Fables# 100

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Marc Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Andrew Pepoy, and others

Well, this is one hell of an impressive comic.  For the 100th issue of Fables, an amazing milestone for a Vertigo book in this day and age, Willingham and friends pull out all the stops.

To begin with, the book has a 65-odd page story detailing the big battle between Frau Totenkinder and Mr. Dark.  Totenkinder, now called Bellflower, finally reveals the depths of her powers and abilities, as she takes on this massively powerful antagonist.  The battle is pretty innovative, as she uses a number of pre-prepared spells to try to 'box' her opponent.  The outcome of this battle changes the status quo for the book's massive cast, and was pretty unexpected.

While all of this is going on, Beauty goes into labour, and finally delivers her baby.  These scenes are sprinkled in and around the battle, and there is a fascinating blow-out between Snow White and Nurse Spratt, which also looks to have some important consequences.

This huge story is positively lovely.  Lee Loughridge is doing something new with the colours, and the book feels more burnished and refined than usual.

After the main story, there are a few interesting tidbits added into the mix.  There is a prose story written by Buckingham and illustrated by Willingham, which is kind of fun, and a few short stories that follow up on the new status quo I mentioned before.

Also, there are a few one or two-page strips used to answer some questions about the characters in the series asked by a few minor celebrities (none of whom I'd ever heard of).

Fables is consistently a terrific read, but this issue is a milestone in a number of different ways.  While at $10 it's kind of expensive, I felt that I got more than my money's worth with it.