Fables #81

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Mark Buckingham and Andrew Pepoy

This is a pretty important issue for Fables. All of the Fabletown Fables have had to move out to the Farm following the destruction of all of Fabletown a couple of issues ago. Mister Dark has moved into the ruins, and has his 'witherings' building him Castle Dark, where he plans to sit until the Fables come back.

As this is going on, one central character passes away. I'm not going to spoil it (although the build up to this has been obvious, and the cover rather gives it away), but I will say that it was a death handled very well. It would have been easy for Willingham to give in to sentimentality and pull all the emotional heart-strings he could, but instead, he chose to let the story play out in a way that was touching and sad, without being heavy-handed.

This issue provides a lot of insight into some of the characters, especially Rose Red, who, with the visit from the pig head on a stick last issue, is clearly being moved into the forefront of the book for the next little while.

In addition, this is the last issue that James Jean will be providing a cover for. His work has helped make Fables stand out on the stands, and has been consistently beautiful and innovative. He has a nice text-piece in the book discussing his stint on the book, and I think it's good of DC to have provided him with that opportunity.