Over the past weekend I was privileged to be able to watch the Vertigo – Fables 10th Anniversary panel at the New York Comic Con. From the New York Comic Con website:
Speakers:
Andrew Pepoy, Bill Willingham, John Cunningham, Matt Sturges, Phil Jimenez, Sean E. Williams, Shelly BondDescription:
Come join in the party as Fables celebrates its 10th anniversary at New York Comic Con! Join Bill Willingham, creator of the multi-Eisner Award winning series Fables and Fairest, Group Editor Shelly Bond, Phil Jimenez (Fairest), Matt Sturges (Fairest) and others as they look back on 10 years of the amazing journey that is Fables, plus an in depth look into what the future holds! Don’t miss this panel that is truly legendary.
Needless to say… there was a lot of information coming our way… and true to the Bill Willingham style, there were a lot of teases, diversions, and possible red herrings being thrown for the audience to see.
So where to start?
LATEST FABLES AND FAIREST ISSUES ON STANDS NOW
Well first off the issues of Fairest and Fables that are out for the month of October. Fairest opens up to a Rapunzel story arc while Fables wraps up the Cubs in Toyland storyline. Click here for a review of Issue 121 of Fables (warning… spoilers!)
UPCOMING ISSUE OF FABLES
Coming up later in October we have a one-shot story called “The Destiny Game”. Since I didn’t take any notes about this particular issue other than Bill asking the audience if they felt that the Fables series did not do a good enough job when it comes to magic and destiny… below is the summary of the issue from the Vertigo Comics website:
How does fate work in the Fables fictional universe? Find out in this tale full of deadly chases, betrayals, sword fights and skulduggery, as superstar guest-artist Gene Ha guides us through “The Destiny Game.” Also: Bufkin and his “girlfriend” sidekick continue their Ozian adventures in the backup feature painted by Shawn McManus.
An interesting quote that was spoke to the audience later in the panel… straight from the upcoming issue of Fables:
Your sons and daughters will become gods and monsters that lay waste on the world…
UPCOMING STORY ARC FOR FAIREST
Going back to Fairest… after the Rapunzel story arc, Sean E Williams has been tapped to introduce a new “kick ass” female character into the Fables-verse. Why? Because Sean believes that there simply isn’t enough “kick ass” female characters in the Fables-verse.
WEREWOVLES OF THE HEARTLAND
And now for the highly anticipated arrival of Werewolves of the Heartland. Bill started this segment of the panel with a give away of a singular one-month advance copy of Werewolves of the Heartland.
How did this happen? Sean, Andrew and Matt all chose someone from the audience… and those three lucky people had to sing the Werewolves of the Heartland Theme Song… at the same time.
Dammit I wish I had video.
In the end the winner was the girl that was in costume. (Granted not a Fables related costume)
UPCOMING STORY ARC FOR FABLES
Starting with Issue 125 (and continuing until Issue 129), there will be a new story arc called: Snow White. Straight from the Vertigo Comics website:
So Snow White is finally getting an arc of FABLES named after her? That’s too bad, since it always means the title character is about to be put through the ringer. And she has to go through these trials and tribulations alone, because Bigby is off learning to drive (which leads to its own harrowing implications). But she’s made of pretty stern stuff, our Snow, and she’s never been a wilting flower in the face of adversity, so let’s see what she’s made of.
FABLES INVASION! COURTESY OF THE CHARACTERS OF UNWRITTEN
So since the creators / authors of The Unwritten are able to migrate between various worlds… they will be paying a visit to the Fables-verse. Starting with Issue 50 in the Unwritten series and continuing to Issue 54 is a story arc called: “The Event”. (Bill Willingham note: This is not a crossover) One or more of the characters from The Unwritten world will find themselves in the Fables-verse and hilarity and chaos ensues.
Interesting thing to note is that when the writers of The Unwritten embarked on this particular story arc
He didn’t know how mean he wanted to be to Bill’s [Fables] characters.
Also for those that remember where Boy Blue’s resting place is and how beautiful and lonely it is…
Boy blue is about to have a lot of company in his grave on the hillside.
During “The Event” in The Unwritten:
Peter Gross and Mark Buckingham will be co-drawing and co-inking. Bill Willingham will be guest writing during this storyarc and as thus the Fables characters will be guest starring in The Unwritten.
As a consequence the writers and authors of The Unwritten will be guests at FablesCon.
TELLTALE GAMES – FABLES
First let’s start with TellTale Games’ twitter feed:
If you haven’t heard yet, it’s true. Game based on @BillWillingham’s #Fables has been announced from @telltalegames. http://www.telltalegames.com/fables
According to Bill Willingham he will be doing some work / writing on the game and this will be considered as Fables canon. Since he is not a computer guy he has to guess at certain aspects. Thus far the writers of the game has impressed Bill Willingham so much that they are being tapped for future storylines in the Fables-verse. He is thus far pleased with how the game is turning out, though his one pet peeve is that someone else in the DC management is able to see what is going on with the game before Bill does.
The remainder of the panel was QUESTION AND ANSWER… and the first question was:
Do you get to play Bigby?
Well Bill knows which characters from the Fables-verse are playable, but he is unsure if he should say it… however he did imply:
How cool would it be to be able to play Bigby?
Does Bill have any plans to continue the Peter & Max storyline / novel with sequels?
Bill admits that there may be additional future fables prose novels. However, the novel he is writing now is a sequel to Down the Mysterly River novel. He will admit that in regards to Fables related novesl: There are at least two books in the future.
Will character from Peter & Max be featured in the future?
Bill said that one is the most obvious aka Bo Peep due to her presence on the first cover of Fairest. However Bill also said the following:
characters from Peter & Max
How far in advance does Bill know what is going to happen in the Fables-verse.
FABLES: Lines of dialogue are planned approximately two years in advance while plotlines are planned almost four years in advance.
FAIREST is getting to that point so writers of various story arcs could write concurrently. Sean was talking to Bill about his Fairest story arc three SDCC’s ago… And the storyline won’t come out for almost another year… So four years.. And although Matt has been tapped to write a storyline he isn’t scheduled yet.
So consequently, how far in advance did he know the identity of the Adversary.
Bill knew the identity before pitching fables to DC / Vertigo which at that time was Peter Pan and Captain Hook was supposed to be one of the “good guys”. But with Peter Pan still in copyright in the United Kingdom they had to change the storyline to adopt to the new Adversary. However, the new Adversary was chosen right before the first issue was in print… and while the second issue was in development.
Are we ever going to see another Cindy arc?
There are no plans at this time, but the door is always open.
I don’t remember the exact question but eventually the following happened:
The blue ox fans might want to check out a side thing that Bill and Matt are kind of working on (there is a website, but not revealed) [Babe] thinks he may be a skunk or “Jerome” the famous test rabbit.
Is there plans to revisit the Arabian world and characters?
YES!
And finally: Any plans to bring back Prince Charming?
Bill hesitated and paused for a very long time before answering the following:
I swear to you that I have no plans to bring back Prince Charming… I don’t. I won’t be bringing back Prince Charming.
Now… for me… Bill emphasizing the pronoun “I” is very suspicious to me… but what do I know? I am just a blogger and fan of Fables. 🙂