By Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham & Steve Leialoha and various (Vertigo)
ISBN 1-84576-278-9
Fables is one of those blessed delights that makes a reviewers job quite difficult. Series of matchless quality that somehow manage to get better with each release are rare and most welcome but you soon run out of superlatives to express your enthusiasm, and unless the reviewer wants to cross the border into Spoiler Territory (giving away a plot to a potential fan ought to be a Capital Offence) you really have nothing to offer.
Here’s the short review: Best One Yet – Get Them All.
If you need more, however, allow me to bring you up to speed. The saga details the exploits of fairytale and storybook characters we humans regard as fictional, living secret, immortal lives among us as refugees from a monstrous all-consuming Adversary who has conquered their original homelands. They are magical, perfect, cynical yet perversely human creatures who dream of one day returning to their own homes and interrupted lives. They live with the constant threat that their all-consuming foe will one day find them…
After a tense election Prince Charming has replaced Old King Cole as leader of the New York City enclave just in time to receive a mission from the Fables of the as-yet unconquered Arabian Fairytales Realm, brokered by Fable-at-Large Mowgli. Among them is Sinbad, a Hashishin Assassin, sundry slaves and a Vizier you just know is up to no good. They’re also carrying the Baghdad Fable equivalent of a Weapon of Mass-Destruction. Somehow these disparate and difficult societies must be forced or cajoled into cooperation before the Adversary swallows them all up, but a mutual enemy has seldom been enough to unite diametrically opposed cultures…
This four part tale is a wry, slick and hilarious dose of intrigue in the classic Preston Sturges manner (if you don’t know, that’s what search engines are for – and boy have you got some great movies to catch up on) that originally ran in issues #42-45, written by Willingham and captivatingly illustrated by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha and Andrew Pepoy, and as well as standing magnificently on its own lays the groundwork for a number of major storylines to come.
The volume ends with a two part change-of-pace tale from issues #46-47 illustrated by Jim Fern and Jimmy Palmiotti. ‘The Ballad of Rodney and June’ tells the story of two of the Adversary’s most elite assets and the forbidden love they fall victim to. Trust me, it’s tragic and fascinating and not at all what you think or expect…
Fables is consistently the best serial comic on the market today and these collections are swiftly becoming as beloved as the characters that populate it. So that means somehow, somewhere, they must really exi…
Don’t go there, just get these books!
© 2005, 2006 Bill Willingham and DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.