Fairest In All The Land

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Chrissie Zullo, Karl Kerschl, Renae De Liz, Ray Dillon, Fiona Meng, Mark Buckingham, Phil Noto, Meghan Hetrick, Russ Braun, Tony Akins, Gene Ha, Tula Lotay, Marley Zarcone, Ming Doyle, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, Nimit Malavia, Dean Ormston, Kurt Huggins, Adam Hughes, Al Davison, Shawn McManus, Inaki Miranda, and Kevin Maguire

I'd gotten pretty bored of Fables and its related properties, but with this hardcover, featuring work by a number of fantastic artists, but telling one complete story from beginning to end, my appreciation of Bill Willingham's work with these characters was restored.

Fairest: In All the Land is a terrific murder mystery that begins in the lost Business Office, and is narrated by the Magic Mirror.  Our narrator is also a participant in the story, as he realizes that a visitor has come into the office, a space that has been set dimensionally adrift, and has been cut off from the other Fables for a long time.  Shortly after this, beautiful Fables, starting with Rose Red, are being murdered.  A list of intended victims is found, and Cinderella is pressed into solving the murders.

Cindy's skills lean more towards espionage than detective work, and so it takes her a while to figure things out.  The Mirror has an idea of what's going on, but isn't able to communicate with anyone, trapped as he is.

This story ranges across the history of Fabletown, and involves a number of supporting characters showing up for a bit to play their part.  I'm not sure that someone new to Fables would get a lot out of this, but for a long-time, lapsed, reader, it was a treat.

Willingham was assisted by a remarkable list of artists.  I'm not sure what I found more exciting - to see up and comers like Tula Lotay, Ming Doyle, and Marley Zarcone represented, or to see actual interiors by Adam Hughes.  There are a few artists here who are unfamiliar to me, which is also pretty exciting, as the art is consistently great throughout this book.

Having finished this, the only Fables left for me to read is the last volume; I'm going to have to get around to that some time soon.

The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross, Kurt Huggins, Al Davison, Russ Braun, Shawn McManus, Dean Ormston, and Gary Erskine

I've had a complicated relationship with The Unwritten, the long-running Vertigo series by Mike Carey and Peter Gross.  The first arc or so didn't do much for me, but I stuck with the title out of faith in the creators, and it soon became one of my favourite Vertigo titles.  Somewhere, along the way though, I lost interest in the comic, as it became a little too lost under its own weight.  A disastrous cross-over with Fables (that wasn't actually a cross-over, since it only happened in the one series) followed by a relaunch with a price increase was enough to get me to stop reading the book.

Somewhere in there, this graphic novel was published, but I guess I didn't even notice.  This is an interesting book, clarifying one aspect of the series, and diving into another aspect which has been largely ignored.

This book is split between two stories.  Wilson Taylor, author of the Tommy Taylor books, and father to Tom Taylor, writes in his journal about the first couple of years, when he managed to have his first novel published on the same day as his son's birth.  We learn about how he managed to manipulate his mother into leaving Tom's life, and how he arranged to keep his real son tied in the public consciousness with his fictional son.

The majority of this book tells that story that is in that first Tommy Taylor novel.  We learn about his parents' death, and how he ended up being raised in the kitchen of a school for wizards.  We learn that he doesn't have the 'Spark', the precursor to a magical education, and we meet his close friends.  Eventually, the Conclave, a group of powerful wizards, decide to raise the ship that his parents died on, as they tried to transport wild magic to the school.  Bringing the vessel also brings with it Count Ambrosio, an immortal vampire.  It goes without saying that it's up to Tommy and his friends to save the day.

The dual nature of this story is interesting, but I'm not sure that a reader new to these characters would have much of a clue as to what's going on in the Wilson Taylor sections.  Although there are passing nods to Leviathan, the whale-spirit that lives off fiction in the regular series, no mention is made of the Cabal, or why Wilson is immersing young Tom in a sensory deprivation tank.  Long-time readers are rewarded with this fleshed-out timeline, but I think the Wilson sections of this book would feel inconsequential to anyone else.

The Tommy story is enjoyable, in a YA kind of way.  It does help to understand the bigger picture of this whole series to know Tommy's story, and see how it parallels and differs from the Harry Potter stories that it was clearly roughly based upon.

I found the approach to art in this book pretty interesting.  Peter Gross provided layouts for the whole book, and gave it a consistent look, but the various finishers added their own voices to the mix.  The only pages I found I could identify were Dean Ormston's, as his work is always pretty individual.  This approach worked well to distinguish the Wilson pages from the Tommy ones, and to set apart different sections of Tommy's story.

I'm glad I read this book, and it does have me interested in picking up the last half-dozen or so issues of the second volume of Unwritten.  Carey and Gross do great work together; I just wish this series hadn't gotten so bogged down that it lost me.

Fables #117

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Andrew Pepoy, and Shawn McManus

Take a moment to look at the cover of this month's issue of Fables.  It looks like a sophisticated, 'mature readers' comic, doesn't it?  Unfortunately, that's not what Fables has been for many months now.  This issue is spread rather thin, as we check in with the children of Bigby Wolf and Snow White in a couple of different situations, in the main story.

Therese is still the queen of some Toyland, but she's hungry and unhappy.  Her brother Dare has arrived to rescue her, and he discovers that his favourite toy is there to help him (and is huge and powerful).  It's not explained why his favourite toy would be in a place of discarded toys, but I guess it's all good.  He goes to get his sister, but gets attacked by the residents of the kingdom.

Meanwhile, in the Mundy, Bigby figures out that his kids have left the world, and a few of the Fables move into Castle Dark, which is the new Fabletown.  These couple of pages are the only part of the comic that grabbed my attention, and they were way too short. 

There's also three pages of silliness featuring Bufkin in Oz.  I wish that plot would just end - it's become very tedious.

I think this is the last issue of Fables that I have pre-ordered.  I may still pick up some of the future issues, to get to the end of this storyline, but I feel like my time with this book has come to a close.  The art in it is wonderful, but I'm just getting increasingly bored with Willingham's storylines, and I don't feel like he has a direction or plan for this series anymore.  I know it's Vertigo's sales juggernaut, but maybe it's time for this series to wind down, and for Willingham and Buckingham to work on something a little fresher...

Fables #116

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and Shawn McManus

Here's the question I find myself pondering this month.  Is Vertigo still the home of thought-provoking, adult comics?  Books like DMZ, Northlanders, Scalped, and (to a lesser extent) iZombie, are all recently wrapped up or will be shortly.  One of their newest titles, Dominique Laveau, Voodoo Child, reads a little more like a sophisticated superhero book from the late 80s, and Fables has become increasingly focused on its child characters, to the general detriment of the book.

This latest issue is again spotlighting Snow White and Bigby Wolf's children.  Therese has ended up in the land of Discardia, where a bunch of broken toys have made her their queen, although she's likely to starve there.  Darien, one of her brothers, has decided to go looking for her himself with the help of the wind-up tiger Lord Mountbatten.  Pinocchio also gets a bit of space to flirt with Osma.  Oh, and Blufkin the flying monkey escapes the gallows.

I don't see, aside from a few curse words that Darien let fly, how this comic should be 'suggested for mature readers'.  Actually, the swearing of a child helps underscore how immature this comic is becoming.  I get it that Willingham has been writing this comic for a good long time, and is perhaps just running low on ideas, and I would never advocate for 'mature scenes' just for their own sake, but I find that this book is not as sophisticated as it used to be.

Mark Buckingham's art is always awesome, but I'm finding that my enthusiasm for this title has reached the point where I think it's time to take it off my pre-order list.

Fables #115

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and Shawn McManus

Fables continues to flounder with this new Toyland arc.  Willingham has had a hard time maintaining a focused narrative since the Adversary was vanquished a few years ago, but I feel like this book's plots are getting more and more threadbare, and more stretched out with each issue.

This month, we find out that Therese, one of Snow White and Bigby's daughters, was taken by her toy boat to be the new queen of a rather downtrodden land, called Discardia, Toyland, Mattagonia, and Madland, all within the span of a few pages.  Basically, it looks like she's living in the world of The Stuff of Legend, after a bomb hit it.  It's nothing but broken old fashioned toys and awkward dialogue in this place, and I'm finding it hard to care.

Her disappearance also leads to some self-recrimination from her brother Darien, and more proof that Willingham really struggles to write children's dialogue.  In fact, that may be the main reason why I find myself increasingly disappointed with this book - Willingham does fine with adults and all manners of magical creatures, but his kids sound a little like they've come from bad British post-War juvenile novels.

The other plots that are given a little space in this issue are more interesting.  King Cole has a long chat with Mrs. Spratt, who he's discovered chained up and emaciated in Castle Dark.  Beauty and Beast consider sticking around Haven instead of coming back to our world.  And, many months after Blufkin climbed up on a scaffold to be hung, we learn that his rope still hasn't dropped (I thought maybe Willingham just forgot about this completely).

Fables is usually a very good comic, even when it lacks direction, and so I'm hoping that all these plots concerning Snow and Bigby's insufferably irritating children can get wrapped up quickly, and things can improve again.  Really, Mark Buckingham's art saves this one...

Fables #114

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and Shawn McManus

I really feel like Bill Willingham shouldn't be writing comics with young children in them.  This issue was not as cringe-inducing as the issues that had the children competing for the role of North Wind, but still, the kids in this comic do not come off as very authentic on any level.  They read like children in post-war British children's novels, which is to say fully manufactured.  The idea of using Bigby Wolf and Snow White's children is a very interesting one - with their mixed parentage and abilities, there are a wealth of stories that could be driven by them, but this isn't really working for me.

One of the kids is upset about the fact that she got a toy boat for Christmas, and the boat is, of course, eeeevil (read that with a creepy voice).  This plot kind of bores me, and so I'm done with it.

Much more interesting is the return of some of the Fabletown crowd to their old stomping grounds, which is now the site of Castle Dark.  In exploring the castle, they find the imprisoned and newly-skinny Nurse Spratt (of course, she too is now eeeevil). 

As well, there is some stuff about Bigby and the kid who is going to become the North Wind (who worries that she may, one day, turn eeeevil), and we return in a back-up to Oz, and the revolutionary army that Blufkin put together, although we are given no updates as to his fate.

Fables is always a good comic, although it feels lately like there are more mediocre issues than great ones.  The art, however, is always top notch.

Fables #111

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and Shawn McManus

I'm never very sure what to do with Fables these days.  It's always an entertaining comic, but I often feel like something is missing, and this issue is a good example of that recurrent problem.

There are two stories going on here this month.  Bufkin is a prisoner in the Emerald City, and is facing execution for his involvement in the growing rebellion against the Emperor of Oz.  This is the strongest part of the comic, as Willingham has decided to make Oz the North Korea of the Homelands.  Propaganda abounds, and the state embraces a Kafkaesque approach to justice that Kim Jong Il would appreciate.  Bufkin almost gets his hero moment, but things rarely work out for everyone's favourite former flying monkey.

Most of this issue is centred on the on-going search for a new North Wind among Bigby and Snow's children.  One of the kids, Winter (really, you'd think that name alone would be enough of a guarantee that she would ascend the throne), has discovered the Homeland of the North, where she meets Bellflower (formerly Frau Totenkinder) and Dunster Happ, who have been there since the former North Wind fought Mr. Dark.  They return to the North Wind's castle, and Winter is proclaimed King.

There are a lot of problems with this part of the book.  First, Bigby and Snow White show the appropriate concern for their missing daughter, but don't actually seem to do anything to look for her.  For three weeks, were they just sitting around the castle worrying?  Neither of them usually act like that.  When she does return, there is little in the way of emotion, and Bellflower and Happ's accompanying her doesn't warrant a mention from anyone.  It feels like Willingham had to rush through this part of the story, and so glossed over a number of things that needed more exploration.

Overall, the quality on this book is great (much of the credit for that goes to Mark Buckingham and his crew of inkers), but I think from time to time Willingham loses track of his characters and how they should be acting.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #6

Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Shawn McManus

After five issues of beating around the bush, and building up suspense through the use of flashbacks that established their enmity, Cinderella and Dorothy finally have a go at each other (differently from how they did last issue, of course).  It's a pretty good fight too, as Cinderella's ingenuity is tested against Dorothy's stronger position and greater ruthlessness.

While I enjoyed the fight scenes, what I found most interesting in this issue is the way in which Dorothy reconciled her portrayal in this series with the way she was shown at the Golden Boughs during the earlier issues of Jack of Fables.  I'd wondered how those two things matched up, and it was presented in a manner that was logical and consistent.

I've enjoyed this series (especially McManus's art in it), but have thought that it felt a little stretched out and expanded for the sake of the trade.  A solid four-issue series probably would have worked better.  These Cinderella titles are nice additions to the Fables-verse, but I think they should wait a while before starting another one; she's kind of a limited character and shouldn't be over-used.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #5

Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Shawn McManus

Reading this issue, I couldn't help but think that, for someone who has had centuries to perfect her skills in the art of spycraft, Cindy is not doing such a good job in this series.  The flashback sequence set in 1986 has her failing her objective, and not capture Dorothy Gale, while things in the present day go even worse.  Perhaps this is all part of a grander scheme, but given some of the events of this issue, that really does not seem likely.

Cinderella has been hunting Dorothy, at the request of Ivan Durak (Ivan the Fool), one of the Russian Fables that we only learned about at the start of this series.  When the issue begins, Cindy and Ivan are prisoners of Dorothy's minions - a bunch of spoons and a see-through glass cat.  They're in an airship flying over the Deadly Desert of Oz, although they do make good their escape.

This Cinderella series has been a lot of fun.  I've been enjoying the flashbacks and McManus's artwork a great deal, although I kind of think that perhaps five issues, and a little more density of plotting, would have been better.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #4

Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Shawn McManus

This is another fun issue, as a captive Cinderella gets taken to meet Dorothy Gale, and reflects on her previous run-ins with one of the few fables as popular, and therefore as powerful, as she is.

I especially liked the flashback that had Cindy using Snow White as bait on a ski trip back in 1986.  Her plan was to use the well-known citizen of Fabletown to try to draw Dorothy out, although she is instead subjected to days of Snow complaining about Bigby.  The reference to those two as pulling a 'Sam and Diane' got a laugh out of me.  I also like that we are starting to get a sense of why Dorothy became the hard-core killer that she is.  I am waiting to see how Roberson is going to reconcile this take on Dorothy with her appearances in the Golden Boughs Retirement Home in early issues of Jack of Fables.

McManus is doing some great work on this book; perhaps the best I've seen from him.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #3

Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Shawn McManus

I get the feeling that a lot of writers really miss the Cold War.  It must have made writing thrillers and suspense stories much easier than the nebulous "War on Terror", in that it allowed for a serious matching of resources, as well as wits.  That Fabletown participated in its own Cold War, with the Shadow Fabletown, for so many years is an interesting concept.

Roberson is using this volume of Cinderella to explore the scheming of the other Fabletown, made up of mostly Fables from Soviet Bloc countries, and to find many reasons to pit Cinderella (our Fabletown's answer to James Bond) against Dorothy Gale.

This issue advances the plot by bringing in the character of Anansi, the infamous spider of African myth and legend, and by raising the question of just who is being caught in whose web.  There are plenty of good moments in this enjoyable story.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #2

Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Shawn McManus

Roberson and McManus's second Cinderella series is a lot of fun.  Cindy is helping an old acquaintance, Ivan, escape from the crosshairs of Dorothy Gale, an assassin that has been sent by the leader of the Russian fables to kill him.  Their quest to take out Dorothy before she can kill Ivan takes them to Thailand, where one of the heads of the 'Shadow Fabletown' lives.

What makes this book work so well are the numerous flashbacks to previous missions where Cindy ran in to Dorothy.  The story of the Russian castle that began last issue is resolved, and an adventure from the 80s in Thailand is started.  As well, we get a glimpse of Dorothy's only visit to Fabletown in the 40s.

Roberson has a good handle on Cinderella, and writes her much as Bill Willingham does in the mothership title.  McManus's art is always great, and works very well on this book.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #1

Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Shawn McManus

The first Cinderella mini-series by Roberson and McManus was a lot of fun (even if I passed it over at first), so I didn't have to think twice before adding this new offering to my pull-list.

Cinderella has been working for centuries as a spy for the powers that be in Fabletown.  Previously, she was answerable only to Bigby, but after Beast took over the role of sheriff, he has been sending her on missions.  None of this is known by the rest of the Fables, who think that she is more or less a flighty socialite.

This new series opens with a flashback to early-80s Russia, where Cindy, in nothing more than a bikini, is tracking down some powerful Russian Fables, and looking to find out the secret of their own Fabletown.  She is interrupted in her mission by a Fable only referred to as Codename: Silverslippers (we later find out who she is, but I'm not going to tell).  It seems that the two become something of nemeses to each other.

In the modern day, during the evacuation of the farm (seen in Fables #100), evidence shows up that suggests that Silverslippers is back and causing some problems, so Cindy heads back into town to get ready to deal with her.

It's interesting that this book is more tied in to current Fables continuity than the last one; I wonder if there will be some kind of connection later on.  Roberson is a good writer.  I only tried out the first Cinderella book on the strength of his work on I, Zombie, and I have yet to be disappointed.  McManus is always a great artist, and this is the type of story where his somewhat exaggerated style works best.

Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love #1-6

Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Shawn McManus

I foolishly passed on this mini-series when it came out recently because I was trying to cut back on my comics purchasing, and was unfamiliar with Chris Roberson's writing.  Now that he's writing I, Zombie, which is becoming one of my favourite Vertigo titles, I figured it was time to check this out.

In this series, which has been collected recently, Cinderella sets off on one of her usual spy missions.  For this one, she's to track down the source of new magic showing up in the Mundy.  While it's a solo mission, she soon finds herself working alongside Aladdin, who has the same mission for his masters in the One, True Baghdad.

Cinderella and Aladdin have good chemistry, as they Mr. and Mrs. Smith their way through Dubai, the North Atlantic, and one of the Homeworlds, chasing down a trio of familiar Arabian Fables, and another Fable who had a huge impact on Cindy's life.  While all this goes on, there is also a subplot involving Cinderella's shoe store back in Fabletown.

This title restores some of the madcap fun that I got used to in the main Fables title, and the earlier Jack of Fables issues, which has been sadly absent of late.  Roberson's writing is witty and sharp, and Shawn McManus is always a fantastic choice for this type of book.  I'm glad to see that there is a new Cinderella series on the way, and this time I'll be sure to pick it up as it comes out.