Tag Archives: Fairest

Convention: Fables at the New York Comic Convention (NYCC)

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 Bond

Description:
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…

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Conventions: FablesCon aka Fabletown and Beyond

A lover of fairytales, folklore, mythology, etc I found it rather interesting that I didn’t pick up this series sooner. In fact if you head on over to the Entertainment link in the upper right hand corner and on the drop down menu click on Literary you’ll see that the Fables series is one of the book series that I highly recommend reading.

Fables
For anyone that really enjoys fairytales and nursery rhymes and are open minded to the seeing them in a new light would really pick up this series. Taking many of the beloved fairytale characters and re-imaging them while staying true to their roots (roots as in the original Grimm stories and those from Hans Christian Anderson, etc… none of the Disnified versions).

A very strong example of this is the story of Snow White, while everyone knows of the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves the tale of Snow White and Rose Red. Bill Willingham masterfully combines the two “Snow Whites” and created a full and colorful backstory that not only is unique, colorful, and truthful.

The Fables world eventually expanded into Jack of Fables, The Literals and the Great Fables Crossover, the Cinderella mini-series which includes: From Fabletown with Love and Fables are Forever and most recently Fairest.

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Visual Art Commission: The “Expanded” Genres by Tony Akins

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Disney has ruined fairy tales for me, well for all of us really. I mean we grow up thinking that there is a happily ever after, except when we start reading the original fairy tales that the Disney versions are based off of, we end up with a rude awakening. Namely that the fairy tales don’t really have a ‘happily ever after’ in fact they usually have a warning label or a lessons learned disclaimer on the back.

Interestingly enough, I started to really enjoy the original fairy tales and soon started to look for other tales from various other cultures to satiate my thirst. That was when I was introduced to “Fables”.

You see, Fables is a comic series from Vertigo that takes all the beloved fairy tale characters and sends them to live in New York City, far from their Homelands where a singular enemy has turned all these beloved characters into refugees on the Earth or Mundy as they like to all it. Not only is this a witty conglomeration of every beloved fairy tale that you can possibly think of, but the creator of the series: Bill Willingham, has quite intelligently combined fairy tales and nursery rhymes together when necessary.
– Take the Big Bad Wolf for example (also known as Bigby Wolf in the series), he is a singular character in the Fables universe, but he is the same major wolf character in a variety of stories.
– Snow White is widely known as the beloved princess of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, but she is also the sister to Rose Red in the fairy tale of Snow White and Rose Red. In the Fables universe she is also introduced as the uptight, strict deputy mayor of Fabletown.
– Little Boy Blue isn’t quite so “little”, rather he is not only Snow White’s right hand man in the mayor’s office, he also has a hell of a military back story from back in the Homelands
What Bill has done is very creatively and realistically tied together stories to create a richer back story to these beloved characters in such a realistic and natural way that you can’t help but love them even more.

Then Bill did something new, he expanded upon the universe and created a world of Literals beings who were essentially the personification of literary themes and terms. The Editor became Mr Revise, Deus Ex Machina became Dex, and the various fictional categories became The Genres. All of these characters found in the spin-off series: Jack of Fables.

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