Wide Awake

Fairest (Collected Editions)

by Bill Willingham, Phil Jimenez (Illustrator)

New York Times bestselling, award-winning creator Bill Willingham presents a new series starring the female Fables. Balancing horror, humor and adventure in the Fables tradition, Fairest explores the secret histories of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, Snow White, Rose Red and others.

The first 6-issue tale follows the misadventures of Briar Rose immediately after the events of Fables #107(collected in Fables Volume 16: Super Team), in which she was stolen away by the goblin army. Following this first collection, Willingham will serve as a consultant on all story arcs and introduce new writers from other mediums to the Fables mythos.

Fan-favorite artist Phil Jimenez (Wonder Woman, The Invisibles) returns to Vertigo to pencil the opening storyline. Award-winning cover artist Adam Hughes (Wonder Woman, Batgirl) provides covers, starting with a wraparound cover on issue #1 that spotlights the lovely ladies who will star in the series.

Collects FAIREST #1-7.

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

153 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 27, 2012

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 4 out of 5]

Sleeping Beauty, Ali Baba, & the Snow Queen are all mashed up together in this amazing tale, Wide Awake. It retells Briar Rose's origin, why the Snow Queen was on the side of the Emperor, and where this Ali Baba dude got his skills as a thief.



Nothing is quite what it seems as they all get a little help with their Happily Ever Afters from an imp in a bottle.
He doesn't grant wishes, but he does manage to help each of them get exactly what they don't even know they want.



There's also a HUGE reveal about Beauty (of Beauty & the Beast fame) at the end that is NOT to be missed.



I wasn't sure how much I would like this, but I absolutely loved it. I think the thing that makes these spin-offs work so well is that they are completely interconnected with the rest of the world of Fables, and when you read them it makes you feel like you have some sort of an extra edge on the main title.



A friend here on Goodreads told me to start reading this after I had finished Fables: Super Team and it was actually pretty excellent advice.
Recommended!

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which we catch up with not just the next story of Briar Rose but also her full origin; In which we find out what's happening to the Snow Queen; In which we meet Ali Baba; In which we are introduced to minor Bottle Imp and wisecracking Jonah Panghammer; In which we find a posse of Fairy Godmothers. In a book that is meant to focus on the fairer sex, it's a bit annoying that one of the key themes of this volume is true romantic love, despite how well it was done. Gender stereotype much?

Briar Rose and Lumi the Snow Queen continue to be very well depicted by Bill Willingham; and modern American terminology using know-it-all Jonah is a superb addition to the Fables-verse. 7 out of 12, hugely enjoyed this more with this re-reading!

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think these Fable stories are great. This is an offshoot of the Fable story. It happens right after Vol. 8 from what I can see. This is fairest and it's about other heroines from the story.

We start off with Ali Baba finding a genie imp in a lamp. He finds Briar Rose and the Snow Queen. He wakes Sleeping Beauty with true's loves kiss. The rest of the volume deals with what is true love. Can it be just a willingness to face a horde of goblins. In any case, Ali Baba choses the snow queen over Briar Rose. For good reason, she has some anger issues.

There are fairies in this story. There is battle in this story and there is outwitting the villains in here too. I like the play between the Snow Queen and Ali and Briar Rose. I had a lot of fun reading this story. It's worthy of the fables name.

They threw in a final chapter in the volume that had something to do with Beast and beauty, but we haven't really found out what it was all about yet. I thought this was a great read and I want to read more of these fairest books along with the Fables. Bill Willingham has not let this story down. It has been in capable hands the whole time. Wow.

[Megan Baxter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had fallen out of touch with Fables. I read through the set of graphic novels covering the fight with the Adversary, and then wasn't paying attention as my husband got the other ones out of the library.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Diz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ali Baba wakes both the Snow Queen and Briar Rose and they have to figure out their relationships with each other with a lot of conflict along the way. It's a very enjoyable read. However, be aware that there are spoilers for the Fables series in here, so if you haven't read Fables yet, be sure to read that first.

[John Elbe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now that Fables is in the 'Public Domain', I thought it was time I read the entire series (including all spinoffs and specials) from start to finish in sequential tpb reading order. Here we go!

Fables First-to-Finale reading #30
Fairest vol 1: Wide Awake

We begin with Ali Baba discovering a bottle with an Imp in it. Next thing you know, The Prince of Thieves is stealing kisses from Briar Rose and the Snow Queen. Consent no where to be found. On the run, our bottle imp tells the tale of what happened when Briar Rose was born. Now captured the Snow Queen demands he continue his tale. 

After hearing her name spoken one too many times during the Imps tale, Hadeon the Destroyer shows up and throws down with the Ice Queen. Briar Rose is even serving knuckle sandwiches!

In the end, after seeing Ali Baba couple up with the Snow Queen, Rose drives off with Johan the Blue Imp.

The final story in the back is another male centered tale, yet a game changer for at least two characters.

The art is top-notch as Jimenez shines here!

I do have to wonder what this series might be like if female creators were involved?

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, i was not expecting THAT.

"Fairest" is a series designed to explore the lives of the various female Fables (largely princesses & queens so far) from Willingham's larger series, "Fables". It's the second such spin-off, improving (so far) on the rather tiresome antics of Jack of Fables (whose spin-off series concluded in 2011 with the title character's death and what I now suspect was a parody of all the big "world-changing" "event" comics DC & Marvel have been shoveling down the line for the last three decades).

I honestly wasn't sure what to expect, fearing that it would turn out to be exploitative (like "Jack of Fables") or excessively snarky (again, like "Jack of Fables"), but the first storyline turned out to be pretty dang solid. The bulk of the volume is taken up with the story of Ali-Baba and his imp Jonah, who together free Briar Rose and Lumi the Snow Queen from the former's enchanted sleep -- Rose & Lumi were last seen being carted away by Goblins in the pages of "Fables" and I was curious as to what would happen to them, so it was a pleasant surprise to see them popping up in their very own mini-series. Briar Rose is something of an enigma, as most of the times she's appeared in "Fables" it was as an agent or a weapon, but we get a whole heaping helping of Rose here and apparently she's something of a bitter loud-mouth -- though really, with the life she's had, who can blame her? But the real gem was the reappearance of Lumi, my favorite of Fables various female characters. I love winter and I love snow, and "The Snow Queen" was one of my favorite fairy-tales when I was a boy, so it makes perfect sense that Lumi would stand out to me. And for the first 2/3 of this story, she's the real stand-out: Ali-Baba is a typical rogue, but an extremely competent and realistic one; Briar Rose is, as i've mentioned, bitter and loud-mouthed; and Jonah is self-consciously obnoxious; but Lumi...ahhhhh, Lumi.

Lumi is powerful, confident, and witty. And over the course of this story we discover that her apparent devotion to the Empire was not all that it seemed, that she's been entirely absent from her kingdom since signing on to serve the Empire, and that she's more than a little unsure of what to do with herself now that the world has changed. We also learn that her shift from merry snow-maiden to cruel tyrant was not simply the result of Jack's betrayal and abandonment. Great character development and insight! Unfortunately, Willingham then saddles her with Ali-Baba as a love interest, something which makes sense in context (she's always had a thing for bad-boys) but which disappoints me as a fan of her character.

The final portion of the book is taken up with a one-shot palate-cleanser story set in the 1940s. "Lamia" is a noir tale involving Beast tracking down a rogue Fable in Los Angeles and it's dang good. I always enjoy these flashbacks to the lives of the Fables before the start of the series, and this one begins with Beast himself musing on the ways in which mundane literature and storytelling have forced him to take on different archetypal roles since his flight to the mundane world, from knight errant to master detective to P.I. And what a closing note! What a finale! If only the rest of the volume could have been as unerringly great as this little story.

Overall, i'm pretty pleased with this volume. The first story felt a bit thin, but did what it set out to do, and the second story was a extremely strong. I didn't enjoy the art in either story (the first was clumsily realistic and the second was excessively cartoonish) but the writing was crisp and quick and it works as a good set-up for "Fariest", establishing the tone and the themes of the series. I look forward to the next volume.

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Fairest" is a spin off of the main Fables story arc. This volume collects the first 6 issues and includes a short story "Lamia".

The story starts with a tale left unfinished from the Fables arc. Briar Rose and the Snow Queen were stolen away by the Goblin Army and now Ali Baba comes to free them. It doesn't turn out the way he expected. No more spoilers. A really good Fables story and one that finished a story arc.

"Lamia" is a short story about Beauty and the Beast and it has some interesting twists. The setting is the 1940 and it reminds me of "L.A. Confidential" in its noir outlook. While not terrible it was, at best, ok.

So far this was an enjoyable spin off. Hopefully the quality of this stays even. The artwork is similar to the art found in the normal run. That is neither a compliment nor a complaint. The art for Fables, with few exceptions, was ok to good. Same here.

I think a Fables fan will enjoy this spin off. If you don't have a Fables background this is not the place to start.

[Amélie · Rating 2 out of 5]

If, like me, you thought these were going to be the stories of the women of Fables, you will be EXTREMELY disappointed. In fact, it turns out to be about men in the Fables universe viewing and living the women's stories. I mean, I knew, Fables wasn't much of a feminist universe, but COME ON !! Couldn't we at least avoid some of these sexist stereotypes ?

The worst thing is the stories are quite cool, they just completely miss the point. Yes, it's nice to see Briar Rose again, but couldn't we have her point of view on the events ? And yes, I can understand how Beast is necessary to the second, side story, but wouldn't it have been as touching and powerful if the Lamia herself was telling it ?

Oh, and that bottle imp really needs to check its fact on men being stronger than women. Seriously.

I'll keep reading these because I really like the universe and want to see what happens next, but I'm still pissed off about all that.

[April Cote · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sad to say that I wasn't blown away by this first volume of Fairest. I thought the art work was ok, of course every woman was drawn perfectly built and even fully clothed looked naked. Another thing I could that bugged me; every time a person was talking there was always a word HIGHLIGHTED. EVERY single time. It was VERY distracting and UNNECESSARY. It's ANNOYING isn't it? Also, I just couldn't get into the plot as much as I wanted. The only reason it's getting 3 stars is because I did like the art and the story of Beauty and the Beast. Hope it gets better in the next volume.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun! and actually filled in some blanks for me re: Briar Rose's amazing flying car.


Decisions, decisions, Oh Prince of Thieves...

I enjoyed the "Noir" story about Beauty and the Beast in 1940s L.A., as well.

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fear for when I finish the Fables series. I love it that much. I am glad there are some spin-off series that I can enjoy, although I'm not too in love with Jack as a character, so I probably won't read that one until I'm desperate. However, when I looked on Bill Willingham's website, I saw that he has a reading order and I was cool to start the Fairest series even though I haven't finished Fables yet. So I read this one on Saturday.

Overall, I really liked it. I'm having trouble concentrating on books right now, so it took me a bit to get into this. However, I did enjoy it a lot. I like that he does something different and deeper with the Snow Queen. Something I was not expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised. I also like the twist on the "True Love's Kiss" rule. I liked the match-making Bottle Imp, and the fact that Ali Baba was the hero. In this book we actually have two heroines, so that was cool as well.

The artwork was gorgeous as usual. I loved the detail that the artist put into drawing and painting the characters. I studied the artists' lines and use of color to draw and paint the characters, and it inspires me to develop my own artwork to a deeper level.

The story at the end about the Lamia was dark. I was really shocked at how it ties into well-known Fables' characters ongoing storyline. It's something that will make me think harder about these secondary characters.

I honestly cannot get enough of these graphic novels. Looking forward to reading more in this series, in addition to the main Fables series.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This spins directly out of Fables, Volume 16: Super Team. Ali Baba discovers Briar Rose and Lumi, the Snow Queen still asleep from the Sleeping Beauty bomb that ended the Empire. After awakening Briar with "True Love's Kiss", Lumi is pissed off and captures them. Along for the ride, is Jonah, the bottle imp who "knows things". He's a great addition to the Fables world. Briar's fairy tale origins are retold. And you see how she gets the car she returns with in the main Fables storyline during Fables, Volume 18: Cubs in Toyland.

There's also a story set in 1940's L.A. that dramatically changes your outlook on Beauty and Beast.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one focuses on Ali Baba and his love for the Snow Queen and Rose Red, taking place shortly after Gepetto loses. It's done well, the artwork is at it's usual height and there are some interesting themes on love and how the Fables are impacted equally by it in comparison to "mundies".

OVERALL GRADE: B to B plus. .

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why is the main character of the series about the women of Fables a dude??

[Otherwyrld · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've not been enjoying Fables very much recently, and I hated the spin off Jack of Fables. This first volume in a new series came as a pleasant surprise, though. It picks up a lot of threads left danging throughout the main story line and weaves them into a very nice tale of its own.

While the story is supposedly about the women of Fables, the bulk of the first story is taken up by Ali Baba, prince of thieves, and his never ending quest for treasure. The treasure his find this time though consists of not one but two sleeping beauties. The first is Briar Rose, used as a weapon by the Fables against the Adversary (remember him?) to send his capital city to sleep and therefore knock out the administrative heart of the empire. The other is Lumi the Snow Queen, one of the greatest weapons in the Adversary's arsenal, also trapped in the capital city.

Along the way we get to hear a great retelling of the story of the Sleeping Beauty, and learn a lot more about the Snow Queen. There's an immense battle at the end between Lumi and Hadeon, who was the evil fairy who cast a wicked spell on Sleeping Beauty when she was a baby. It's all beautifully illustrated and there is a genuine happy ending as well.

The second story is is a story of Beauty and the Beast, set as a flashback to the 1940s. It's a great little tale, with a real surprise at its heart, when we learn that Beauty isn't what we all think she is.

I will be looking forward to more of these stories if they are as good as this

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea that this series spins off into standalone stories about individual fables. I'm not sure it needed to be the female fables in particular, or that having chosen that mission, it lives up to it. The first volume consists of two stories: a main arc concerning Ali Baba, Briar Rose, and the Snow Queen, and a single issue story concerning Beauty & the Beast.
The odd thing is that both of these stories ostensibly about fable women start out with male POV characters. Both hinge upon decisions made by the male characters. Both involve female fables getting rescued, even if they are also allowed to turn the tables at other points in the story. The main story spends a lot of time following around fairies with strategically shredded costumes, striking poses that seem anatomically problematic (I may just be sensitive to this right now because of Jim Hines' cover photo poses and the Hawkeye Initiative). In other words, these stories may include some strong and independent female fables, but the creators still assume that their audience is straight males (or that female readers will put up with the things that are necessary to invite the male gaze).
That said, the art is excellent, and the issues raised in the final story are intriguing and disturbing.

[♛ Garima ♛ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Sleeping beauty, Ice queen, Ali baba (or Aladin and Djinn) rolled into one story.



I enjoyed more than I thought I would. The artwork is gorgeous (strangely erotic at times) along with the twisty storyline.

[AndrewP · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a spin off from Willingham's Fables series that I discover by accident while browsing Hoopla. More fine story telling and I particularly liked the artwork in this one.

[Wing Kee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow! What a great start to a new series.

I liked the idea of Fairest when they first announced it " a new ongoing series focusing on the Fairer inhabitants of Fabletown". There are many wonderful female characters in fables and some character's have been highlighted in arcs in the main series in the past, but I had always wished there would be more, this series is perfect for that and the first arc proves that side tales like these are awesome and also do have consequences that I see spilling into the main series:

There are two arcs here in this first collection that deal with two character...actually three, Briar Rose, Lumi, and Beauty and all three get a lot of time to develop and breath it's wonderful:

World: I've said in past Fables review that the worlds (yes worlds) that Willingham creates are deep, well thought out, magical and an interesting take on the established ideas we have for fables, fairly tales, myths, folktales and all other manner of oral story telling and in the first two arcs it's not exception. We see the homeland again and also the 1940s in the two tales. The world feels fresh and new and authentic and it's a great backdrop for the stories that takes place which were wonderful. I would like to say however that I did not really enjoy the arc of the first style, Briar and especially Lumi just did not look right (it was made worse because the covers by Hughes are AMAZING), I did very enjoy the art in the Beauty arc though.


Story: We are introduced to the homeland once again after the events of past Fable issues and we are reconnected to Briar and Lumi which for obvious reasons have not been in the main storyline for a while now. The tale is a wonderful fairy tale retelling of Briar Rose (sleeping beauty) and also a great character study for Lumi also. I liked the adult fairy tale ending and the moral of that story that was put throughout the story, it's a wonderful conclusion and a great jumping off point for further developments for the characters I'd love to read more about them. The pacing for that first arc (6 issues) was spot on making you want to keep reading until the conclusion in one sitting (which I did). The second story is a single issue story set in the 1940s about Beauty and Beast, framed like a detective tale (and having the best cover to date for the Fairest series in my opinion) is fast on pace and information and also drops a bombshell that will have a huge effect I perceive in the main series in the future...oh and the art for that issue was awesome.

Characters: Wonderful and dense and real, all the characters introduced are awesome. Old characters that we know are given time to be fleshed out in ways they were never allowed to in the main series and new characters introduced here are charming cool and grabs your interesting immediately. I don't want to get into the details of the characters, as that's what makes Fables awesome, they are awesome.

A wonderful and powerful start to a new series which I will read (of course I will...I even read Jack and the wheels fell off so bad in the end of that series) with enthusiasm. I can't wait to see what other characters this series will focus on next...oooo I see Rapunzel on the next arcs solicitations wooooo!

Onward to the next book!

[Cyna · Rating 1 out of 5]

IDK why I thought this might be better than Fables in it's handling of women but at least now I know not to expect much improvement from what we got there. If anything, the misogyny is just allowed to take center stage, and the quality of storytelling has gone down so much that there's nothing to distract from it.

Most of the development of the "plot" centers around interpersonal relationships that haven't been established, much less >seen< by the reader (SQ loves AB so much he's become her "reason to live"? What? THEY HAVE HAD LIKE ZERO SCENES TOGETHER WHAT THE FUCK). Absent motivations abound (why is the bottle imp doing ANY of this?), and even the characters are forced to acknowledge in-universe that there's no REAL reason for them to do much of what they do, eh, but fuck it, we're here already, right?

To top it off, once again Willingham creates powerful, autonomous women and decides that their powerful autonomy was simply a phase, and that in the end, all it really takes to "tame" them - fucking TAME, they ACTUALLY USE THAT WORD - and is a man. A man, clearly the endgame for any and every woman.

SQ gets the shittiest end of the stick here. At least in Fables she was allowed to have a smidge of agency - presumably she'd at least >chosen< to become one of the Emperor's generals - but here it's all explained away, her villainy retconned into victimhood. If the book were about exploring that, devoted more to the SQ's personal journey, then it might not be SO bad, but instead it's just used to justify giving a former villain a shoddily-arranged happy, man-ful ending despite her past atrocities. What the fuck ever.

BR doesn't make it out much better. Her relationship with AB is barely touched on, and most of their scenes together have her pretty reasonably rebuffing his advances (they've literally only just met). Yet by the end of the book she's dressed down for being such a "bitch" to him, where it's revealed that she's acting so (apparently unreasonably?!? SORRY I GUESS YOU FORGOT TO SHOW THAT SCENE) hostilely toward him because she's jealous that he's "in love" with someone else.

WHHHHAAAT? WHERE DID ANY OF THIS COME FROM? OH I GUESS YOU FORGOT TO SHOW US THOSE SCENES TOO.

This book was a clusterfuck of awful, worse than usual for Willingham. Phil Jimenez's art is nice, but 100% not worth the rest of this crap.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review of Fairest No 1 (Wide Awake) in the Bill Willingham Fables series would be a 2 star review except for the exceptional art work. Mine is the large size paperback copy. I can speculate that Black and White cannot serve the artists as well as a full color edition. Individual panels can be cluttered and over drawn but the best achieve an almost 3 D effect. The artists tend to the tease on the subject of nudity but the various implications, sex and violence suggest that the books are not something parents may want to hand to pre teen kids. For example, the plot line driving Aladdin is that if he can wake her, bed her and wed her all she has is his. Hardly a family friendly sequence.

Fables is another in a growing field of re told fairy tales. Aladdin, his not esp magical jinn of the lamp meet Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) and various nice and not so nice magic users. Various appeals are made to several traditional stories, not just Sleeping Beauty, but more than this would involve spoilers.
Among the problems, the writing team never seem to get consistent is the problem of just how modern is the setting and who knows or does not know what about modern, mostly American culture and technology. This blur raises the question of anachronism. The writers could have this world be aware of ours but they choose to straddle with some knowing, some not knowing and the reader having to keep it all straight. A small cache of modern weapons and, NM that would be a different book.

I found it needless tricky to follow events. I am almost positive that some of the early pages are out of sequence, or maybe not. Events begin, jump to the middle. Expectations are raised only to be forgotten. Not a plot twist so much as a discontinuity. One of the most important fights seems to be about nothing and is of no immediate purpose except to set up the next scene.

I see that the lead writer of Book two is another person. Maybe Lauren Beukes can give us a better remake of Rapunzel Fairest Vol. 2: Hidden Kingdom . I am not a fan of this book, but I remain interested in the series.

[BookCupid · Rating 3 out of 5]

What happens when you combine fairy-tale characters?

With the help of a genie, Ali Baba rescues Briar Rose with a kiss, even though he'd planted a smooch on another girl just mere seconds before. Does true love actually exists?

Let me start by saying that I've never read Fables. I had no clue what I was getting into. It's quite entertaining to see these flawless (talking about the Disney version) characters with faults. The illustrations are fast paced, with arguments and fights at every two pages. Although, I didn't understand some of the characters motives, the story is entertaining enough to make me want to pursue the series.

[Nadine in NY Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first this was really good, I was enjoying the snark and the action and I was highly engaged and interested. But it felt like it fell apart in the last few parts. This entire Fables/Fairest series is fun and engaging and I'll definitely keep reading, but I can't say it's amazing.

In an off-shoot that claims to be about the women, I expected the women to really take centerstage. And they sort of did, but our point of view was far from that stage; we were stuck inside the heads of Ali the thief and Jonah the bottle imp, and they were like in the back row of the mezzanine having their own conversation and only occasionally looking at the stage. I like Ali and Jonah and I enjoyed spending time with them, but ... that's not what I thought "Fairest" was going to be about.

Then there's a Big Fight, but the start of that fight takes place off stage, since we see Lumi (Snow Queen) and Hadeon posturing, and then on the next page all hell has broken loose but we don't know exactly why or what's going on. Then the Big Fight is wrapped up with some ludicrous shenanigans that felt like cheating on Willingham's part and I was deeply disappointed. I'm pretty sure he's good at creating these characters but then he doesn't quite know what to do with them once he's got them on stage; like a kid who can build a nice Lego set but then isn't very good at make-believe play with the Lego people in their new village. (And he doesn't even have to do much work at creating them, since each archetype already exists in fairy tales. Obviously. So the entire point of this series is the "what to do with them" part.)

The cover of this volume is also very misleading, since it shows a lot of the Fable women, but this volume only stars Briar Rose and the Snow Queen, with a strong supporting role from Hadeon the Destroyer (the fairy who cursed Briar Rose waybackwhen).

I should note that I read this out of order, since this takes place after (I think?) vol 16 of Fables, and I've only read the first few volumes.

[Kris Jou · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't review this book by divorcing it from the context of its creation. Fairest, as solicited, is a Fables' spinoff that focuses on female characters, and yet it ended up indistinct from its flagship. The cover depicts every Fables women -- and they're gorgeous depiction courtesy of Adam Hughes -- but nearly all of them are absent. Instead, we get by-the-numbers heist plot and some sorcery fights so prevalent in Fables. Ali Baba and a djinni of sorts, both of them men, have more scenes and dialogues than Briar Rose and Ice Queen. As modern twist on fairy tales are reaching oversaturation point, Fairest does itself no favor for being samey. Oh well, at least Phil Jimenez can draw, even if his style is too realistic to match Mark Buckingham's more exaggerated artwork on Fables.

[William Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I left Fables a long, long time ago. It completely ran out of steam around issue 70 and was just puttering about, wading in its accolades and praise for a while before that. I did read the Great Fables Crossover, which isn't even worth mentioning and just had me shaking my head in confusion.

The reason I picked up Fairest was because Lauren Buekes was writing it ( starting at issue 8 I think, and I started getting the single issues ). This volume before LB took over, Willingham wrote a few one and done stories that were fairly fun and outside the regular Fables continuity. There's enough here to make it worth the read, but don't expect the early brilliance of Fables. Ever again, I would imagine.

Writing: B
Art: B-

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually think this is better than Fables.
Better stories, better art.

Only thing is, I am currently reading Fables as the Deluxe edition hardcovers come out, so I'm a little late on whatever "current events" that are happening in that world.
This book contains some major spoilers to the Fables stories which wouldn't even count as spoilers were I read up on Fables.

Too bad the powers that be didn't publish this as a Deluxe Hardcover as well.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good addition to the Fables series by Bill Willingham, coming in somewhere after Fables, Vol. 12: The Dark Ages and chronicling adventures of the femme fabales.

[Gaia✨️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A questo punto devo concludere che in generale gli spin off di Fables sono decisamente meglio della serie madre! (Tolta quella roba di Cenerentola, che è carina ma dimenticabile).

Questo primo volume di Fairest è meraviglioso! I disegni sono bellissimi, la storia chiude alcuni cerchi che sono stati aperti tempo fa nella serie madre, i volumi sono autoconclusivi ma riescono comunque ad essere ricchi e completi. (Ho già detto che i disegni sono bellissimi?).

Per quanto la premessa di Fables sia di trasportare le fiabe nel mondo reale, ho sempre preferito le parti ambientate nelle homelands, perciò con questo volume ci sono andata a nozze.
Bellissimi gli ampi scenari di battaglia, divertente il nano della lampada, carino Alì Baba, coerente ed organica la storia.

Ma vogliamo parlare dell'episodio sulla bella e la bestia? Cioè, in che senso???
Sono sconvolta, devastata, disperata. COME PUOI FARMI QUESTO BILLY??? PERCHÈ CONTINUI A SPEZZARMI IL CUORE??
Devo ancora riprendermi.

Sciapò per questo risvolto.

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a spinoff of Wilingham’s “Fables” series. It focuses on Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) and Ali Baba. Ali Baba finds himself a bottle and when an imp comes out of it instead of a genie, he is sorely disappointed. However, the imp explains that Ali Baba needs to find the sleeping princess and wake her with “True Love’s Kiss”. When he finds her, though, there are two sleeping women – and he doesn’t know whom to wake, so he wakes them both – Briar Rose and the Snow Queen, who then chases after them to capture them.

This was ok. Maybe I would have liked it more if I’d read it closer to when I was still reading “Fables” and at the point where this one made more sense? As always, the colour illustrations were very nice, but the story left something to be desired. I will not be continuing this spinoff series.