I Read Comic Books discussion

The votes are in, and April's BotM is Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham! Are you new to the series or is this a re-read for you? Have you read any of the myriad Fables spin-off comics? Excited to hear your thoughts!

Reminder: This discussion thread is FULL SPOILERS for Volume 1! If you have read farther in the series, please be careful not to share spoilers for anything that happens after Volume 1.

Tune in to the IRCB Podcast on Wednesday, April 29th to hear the IRCB team's discussion of this book. If it's ok to read your comments on the show, please post them by April 25th and include "OK TO AIR" in your post!

I absolutely adore this series. I've read through it at least 3 times at this point. Bill Willingham hit on an ingenious idea. What if the characters from fairy tales were real? And they are currently outcasts on our world.

I love the reinvention of all these old fables and fairy tales. They were often quite grim and Willingham doesn't shy away from that grimness as all. The book is filled with adult themes of sex, betrayal, and violence.

Mark Buckingham who illustrates most of the series is the perfect foil for Bill Willingham. They work wonderfully together. All the characters are expressive with their own look and personality. I also really love the beautiful framing art around each page.

The series has been reproduced in a ton of different formats. I find the latest editions, the Deluxe editions that contain multiple volumes of the original series to be the best if you're looking to own a copy. They're all gorgeous hardcovers.

OK to Air

ok to air!

This is my third (at least!) time rereading the first Fables volume. Just like the previous reads, I really enjoy this adult retelling.

Even though there's some awkward exposition at the beginning, I think it was necessary to start world building, and the frame of a murder mystery works overall. Buckingham's art is wonderful and I like the expressive characters as well as the gold frames around some panels.

This reread, I really appreciated how Willingham reinvents Snow White as the protagonist. From what I understand, there isn't much character in the original fable and the Grimm retelling. But here, she's no nonsense and high powered, essentially running Fabletown on her own. She has no patience for her philandering ex, Prince Charming (I love how he's the same prince across fairy tales), and shows some emotion when her estranged sister is presumably murdered. (Also: Snow and Bigsby are big Leia/Han energy.) That being said, I wanted to see more from the other female characters - though I won't fault Willingham for the inevitably sexist source material. Still, there's a lot of lower-lip pulling from many of them and I hope Beauty and Cinderella get the same treatment as Rose Red (though we don't see much of her this volume) and Snow White. (I believe they do, but I don't remember the 1-2 later volumes I've read.)

(also: Willingham and Buckingham. LOL.)

Lenny wrote: "I hope Beauty and Cinderella get the same treatment as Rose Red"

Cinderella gets a couple of her own miniseries down the road. It takes a while before we see much of Beauty but she does take a more prominent role later on.

Chad - that’s really good to hear!

I think I only made it to volume four, or whichever is the Arabian Nights volume, and on that note Forthencho I’m also glad that Willingham doesn’t just stick to European fairy tales but also branches out to myths/tales all over the world. Otherwise it would have been pretty ethnocentric.

I have my long review on this graphic novel on my blog: https://graphicnovelty2.com/2020/04/1...

This first volume is a delightful, but very mature, look at postmodern reimaged fairytales. I enjoyed the crime thriller feature of the story (always a preferred genre of mine) mixed in with humor, adult themes, and the obvious fantasy aspect of it. I loved how Prince Charming was a Lothario who bedded any female, while Beauty and the Beast were a long-suffering couple with marital issues. Jack (Jack the Giant Killer, Little Jack Horner, Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack and Jill, Jack Be Nimble, Jack Frost, and Jack O’Lantern) was a scheming cad, Rose Red was a party girl, and Bluebeard a slimy playboy. Snow White and Bigby definitely had chemistry, and you know a relationship between the two is sure to develop in the future. The world-building was excellent, and this story is strong enough to be standalone, yet, most readers will be clamoring for more adventures with this unique cast. Part of the pleasure is figuring out who some of the characters are and reconciling how they are portrayed now with what you remember about them from their original fairytales. *Ok to air*

Utterly love this book!
I found the volume four TBP 'March of the Wooden Soldiers' of this series in a bargain book shop. When came across the first issue 'Legends in Exile' while hunting for the full series, I realised two things: 1.) Each book has been titled beautifully. 2.) Each book has a different genre.

The first issue is definitely a detective story and sets the main characters' personalities for upcoming storylines. If I remember correctly, Buckingham did not pencil this issue as he was parallelly working on the next book 'Animal Farm'. Todd Klein's letters make the book attractive and easy-to-read

Next issues switch genres between Action, Adventure, Family drama, Fantasy, Period drama, Heist, Horror, Love stories, Spy stories and War themes to name a few. This level of variety is what keeps the storyline fresh.

There are several romantic couples in the series (Bibgy-Snow, Rose-Jack, Rose-Blue, Beauty-Beast, Flycatcher-Red, Raven-Vulco, Totenkinder-Dunster Happ, Thumbelina-Tom Thumb & Rodney-June etc.) which result in the creation of interesting subplots. Women in this book series are sexy but elegant. Even in occasional sex scenes, they are not objectified.

I was pleasantly surprised to see my favourite Indian characters like Mowgli, Bagheera, Shere Khan, Baloo making appearances along with Lord Mountbatten himself (which I believe came from his hunting legends?)

Still, sometimes I felt that the series could have been wrapped up earlier than when it actually did. Also, there should have been more variety in art. The artist who did the first book should have been repeated more often. Another issue is that the different characters many times speak in similar tones and use agonizingly long sentences. However, these could be excused as just a fan's naggings!

A big thanks to the creators for this incredible gift!
And a definite thanks to the moderators of this group to let it all out...

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Anurag wrote: "If I remember correctly, Buckingham did not pencil this issue as he was parallelly working on the next book 'Animal Farm'."

You are correct. Lan Medina drew the first arc before Mark Buckingham came on as the regular artist.

Don't forget to get your comments in before we record next week's show on Sunday (April 26)!

OK TO AIR

I think this book is definitely a product of its time
As cool as it is and innovative at the time it definitely has some issues that probably have not aged as well (looking at you steak house waitress)
It think nowadays we can find a more refined story that was partly inspired by this

The covers are beautiful but looking at the artist I am not surprised

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I actually am coming up on my first completion of the entire Fables verse, and I definitely feel like this volume comes out firing on all cylinders but towards the end the series loses its way for a bit. That being said, the last 20 issues or so leading up to the end have been good.

I also tend to have an issue with some of the female character choices, for example the spin-off Fairest was billed as a female-hero focused series but more often than not we would follow a male character who talked about the female character, and it felt like a waste.

Daniel wrote: "...nowadays we can find a more refined story that was partly inspired by this ..."

Any one you want to mention?

I found The Unwritten to be a more enjoyable series. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is similar, but I don't much care for it.

Ed wrote: "Daniel wrote: "...nowadays we can find a more refined story that was partly inspired by this ..."

Any one you want to mention?

I found The Unwritten to be a more enjoyable series. ..."

Oh the Unwritten! But I love me some Tom Taylor.

I think the draw for me in this volume was who was going to be in the book and how they'd be portrayed. (Much like the Arrowverse's Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover). I did not expect the short story at the end - and was wondering why that wasn't put into another issue or two.

Tom wrote: "I did not expect the short story at the end - and was wondering why that wasn't put into another issue or two."

Most of those short stories were created to allow Mark Buckingham a chance to breathe.

Chad wrote: "Tom wrote: "I did not expect the short story at the end - and was wondering why that wasn't put into another issue or two."

Most of those short stories were created to allow Mark Buckingham a chan..."

Fair point. I couldn't believe how detailed the artwork was especially for the full page layouts.