As part of my Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay readalong I'm posting reviews of comic books all week. Today's comic book is Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile
, which I purchased at the Twin Cities Book Festival. I've heard a lot of great things about this comic book on podcasts, blogs, and from friends. I honestly don't know why I waited so long to read it because the idea attracted me immediately. All of the characters from fairy tales and fables have been chased out of their homelands and now live in various parts of New York State. They fit in with humankind, but they also have their own governance and rules. Snow White is the Director of Operations. She divorced Prince Charming after she found him in bed with her sister (yeah these aren't PG) and she has got an attitude in this book. Love it.
There are five parts to Volume 1 but the story is linear. From the very beginning we know something happened to Snow White's sister, Rose Red, because Jack (like Jack in the Beanstalk), comes rushing to the cop, Bigby Wolf, to try and get him to investigate the case. Jack is Rose Red's sister, but Bigby questions their relationship. At the apartment Bigby sees nothing but blood all over the apartment, and speculates that Rose Red is dead. She doesn't tell Snow White right away though, and Snow White wants to murder him because of it. While all of this is going on all of the members of Fabletown are preparing for a huge Remembrance Day celebration to remember their homelands.
When I initially heard about a comic book based off of fairy tales I figured it would probably be cute. Fables is not cute, it's incredibly dark and sarcastic-- which I love. Bill Willingham manages to push these characters further than I've ever seen in a parody. Others have wondered if characters are really happy when the story ends, but Willingham looks at them like real people. And he looks at their immortality-- sure Beauty and the Beast get married and live happily ever after, but can you really live happily ever after for eternity? If you've never read a comic book before I think this is a great one to start with. The stories will be familiar to you and you can get used to the style of comic books easily with this one.
I give volume one of Fables a B.
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