Fables is an epic, that grabs you by the balls and doesn’t let go until your bleeding out your ass! –Slugtron

I have been re-reading all of the Fables graphic novels this last week and I had forgotten how good they were.  If you are not reading Fables, then stop reading this post and pick up the trades right now. It is worth the time and investment. I can’t wait to see where it’s going next.

I started right at the beginning with the first book “Legends in Exile”

I really dug this book, but after reading the rest of the series, it feels like “Fables for Beginners”. Which is good for the first book in a set to be.

There is some really good stuff in here. I forgot how much I liked having Bluebeard around to hate. And I can’t get over how cool it is when Bigby transforms into the wolf the first time. I also really appreciate how much of a pig prince Charming is.

I think it was such a good move for Bill Willingham to keep the first arc localized entirely in Fabletown focused on the disturbance of a practical joke. This was such a good idea because it allows the series to grow from something so small into something huge. Another thing I really like about this book, is that they let you know it’s going to be crude and extreme right off the bat. (I.E. Jack Calling Bigby a “Fuck-Shit.”)

The next book “Animal Farm” is short but sweet. It really ups the stakes, bringing in a lot of information about the Homelands, the coming war, and some killing.

I really liked how the farm felt in this book, and how it was actually reminiscent of the book “Animal Farm”. My favorite part is probably all the stuff with Sher Khan chasing Snow white into the Valley filled with sleeping giants and dragons. This book has one of the best cliff hangers in the entire series, in which Snow White gets shot in the head by Goldilocks.

“Storybook Love”

The first time I got through this book, I was surprised that they were seemingly burning bridges and killing characters that were still so new, looking back it was necessary. I am also surprised how much you are still learning by this point in the series. This book is really cool, there is only one thing that I can think of that sets itself apart as something I don’t like in this particular book, and that would be Bigby howling while in Human form, I don’t know why, it just bugs me.

“March of the Wooden Soldiers”

This book was my favorite part of the series the first time through because it is so rad when everything is going to shit and the Big Bad Wolf comes and saves the day by blowing out all the fires. Also all the stuff with the Baba Yaga and Frau Totenkinder is really cool.
Although I didn’t like it as much the second time through because it’s really a kick in the teeth how obvious the adversary’s real identity is, they practically give it to you in this book several times, but I didn’t figure it out until the sixth book, and frankly it makes me feel stupid.

“The Mean Seasons”

I really like the promise this book makes on the cover, “Werewolf Vs. The Creature” Then I like it even more when they follow through with this promise. The World War II story with Nazi super soldiers really works for me. I like all the building of Snow White’s child giving, and I really like the idea of “Ghost, the invisible cub”. Fabletown changes ownership, which was scary the first time through, but turns out to be rad.

“Homelands”

This book is so cool, you get to see a bunch of the homelands, you have someone that you always kinda thought was a bitch kicking tons of ass. Geppetto is the fucking adversary. I really like all the magic in this book, with Geppetto’s protection spells, to see what the witching cloak and the vorpal blade can really do, but most of all the magic from the Blue Fairy. Which turns out to be the coolest page in Fables to date, Gepetto hitting her over the back of the head with a piece of wood, then keeping her tied up in the closet stealing her blood. I think this is where the books peaked, not that there hasn’t been anything done worth reading since, in fact I think everything in the series since has been on the same level, it just hasn’t felt the stakes have been raised much since then.

“Arabian Nights (and Days)” “Wolves” and “Sons of Empire”

I read them all at the same time and like I said, it peaked with number six, at least for now. There are a lot of really cool things in these books, but they all kinda bled together pretty quickly. Snow White getting married to Bigby worked for me, I liked the concept that a Djinn could destroy the world, but that the North Wind said he could take one, I really liked in Sons of Empire when they where making predictions of how easily they could conquer the mundy world.

But I think my favorite part in all of these books (other then Santa Claus) is Bigby and Snow going to visit the North Wind, then Bigby being forced to fight his shape shifting brothers who live at the base of his castle, to protect his cubs. Illustrated by Mike Allred, I think that arc in particular really sets it self apart from the rest of the books as excellent.

“The Good Prince”

I think this stuff is all really cool, I like the idea of Flycatcher turning into an unbeatable knight wielding Excalibur, and the Forsworn Knight being Lancelot, but at the same time where as this is done differently, and on a much larger scale I can’t help but think that it isn’t that much different then we saw Boy Blue going into the Homelands and kicking ass. So not to say that this wasn’t completely necessary, and didn’t kick ass in it’s own right. I am just saying  once again that the story has been peaked since the sixth book. I really liked the issues where they were walking across the wasteland of the witching well, bringing all the dead characters we missed back into the story for a little while.

“War and Pieces”

Well I think this arc is monumental enough to consider it “raising the stakes” I really liked the technology behind there airship, there battle tactics were really inventive, and lastly they had very consistent cliff hangers. I think this was the long awaited climax, but even now the story is different, it has a completely different dynamic then the first books, there is something that this series had, that it has lost. And that is mystery and learning, that is why I am so excited for the next arc after the war, Bill Willingham said that he was going to essentially start over the series and make it interesting all over again.

It is so refreshing to have a writer that is so in tuned to the changes in his story telling, that he knows when to start telling a new story. Which is the reason that I think Y: The Last Man was so good to me, because they knew when to start and stop. So frankly I was a little worried about Fables until I heard this good news. The first artist off the boat is going to be Mike Allred, so that is something else that is exciting.

Overall this series is just really damn good and consistent, it is easily in the top five of my favorite comic book series that I can think of off the top of my head right this minute. If you are not reading Fables, then stop reading this post and pick up the trades right now. It is worth the time and investment. I can’t wait to see where it’s going next.

Does anyone have any insight on who is going to be the cover artist after James Jean leaves? I think that Mike Allred or Derek Hunter would be good picks, I love those guys.

Sincerely, yours truly, the great, magnificent, Doctor Cyborg Robot M.D. attorney at law – 5