned over to them. In the ensuing battle, many of the Fables are killed, and Pinocchio is accidentally beheaded, which causes his body to revert to wood. Bigby eventually overwhelms the wooden soldiers with his powerful lungs, while Frau Totenkinder, the Black Forest Witch, bests Baba Yaga in single combat.

Though he is the savior of Fabletown, Bigby leaves the community after the birth of his children. The infants born to Snow White can fly, and most have fur and lupine features. Because they cannot live in Fabletown without attracting the attention of the mundies, Snow White is forced to raise her children at the Farm, which Bigby is not allowed to enter because of the great number of creatures he killed back in the Homelands. Prince Charming, newly elected mayor of Fabletown, sends Boy Blue on a secret mission to the Homelands. Boy Blue reaches the capital of the Empire, where he succeeds in beheading the fearsome emperor but is taken prisoner. He awakens in Geppetto’s studio to discover that the emperor is really a wooden puppet.

The Adversary turns out to be the humble wood-carver himself, whose imperial ambitions began as a modest attempt at restoring political stability. Leaving behind Pinocchio, whom Geppetto restores to life, Boy Blue escapes to Fabletown accompanied by the real Red Riding Hood. Fabletown soon welcomes the arrival of Sinbad and his attendants from the land of the Arabian Fables, the latest realm to be invaded by the Empire. Fabletown and the Empire draw up plans to attack each other, a process that intensifies after Bigby destroys the enchanted forest that provides the material for Geppetto’s elite soldiers. Ambrose, the Frog Prince, becomes a mighty king and deprives the Empire of many of its best troops. Before the Empire can set in motion its own plans, Fabletown launches a surprise attack. The exiled Fables win a great victory, shattering the Empire and bringing Geppetto back to Fabletown in chains, but Prince Charming and Boy Blue perish as a result of the combat.

The ensuing power vacuum in the Homelands results in the release of the insidious Mister Dark, who had been imprisoned by the sorcerers of the Empire. Angered by the Fables’ use of his magical devices, he destroys the buildings in Fabletown and forces the Fables to take refuge at the Farm. Frau Totenkinder challenges Mister Dark but proves unable to defeat him. The Fables depart for Haven, the kingdom of the Frog Prince, having resolved to return to the mundane world and fight Mister Dark after devising a suitable plan.

Volumes

•Fables: Legends in Exile (2002). Collects issues 1-5. Rose Red appears to be the victim of a murder, and Bigby sets out to solve the mystery.

•Fables: Animal Farm (2003). Collects issues 6-10. The talking animals tire of being confined at the Farm and, led by Goldilocks, rise up in revolt.

•Fables: Storybook Love (2004). Collects issues 11-18. The first issue recounts Jack Horner’s adventures in the U.S. Civil War. Then, the Fables thwart an attempt by a journalist to expose them, and Snow White and Bigby evade the plot against their lives.

•Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers (2004). Collects issues 19-21 and 23-27. At terrible cost, the Fables repulse the assault by a unit of wooden soldiers from the Empire.

•Fables: The Mean Seasons (2005). Collects issues 22 and 28-33. Prince Charming is elected mayor of Fabletown, while Snow White gives birth to seven children, most of whom do not look human.

•Fables: Homelands (2005). Collects issues 34-41. With the aid of a magical cloak, Boy Blue returns to the Homelands.

•Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days) (2006). Collects issues 42-47. Fabletown attempts to form an alliance with the Arabian Fables, whose lands are the latest to be invaded by the Empire.

•Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (2006). Stand-alone prequel to the series. Snow White tells the stories of various Fables in the Homelands to the Sultan of the Arabian Fables.

•Fables: Wolves (2006). Collects issues 48-51. Bigby destroys Geppetto’s enchanted forest and then marries Snow White.

•Fables: Sons of Empire (2007). Collects issues 52-59. Geppetto and his advisers debate how best to deal with the renegades of Fabletown.

•Fables: The Good Prince (2008). Collects issues 60-69. Flycatcher becomes Prince Ambrose and leads a group of deceased Fables to found a new kingdom.

•Fables: War and Pieces (2008). Collects issues 70-75. The Fables attack the Empire.

•Fables: The Dark Ages (2009). Collects issues 76-82. Boy Blue dies of his wounds after Mister Dark is released from his imprisonment by an unfortunate pair of adventurers.

•Fables: The Great Fables Crossover (2010). Collects issues 83-85; Jack of Fables, issues 33-35; and The Literals, issues 1-3. The Fables join forces with the Literals to prevent their creator from erasing their existence.

•Fables: Witches (2010). Collects issues 86-93. A power struggle breaks out among the Fables after they are driven from Fabletown by Mister Dark.

•Fables: Rose Red (2011). Collects issues 93-100. Snow White and Rose Red’s childhood is explored, and Frau Totenkinder and Mister Dark fight a duel.

Characters

•Snow White is the deputy mayor of Fabletown at the beginning of the series. Having experienced a series of betrayals by those closest to her, including her sister and husband, she throws herself into the often thankless work of running the exile community as its de facto leader. She is portrayed as hard-nosed and resourceful in her dealings, though also quick-tempered and snappish. She becomes pregnant by Bigby while both are under the influence of a spell, but she refuses his advances even after the birth of their children.

•Bigby, a.k.a. the Big Bad Wolf, is the sheriff of Fabletown until Prince Charming takes office as mayor. He can transform into his original wolf form, although he is usually depicted as looking like a grizzled and unshaven noir detective. Infamous for the atrocities he committed in the Homelands, he now uses his fearsome powers to serve and defend Fabletown. He marries Snow White after he destroys the enchanted forest that provides the Adversary with his wooden soldiers.

•Prince Charming is a thrice-divorced cad who lives off the “mundy” women he seduces. Through a combination of impetuosity and cunning, he seizes Bluebeard’s fortune and then wins election as mayor. He shows his valiant and generous side when he defends Fabletown from attack, leads the war against the Empire, and enables Snow to reunite with Bigby.

•Rose Red is Snow White’s twin sister. Her short red hair contrasts with Snow’s dark hair. A rebellious party girl at the outset, she takes on the responsibility of running the Farm after the animals revolt. A thrill seeker who justifies her caprices as a way to hide her grief from having been abandoned, she later gives way to deep regret and provides leadership for the entire community at a time of grave crisis.

•Jack Horner is a trickster and wheeler-dealer whose unregenerate narcissism serves as a trigger for dramatic escapades with comical reversals. Jack violates the terms of the Fabletown compact by making a series of hit movies based on the various adventures of the Fables, which results in his permanent banishment. The spin-off comic Jack of Fables (2006-2011) details his further misadventures.

•Boy Blue is a worker in the mayor’s office who undertakes a solo mission to explore the Homelands. He is the only surviving witness of the last battle fought by the Fables against the forces of the Adversary. Though endowed with talent, good looks, and affability, he is nevertheless quite unlucky in love.

•Frau Totenkinder, a.k.a. the Black Forest Witch, is best known for trying to kill Hansel and Gretel. Like Bigby, she has reformed her murderous ways, no longer kidnapping and slaying innocent children to reinvigorate her magic. The narrative implies that she instead draws her vast magical power from the practice of abortion in the mundane world.

•Flycatcher, a.k.a. Ambrose the Frog Prince, is tall and lean, with ears that stick out and prominent brow ridges. He has been so traumatized by witnessing the deaths of his wife and children that he believes them to be still alive. The mayor’s office keeps him busy with custodial work so that he will not be overwhelmed by guilt and leave in search of his family.

•Cinderella is the owner of a shoe store, but her insolvent business is a front for her activities as a spy. She poses as a double agent to ferret out a possible traitor, Ichabod Crane. She also helps negotiate the treaty between Fabletown and the Cloud Kingdoms, which provides the Fables with the staging ground for their attack on the Empire, and later rescues Pinocchio from imperial agents when he escapes from the Homelands.

•Pinocchio is a preadolescent boy who has not aged in more than three hundred years. Initially a marginal character, he provides comic relief with petulant wisecracks and frustration over the spell that has made him human but also prevented him from reaching adulthood. He becomes a major focus of the narrative when it is revealed that the Adversary is his father, Geppetto. He later arranges for his father to receive amnesty under the terms of the Fabletown compact.

•Beauty and the Beast are, at the outset, a long-married couple with financial and marital difficulties, but they later rise to take over the positions of deputy mayor and sheriff. The Beast reverts to looking like a monster whenever Beauty is angry with him.

•King Cole is the genial, longtime mayor of Fabletown until his defeat in the first-ever mayoral election. He reassumes his old role after the death of Prince Charming.

•Geppetto is the real power behind the Empire, despite his appearance as a humble wood-carver. The Empire, which spans an immense number of worlds, is administered by a warrior caste made up of wooden soldiers carved from the sacred grove that produced Pinocchio. Taken prisoner after the collapse of the Empire, he resides in Fabletown with his first-born son, under the watchful eyes of the authorities.

•Goldilocks is a zealous would-be revolutionary who seeks to free the talking animals from their oppression. As sanctimonious as she is egotistical, she tries to kill Snow White on two occasions.

Artistic Style

The original artists for the series were penciller Lan Medina and inkers Steve Leialoha and Craig Hamilton. Buckingham, who became the primary penciller for the series, came aboard in December, 2002, with Leialoha continuing as inker. James Jean drew the distinctively ornate covers until issue 81, after which João Ruas took over as cover artist. Guest artists have included Bryan Talbot, P. Craig Russell, Linda Medley, Tony Akins, David Hahn, Shawn McManus, Jim Fern, Aaron Alexovich, Niko Henrichon, Darwyn Cooke, Mark Allred, David Lapham, Inaki Miranda, and Eric Shanower. 1001 Nights of Snowfall featured the art of John Bolton, Tara McPherson, Esao Andrews, and Jill Thompson, among others.

The visuals of Fables well illustrate the clash between the mundane and the magical that characterizes the series’ story lines. Medina’s artwork tends to favor sharp and angular lines in portraying human faces and figures. By contrast, Buckingham’s use of pencils is softer and more straightforwardly expressive, evoking the directness and simplicity of myth. Whereas Medina’s style yields a heightened sense of realism, well suited for depicting a gleaming but shadowy metropolis inhabited by beautiful and privileged people, the more classical look of Buckingham’s drawings harmonizes the fantastic and the commonplace. The enchanted creatures and their human counterparts convincingly appear to inhabit the same reality.

The artwork of Fables shows a striking range of stylistic influences, including the work of the Russian artist Ivan Bilibin, whose illustrations came to typify the look of Russian fairy tales. Medina takes the familiar look given to the characters of Snow White and Cinderella by Disney and then makes them appear more modern and mature. Starting with issue 15, Buckingham begins to experiment with the layouts of the panels and the borders of the page, eliminating them altogether in many instances. Smaller panels appear as insets within a full-page illustration as Snow White and Bigby tried to elude their would-be assassin, Goldilocks, in the dark forests of the Pacific Northwest. The panels concerning the intrigues of Prince Charming are laid out in the pattern of a shield. The leaves on the trees of the forest serve as a border design as Snow White fights Goldilocks, as does the image of a snowflake when she becomes estranged from Bigby after learning that she is pregnant by him. This technique is particularly striking in the volumes Homelands and Sons of Empire, in which the border design signals whether the action is taking place in the lands of legend or in the mundane world.

James Jean’s exquisitely detailed covers, which have garnered numerous Eisner Awards, recall a variety of styles from the late nineteenth century, such as those of the painters associated with Pre-Raphaelitism, including Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones and Lawrence Alma-Tadema; Symbolism, such as Gustave Moreau; and Art Nouveau, which represented a turn away from realism in favor of mythical and fantastic themes. The covers by Ruas are similar in style and in the range of stylistic references.

Themes

Fables concerns a group of characters from legend and folklore who are forced to live in a high-tech modern world. The disparities between these long-lived mythical beings and the mundane world of ordinary humans are often played for humor, especially whenever the Fables resort to magic to solve their problems, but these supernatural characters clash in deeper ways with their adopted home. Their convictions and values provide a stark contrast with the attitudes and beliefs of modern people. Many of the leading Fables are princes who have been forced into poverty by the loss of their lands. Instead of assimilating into the modern world, they tend to cling to aristocratic ways. Furthermore, after quelling the revolt at the Farm, Snow White expresses disdain for the “mundy social philosophy” that favors the rights of criminals over those of law-abiding citizens.

The series explores as a key theme the tension between aristocratic and traditional values that stress duty and obligation and the modern, democratic and secular outlook. In certain cases, the modern ways win out, such as when Fabletown holds its first mayoral election and when the Fables use high-tech weapons to attack the Empire. On the other hand, duty overrules individual desire or psychological comfort, such as when Snow White goes through with an unwanted pregnancy and when Flycatcher is forced out of his stupor to confront the truth about the death of his family. After rousing himself from centuries of avoiding the truth, Flycatcher is able to become the powerful ruler of Haven, the kingdom he founds and defends against repeated assaults from the Empire.

The strength of the series derives to a considerable extent from its portrayal of familiar characters undergoing striking transformations. Indeed, Fabletown itself is founded on a compact that provides amnesty for all offenses that the Fables committed before signing the document. Thus, Bigby and Frau Totenkinder are able to become vital and important members of the community, having received pardons for the innumerable atrocities they perpetrated in the Homelands. Of course, the covenant does not prevent characters such as Bluebeard, Goldilocks, Jack Horner, and Prince Charming from scheming to increase their power or plotting to bring about the downfall of the authorities.

The new beginnings for these fairy-tale characters come at the cost of the fairy-tale endings of their respective stories. “No more happily ever after,” reads the message written in blood in Rose Red’s apartment early in the series. The new lives granted to these familiar and beloved figures are unlike anything from the tales intended for modern children. Marriages come to an end, and new romances flower. Princes and princesses are forced to give up their privileged lifestyles and engage in drudgery and labor. Heroes and heroines, after their triumphs in the Homelands, must make common cause with their enemies and tormenters in order to survive in a new world. That the lives of these characters become even more compelling while remaining faithful to the spirit of the old tales is a testament to Willingham’s extraordinary gifts as a storyteller.

In its frank exploration of mature literary themes, Fables provides arresting and memorable reinterpretations of these fairy tales. The story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is retold as a grim account of sexual slavery and merciless revenge. Frau Totenkinder, recovering from her burns at the hands of Hansel and Gretel, recounts her girlhood as a tribal seer at the end of the Ice Age and the betrayal that led her to sacrifice her own infant son. She embarks thereafter on her lengthy career as a powerful sorceress, helping those who please her and harming those who do not, while stealing children to sacrifice every year to regenerate her magical abilities. The witch is both victim and perpetrator, murderer of children and protector of communities, whose spells save Fabletown on numerous occasions. The complexity of Totenkinder’s characterization is reflected by what she tells Snow White and Rose Red in gratitude for taking care of her: “You deserve to hear my tale. Even the evil parts.”

The Fables are deeply traditional people, clinging to values that seem outmoded and obsolete, yet they are marked by a determination to face the world as it is and not make excuses for their actions or lapses. They may adhere to old-fashioned values, yet they accept fully the morally ambiguous nature of their choices. Beast, when sheriff, is horrified by the methods employed by Frau Totenkinder to increase her magical strength—she ostensibly draws power from the abortions committed by the mundies—yet, he chooses not to banish or otherwise punish her, realizing how vital her powers are for the defense of Fabletown.

The sense of ambiguity extends to the politics of the series. Willingham has received some criticism for the plotline in which Bigby expresses his admiration for the Israeli government’s willingness to commit harsh acts in self-defense. His portrait of Geppetto as the ruler of an empire that is insatiable in its drive for expansion makes for unsettling parallels with the present-day United States, where many embrace unchecked economic growth as a social good. In Sons of Empire, the Snow Queen and Pinocchio offer contrasting hypothetical apocalypses. In the first, the sorcerers of the Empire unleash plagues on a mundane world helpless against attacks of a magical nature. The high-tech industrialized world succumbs to further plagues of fire and ice, which wipe out the human population, leaving the planet open for exclusive use as a prison for the Empire. In the second scenario, the modern, mundane world invades the Empire, using advanced technology to overwhelm feudal societies where innovation has been suppressed. The mundy nations send out conquistadores armed with modern weapons to annihilate the denizens of the worlds ruled by Geppetto and carve out private kingdoms in the Homelands.

These divergent scenarios reflect the deep divisions in the United States over what constitutes the most pressing problem and greatest danger: climate change, resource depletion, terrorism, economic decline, lone gunmen, the invasion of economic criteria into all spheres of social life, or the spread of fundamentalist faith. It could be said that what is most apocalyptic is the very uncertainty over these questions, especially as society finds itself less capable of retreating into privatized dream worlds. In the later issues, the adversary of the Fables, Mister Dark, builds a residence on the ruins of Fabletown, served by people his magic has transformed into shambling, zombielike entities. Unlike Geppetto, who banned all technology from his Empire, Mister Dark avails himself of televisions, computers, and mass media to found his own kingdom of darkness. Thus, the world of the Fables takes a chilling step closer to our own reality.

Impact

Fables debuted in 2002, becoming one of the best-selling titles in the Vertigo line. Its success led to the creation of a spin-off title, Jack of Fables (2006-2011), which has a much lighter, more humorous tone and explores in more explicit ways the problem of being an imaginary character living in a real world. Whereas Fables is more discreet in its treatment of the mundane world’s relationship to the worlds of myth and legend, Jack of Fables is more blunt and satirical.

Echoes of Fables can be seen in such narratives as the Vertigo limited series Vimanarama (2005), written by Grant Morrison, in which the protagonists battle godlike beings from Hindu mythology, and Mike Carey’s Crossing Midnight (2007-2008), in which the gods and spirits of Japanese folklore are revealed to be alive and active in modern Japan. Carey’s ongoing series, The Unwritten (2009- ), has as its protagonist a young man who as a child was the model for a boy wizard in a best-selling series of fantasy novels written by his father. The series portrays a mundane reality invaded by characters from a fantastic fictional world.

Further Reading

Carey, Mike, and Peter Gross. The Unwritten (2009- ).

Sturges, Matthew, Bill Willingham, and Luca Rossi. House of Mystery (2008- ).

Wagner, Matt, and Amy Reeder Hadley. Madame Xanadu (2008-2011).

Bibliography

Kukkonen, Karin. “Popular Cultural Memory: Comics, Communities and Context Knowledge.” NORDICOM Review 29, no. 2 (2008): 261-273.

Miller, Andrea Nicole. “Fables.” Review of Fables, by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham. MELUS 32, no. 3 (Fall, 2007): 253-255.

Willingham, Bill. “Bill Willingham.” Interview by Tasha Robinson. The A.V. Club, August 6, 2007. http://www.avclub.com/articles/bill-willingham,14134.

Willingham, Bill. “The Bill Willingham Interview.” Interview by Dirk Deppey. The Comics Journal 278 (September, 2006). http://www.tcj.com/interviews/the-bill-willingham-interview-part-one-of-four.