Fables #101

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Eric Shanower, Richard Friend, and Andrew Pepoy

After the gigantic hundredth issue, I wasn't surprised to see that Willingham has shifted focus, for a little while, away from the varied denizens of Fabletown, now in exile to Haven, and on to one of the almost-forgotten subplots of the title.  This issue starts a new arc that focuses on Blufkin, the formerly flying monkey, who has been trapped in the other-dimensional business office ever since Mr. Dark attacked Fabletown.

Bored and in search of adventure, Blufkin starts to climb the tree that takes up the centre of the office, to see where it will lead.  He's mildly manipulated by the talking mirror and Frankenstein, although the whole thing is portrayed as a Herculean task.

Strangely, he ends up in Ev, a world that borders Oz, just in time to assist some creatures that are on the run.  Joining Willingham on this story is artist Eric Shanower, who has a deep involvement with the Oz stories.  It's always great to see Shanower on art, and I'm sure it's fun for him to draw a crazy story like this, so different from his usual work on the essential Age of Bronze, even if his Blufkin looks a little creepy from time to time.

While I enjoyed this issue, I found that the writing was venturing too closely to the kind of tongue-in-cheek fantasy comics that turned me off Jack of Fables.  As much as I love seeing Shanower's art, I hope this arc doesn't last too long.