Fairest: In All the Land

Fairest (Collected Editions)

by Bill Willingham (Writer), Various (Illustrator)

In the spirit of Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall and Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland comes the first ever original graphic novel from the pages of #1 New York Times bestselling writer Bill Willingham's Fairest.
Fairest has explored the secret histories of the most stunning beauties in Fabletown: Cinderella, Snow White, Briar Rose, Rapunzel, and the list goes on and on. In Fairest: In All the Land, the best names in comics take their turns fleshing out the pasts of the loveliest Fables in existence. For all those wanting to dive into Fairest or Fables, this original graphic novel is a fantastic entry point, as well as a great new chapter for those that have been following Bill Willingham's fairy tale epic for years.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Fables, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Mystery

160 pages, Hardcover

First published November 26, 2013

About the author

In the late 1970s to early 1980s he drew fantasy ink pictures for the Dungeons & Dragons Basic and Expert game rulebooks. He first gained attention for his 1980s comic book series Elementals published by Comico, which he both wrote and drew. However, for reasons unknown, the series had trouble maintaining an original schedule, and Willingham's position in the industry remained spotty for many years. He contributed stories to Green Lantern and started his own independent, black-and-white comics series Coventry which lasted only 3 issues. He also produced the pornographic series Ironwood for Eros Comix.

In the late 1990s Willingham reestablished himself as a prolific writer. He produced the 13-issue Pantheon for Lone Star Press and wrote a pair of short novels about the modern adventures of the hero Beowulf, published by the writer's collective, Clockwork Storybook, of which Willingham was a founding member. In the early 2000s he began writing extensively for DC Comics, including the limited series Proposition Player, a pair of limited series about the Greek witch Thessaly from The Sandman, and most notably the popular series Fables

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Not bad.
The story is told in two different ways.
The Magic Mirror starts everything off with a few pages in novelization form, then it switches over to a regular comic, then back to the Mirror, etc. The graphic novel part of the story is supposedly being told through the Magic Mirror, somewhat like a tv show.
Cute.



Someone is murdering Fables!
And with Bigby gone, the mayor calls on Cinderella and her mad spy skills to suss out the killer.
She does.
The End.
Ok, not really. But it was the last Fables book I read after the series ended, so to me this was the end. And it does answer the question of the curse that meant Snow White would die stabbed through the heart.



About every four pages there's a new artist, so if that sort of thing bothers you, consider yourself warned.
Personally, I thought they were all really good, so I didn't mind.



It's not a story that blew me away, but it was definitely fun and easy to read.
Recommended for fans of Fables.

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

With a shocking double murder discovered, Cinderella is asked to investigate... a case that leads all over the Fable worlds!Yet another huge under-usage of Cinders using her as a detective despite her centuries of experience! The OK is the actual mystery and the different story telling mechanisms used to relate it. At this stage every single volume across the Fable-verse is a must read, this included, as we come to the end of many stories and sub-arcs. 7 out of 12.

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

In case you aren’t aware, I’m more than bit of a graphic novel noob. I pretty much request whatever the library has available (which is basically next to nothing). Imagine my surprise when I found out Fairest: In All the Land is a standalone story written by a guy who has like eleventy thousand other “Fairest” stories . . .



This one works great if you’re like myself and would prefer your princess tales to include a bit more of the ol’ stabby stabby. Fairest: In All the Land is told in two parts. It begins with a bit of history from the Magic Mirror . . . .



and then jumps to “real life” where the ladies of the Magic Kingdom are dropping like flies. It’s up to “Cindy” . . . .


(She’s not really, but come on – you know I’m going to use that .gif)

to figure out the whodunit. Along the way she’ll receive help from some unique friends . . .



and will have to fight not only to solve the mystery, but also in order to stay alive . . .



For the most part, I found Fairest: In all the Land to be quite entertaining. As a noob, I’m not familiar (or comfortable) with the “changing of the guard” type of illustrations every few pages so that took away a bit of my enjoyment. I will say, though, that when that art was working, it was seriously working . . . .



There was even a little sumthin’ sumthin' for perverts Jeffs, Lonos, Seans and Gavins . . .



All in all a fun read and I’ll definitely be diving in to more of Willingham’s Fables and Fairest volumes whenever I come across them. If this doesn’t sound like your idea of a good time? Well . . .

[Sud666 · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Fairest: In All the Land" was an interesting concept. It is sort of a detective whodunit murder mystery. Each part, and there are many small chapters, is illustrated by a different set of artists. Some parts of the story are written with no art. Sounds interesting huh? It is. But there are issues.

The pace of the story, especially in one volume, is thrown off from each different interpretation of the story. The main storyline is simple: an unknown assailant is determined to slay the fairest in all the land, and Cinderella has to stop the murders before it's too late. Having enjoyed the previous Cinderella as super spy stories, I was prepared to really enjoy this one as well. But, again, the story seems to be halting due to the shifts in styles.

Thus one of those very interesting concepts that did not quite meet expectations in the actual product. This is by no means bad. The art goes from great to good and some in between. The stories are all good, save for the fact that the differing styles in the same story can be off putting. Perhaps not up to the caliber of the other Fables books and certainly inferior to the original Fables title, it is still an entertaining read.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tag team of artists illustrate this story of revenge as someone is out to kill the most popular women of Fables. This is pretty good. I prefer the regular Fables series but this is a solid one-off. And it is part of the regular Fables story and not part of Fairest.

[Otherwyrld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst this is labelled as a Fairest story, it has much greater connections with the main Fables story than previous books in so much as it involves the return of the long-lost business office. It is also a murder mystery, something we haven't really seen in this series since the very beginning.

Someone is murdering Fables, two at a time, and Cinderella is tasked to try and find the murderer and stop the killings. She is a reluctant detective as she doesn't see it as her strength but she has to do that because Bigby is dead, and when did that happen because I don't remember seeing that in any story.

Needless to say, it involves an old enemy with a very big grudge against the Fairest in the Land, not to mention a magic sword and a car that can take a person anywhere - including, it seems, the missing Business Office, where all the most dangerous magical objects can be found. It's not too difficult to realise that Cinderella succeeds, but the cost is high - the magic sword can return people it has killed back to life, but only one out of each pair killed, and only within 7 days.

Cinderella gets to choose who to save, and she chooses all of the "fairest in the land" princesses who died rather than the other more mundane people. I admit I had a bit of a problem with that no matter how Cinderella justifies her choices. It harks back to an issue I had some time ago when Snow White told us that beautiful people are allowed to get away with being mean and nasty, but the rest of us mere mortals have to be nice because we're not beautiful. Author Bill Willingham kind of acknowledges the flaw in that argument in this story without giving a solution to it, which is about as good as its going to get.

A word about the art - there are more than 30 artists involved, each drawing no more than a couple of pages. I thought that this might be a problem, but I actually quite liked the different styles in this book, and I never lost track of what was going on because o the artwork.

In conclusion, there is a lot happening in this book, and a lot that was enjoyable but I couldn't give it more than 3 stars. That niggle I had about the Fairest deserving more just because, just doesn't sit well with me and making this the primary motive behind the story dragged the whole thing down.

[Mankey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last "straight to graphic novel" Fables tale, "Werewolves of the Heartland"," was one of the worst stories in the history of the franchise, so I approached "Fairest in All the Land" with lowered expectations. I needn't have bothered, "Fairest" was another solid entry in the chronicles of Fabeldom. Essentially a detective story told through the eyes of "Magic Mirror" and Cinderella, "Fairest" had me intrigued pretty quickly, and about halfway through I knew I wasn't going to stop reading until the story was over.

"Fairest" features art by two dozen different artists, and while it's a little gimmicky, it works exceedingly well with how the story is framed. It was also nice to see art from artists I was unfamiliar with. This is a fun little off take in the Fables universe, and it fills in some holes created in previous volumes. A nice little holiday treat.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cinderella is a secret agent for the "good" Fables and in this run she becomes more of an investigator trying to solve murders which involve most of the beautiful Fable women of the community.

The narration cuts from the perspective of Cinderella to the Magic Mirror.

Who says the Fables line is dead? Willingham just wanted to focus on some new stories without the baggage of along running series.

OVERALL GRADE: B plus.

[Dee Robb · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first Willingham I have read that I felt was sub-par. At times, the story was almost incoherent and impossible to follow. I loved the Fables series and was so looking forward to this, but I found the artwork to be lacking, any character development non existent and even the dialogue seemed forced. I am just deeply disappointed with this one. I will stick to the Fables storyline from here on out.

[Kuroi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so excited by the premise of a fair play mystery in a graphic novel. But it failed in a number of aspects.

1. IT'S NOT A FAIR PLAY MYSTERY. Given the distribution of the clues and the info reveal at the end, I don't consider it fair play.

2. IT"S NOT A MYSTERY. It becomes fairly (ha, see what I did there?) obvious midway who the perp is.

3. THE NARRATOR IS THE WRONG PERSON. I think I would have gotten into it more if it was told from human Cinderella's POV over omnipotent mirror dude.

The artwork was ok, sometimes great, sometimes just meh. I was not particularly into the book at any point.

[Gieliza · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars! An interesting story but I find Cinderella's choice controversial even tho she explained it to Snow White. The art is amazing tho.

[Mauoijenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great Fairest book.
I'm enjoying this series.
Willingham scores again along with FABLES!

[Dani Shuping · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've long been a fan of the Fables universe and I love being able to find out more about the characters that exist and inhabit that world. But...sadly I've often found the spinoffs or standalones (Werewolves in the Heartland or Jack of Fables) are somewhat lacking and Fairest in all the Land fits into that category as well, at least for me. While the story is so so a killer on the lose, I found that the artwork was often distracting. Instead of presenting a cohesive view of a character it seemed to switch styles every three to four pages, which was jarring and distracted me from what was going on. While it's great to see how other people draw a character, switching so quickly hurt the story in my opinion. And while I enjoyed parts of the story, there were times I just wanted to skip three or four chapters ahead and I didn't feel like it would make a difference.

While I'm sure what happens in this story will effect the Fables universe, I can't imagine that it won't be recovered in the main series at some point. As such, I just can't really recommend this book very highly. I give it 2 out of 5 stars.

ARC provided by NetGalley

[Larakaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's the first spinoff from Fables that I read and I really enjoyed it. A detective story with Cinderella in the lead, thrilling to the last page. What makes this even more interesting and great is the fact that not one but 27(!) different artist contributed to the book! So every 4 to 6 spages the pencils and colorings change. And it matches the episodic narration perfectly.

As it works completely fine on its own, you don't have to be familiar with the Fables story at all. But if you are, there some nice hints and mentionings.

[Christina (A Reader of Fictions) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange one. Fairest: In All the Land has some truly wonderful storytelling, and it also covers some major Fables universe plot twists and deaths. Yet it also feels like the absolute most half-assed installment. Most obviously, some of the art is hideous, like it was not finished perhaps. Even if it was all gorgeous, the styles also veer wildly from artist to artist, which is strange when they're telling the same story but it changes every couple of pages (yes there's a new "title" for the episode but like it's weird). It also felt half-assed to have the mirror POV be text with illustrations rather than a comic like the rest. Just why?

So yeah, I'm glad I read it, but I have so many questions about why this exists in this form rather than being a Fables volume that a full round of work went into.

[Lady An ☽ · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many people working on this comic, the truth is that the work is awesome, the colours, the characters design, but it's a shame that the story and some scenes are ugly, violent and bloody. It doesn't a fairytale, nothing at all.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

This was an ok story, very Cindy centric, a several of the Fairest stories seem to be. She's called in to investigate after a murder, since Bigby is currently unavailable.

Speaking of which, this book definitely has some spoilers for the main Fables plotline, with no inkling given in the book itself where it falls within that arc.

My biggest issue with the story, I think, is that the artwork changes every couple of pages, and it's wildly inconsistent. Some of it is weird cartoon-realism, and some of it is ultra-cartoony and not great quality, while some of the middle-range realism that the series, as a whole, tends to use (which is my favorite). It got to where some characters weren't even recognizable from one panel to the next.

Also, the story itself is semi-moot because you know they're not going to kill off some of the main characters in a random off-shoot.

I wouldn't recommend this as a starting point for people into the Fables world, unless you don't mind spoilers. Hell, I wouldn't recommend it anyway just because it's not the strongest stories and relies too heavily on familiarity with the characters as opposed to really introducing them, though it does give a smattering of backstory on some we may not have seen before.

Not a bad side-story in the Fables world, but far from a necessary one.


* Not only is in unclear, aside from reading, where this falls into the Fables timeline, it's not even clear where it falls on the Fairest line. The book-page I'm on tells me this is Fairest #5, except Fairest #5 is actually Fairest, Vol 5: The Clamour for Glamour, and this stand-alone GN was published between Volumes 2 and 3 of the Fairest series.

[Ashleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as digital ARC.

Oh man, the details in that description were so vague and I've read so much Fables recently, that it took me about five minutes to remember which one this was.

Without giving too much away, I will say that this is a murder mystery/serial killer event of sorts, and Cinderella makes important decisions that she'll have to justify. As always, the story was fascinating. And, I know a lot of people are complaining about the art, which was kind of rough on me as well since when I read this I was way behind in the original arc and had no idea who say, Ozma, was. But, that's how it is with comics, I'm a Batman fan, I get that. I don't remember it detracting from the story at all. Don't let a few aesthetic changes ruin your experience with the story.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a one shot graphic novel that fits into the Fables universe, but it actually is pretty important to continuity. There's the deaths of some major characters (some of which stick and some of which don't) and the Fables finally find the lost business office.

The story is a murder mystery with Cinderella attempting to find out who is murdering the Fairest, and how. It's not a bad mystery and as I said it's pretty important to the Fables series overall.

The series was illustrated by many different artists who did a few pages each, and that part I didn't care for. None of the art was bad, but the artists switched too often and it sometimes took me out of the story.

If you read Fables, you really need to read this because of its storyline importance.

[Aildiin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is OK but I am having some troubles keeping interested in a graphic novel where the artist changes every 4 pages. This is far from the best that Fables has to offer.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voy a darle 3 estrellas porque Cenicienta es la detective. Pero siendo sinceros, en esta historia hay bastantes trucos baratos de guion. Intentando resolver algunos de los cabos sueltos que dejaron inacabados en la historia principal a golpe de espadazo. Los crímenes se centran y encuentran su resolución en torno al tema de la belleza. Si. Este spin off es sobre las chicas de Fables y "oh, vaya" la belleza es el tema principal. Ni siquiera se hace una reflexion, ni hay un punto de vista crítico sobre el tema. Al contrario, vamos a utilizar los estereotipos existentes que son mas viejos que la tos y vamos a construir una narrativa que los refuerce. El título no engaña, al menos le voy a dar eso. Pero también se podría llamar "Matar a las Guapas", " De Lavanderas a Magas: tips para asesinar aunque seas un don nadie " o "Celos de Feas: como conseguir ser la mas bella del reino aunque lleves gafas"

Lo único que me consuela un mínimo es que Cenicienta es lo más. Una última pregunta, hay muchas guapas muertas que pasean de tranquis al final del libro. A cuanta gente se puede revivir tan facilmente? Oh, es verdad, el titulo. Solo a las guapas entre las guapas.

En fin, menudo desperdicio de potencial.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

"In All the Land" is an "original graphic novel" as their creators called it, coming out all together instead of issues. It gathers a bunch of artists and writers to continue the story from the 5th FAIREST volume with Goldilocks and Hadeon. This story arc, along with Cinderella's one from vol. 4 were the only ones that actually lived up to the hype and offered something more than just extra info on the FABLES multiverse.

In total though, Fairest was a big letdown, confirming that most of the times, even with the original creators' supervision, when others try to continue established series with one way or another, the burden is too heavy (maybe the pressure too) and they tend to offer lesser quality material. All of the fairest "origins" stories apart from "Of Men and Mice" and "In All the Land" were mediocre,both in script and art. Although art can be subjective, the script surely didn't have the spark that made Fables so lovable.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

lol, Cinderella as a detective.

I'm just so here for everything being so gritty. I do think some of the details of this story don't really make sense, but honestly this is one of those things where what I liked sticks out in my mind more than what I didn't. I don't really care about the plot that much. I like this weird fucked up world where everything is so bleak.

[Jaime Castleberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't remember when I read this but I enjoy these so much.

[Jyoti · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new twist to fairytale heroines and a fun and absurd read!

[Tyler Childs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Left me feeling disappointed, really.
The thing I hated the most were some of the most powerful players in the Fables world are taken out like it's nothing by someone who really shouldn't be able to do that. Snow White? Lumi? The Blue Fairy? Freaking Bellflower? All taken out by Goldilocks? Jesus Christ.
Then on top of that, the fact that they had been murdered was brushed over very quickly.

[All Things Urban Fantasy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

A while back I read a blog post (I can’t remember where) extolling the virtues of the Fables series of comics/graphic novels. I picked up Fables Volume 1 and have been hooked ever since! So, when FAIREST IN ALL THE LAND showed up, I knew I had to read it. FAIREST IN ALL THE LAND is a stand-alone graphic novel set in the same world as the Fables and Fairest series, with a murder mystery and a magic mirror subplot, and is as enchanting as all the others, with lovely artwork by many different artists.

FAIREST IN ALL THE LAND’s mystery stars Cinderella as a detective, and has a gritty, noir-ish feel to it, as much as one can get in a comic book. The reader is in on a few more details due to the interludes with the magic mirror, but the ending still had me surprised. The magic mirror had the tendency to get a bit wordy, but overall I enjoyed the little breaks from the mystery and the background the reader got from the mirror about its history and the various fairy tale artifacts.

My only complaint about FAIREST IN ALL THE LAND is that though the artwork is amazing, it was a bit confusing to have so many different styles. It took me a bit to get into a groove, and at the beginning there were a few times where I confused characters – let’s be honest, it’s hard to distinguish between so many blond fairy tale heroines. But once I got used to it, the opportunity to see each individual artist’s style within the same story was fascinating. The differences in graphic novel art isn’t something I would normally think about, so that was a very cool aspect.

FAIREST IN ALL THE LAND is a perfect little mental break – quick and easy to read, fun to look at, and with a nice satisfying murder mystery. If you like fairy tale retellings, I would definitely recommend this. While it isn’t a retelling, all the fairy tale princesses in one location makes for some fun imagining, and Willingham’s take on the various personalities made me chuckle. FAIREST IN ALL THE LAND only makes me eager for more Fairest and Fables. You’ll have to excuse me while I go and catch up on all the ones I’ve missed now.

Sexual content: N/A

[Wing Kee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah Cindi you are so awesome!

I like it when Willingham shakes things up a bit just like he did with 1001 Nights, the multiple artists, the semi prose format just makes for a fun little diversion and another way to experience the world of Fables, in this case Fairest, but who really can tell the difference:

World: Wow is the art ever diverse! I can't even go into all the artists that contributed to this book cause there simply are way too many. The art is diverse, and unique and allows a sense of wonder as each artist brings a slightly different interpretation of beloved and hated Fables characters. The world building is pure Willingham, you get the things that are familiar and also haven't been touched for a while, like the office but just enough new information and development to make it feel fresh and interesting again. I won't go into details as enjoying the world is the fun.

Story: Wonderfully paced and written. The prose sections book end and tie the narrative together making for an interesting reading experience. The tale being a murder mystery is paced wonderfully with enough reveal every day (you'll see what I mean) to keep the speed quite brisk. The small little snippets of background and history add an additional weight to the story. I also liked that this story had consequence, things matter and choices that are hard are made. Also this is building towards the Fables finale which will I imagine be epic.

Characters: Cindi is always a fun character to read. She's smart, complex and has a voice all her own. I liked the large cast and I think the format of this tale aided in the character development. No new characters here but overall the ones that show up behave as expected and some old characters we have not seen a long while are so fun to read again. Good stuff!

A wonderful little semi prose tale that not only ties into the grand finale of Fables, but also gives us a wonderful glimpse of other characters which sometimes are not the main focus in the main series. A joy to read.

Onward to the next book!

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The scale of this graphic novel is kind of amazing. I'm extremely impressed that Willingham was able to corral dozens of artists to tell pieces of one larger story, and ship it out on time such that it fit inside the larger narrative. It's kind of brilliant. The use of the Magic Mirror as a framing device, it reminds me of the Canterbury Tales. It also has a nice time structure to it, with the main story taking place over the span of a week. It's all very well designed and written.

The art is beautiful. There are so many different styles presented by the different artists, I love it. It's hard to pick favorites.

I also love how the story seamlessly jumps back and forth in time, and shows us some histories of several characters.

It's the best Cinderella story yet, in my opinion. There have been several Cinderella stories that I don't think worked; maybe part of that is it was other writers and not Willingham.

The central plot device of this story is exceedingly clever, if a bit cheap in some respects. A lot of throwaway characters die. It does cleverly resolve Snow's predicament from killing Brandish, and it also ties up the Lamia plot thread. Also Beast and Geppetto's Blue Fairy problem.

I don't want to spoil the final villain, but the villain returns from previous story arcs.

Anyway. Overall this is one of the best books in the Fables canon. I highly recommend reading it; unfortunately, it is too tied into Fables continuity to recommend as a one shot. This is for Fables fans.

[David Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an original graphic novel from The Fairest series (a spin-off from the Fables series). The story is bracketed by illustrated prose chapters. The comic book chapters are all written by Bill Winningham but the artists are different for each chapter.

The story revolves around a series of double homicides among the Fairest of the Fables. It falls to the resident superspy, Cinderella, to solve the mystery and stop the murders. There is also a related mystery involving the missing Fabletown Business Office.

Usually, I am not a big fan of collection with multiple illustrators. It has a tendency to give the story, a disjointed feeling. That wasn't the case this time. I enjoyed the artwork throughout the entire book and it flowed well despite differing styles.

I enjoyed the mysteries and how they worked together. It was a nice touch that the solution was not completely happy. (Parts of it were easy to predict but did not distract from the overall suspense.) It was also nice that the story was tied into the original series but still stood by itself. It did not feel like just another attempt to get the fans to buy something else without adding anything to the world mythos (as is so common with a lot of comic book specials).