Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Book One - Comic Book Review
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Fables is an award winning and critically acclaimed comic book series published by Vertigo. It ran from July 2002 to July 2015 and comprised over 150 issues. It was written by Bill Willingham and illustrated by James Dean, João Ruas, Bryan Talbot, Lan Medina, P. Craig Russell, Mike Allred, Craig Hamilton, and Linda Medley. The series tells the story of a group of people who refer to themselves as Fables.
The Fables are the people who exist in folklore, nursery rhymes and fairy tales. In the comic they are eternally young and beautiful beings who live in a parallel universe called the Homelands. In the Homelands there is a "land" for every folklore, nursery rhyme and fairy tale. There is an Arabian Homeworld, a European Fable Lands, a Middle Earth, a Kingdom of the Great Lion and so on.
The main plot of
Fables is that an evil force known as the Adversary has taken over much of the Homelands and forced many Fables (including monsters and talking animals) to take refuge in our world. Our world is the only world that hasn't got any magic and hasn't been touched by the Adversary. The Fables call the people who live there the 'mundys' because they consider their world to be mundane. The Fables form their own secret community in New York City and call it Fable Town.
Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Book One is a 264 page hard back edition of the comic that contains issues 1 to 10 and the first two main stories Legends in Exile and Animal Farm. The book has some great colour illustrations and includes an extra section at the back that has some character sketches.
Legends in Exile introduces readers to the world of the Fables and its main characters. Snow White is one of the most prominent characters in
Fables. She is the deputy mayor of Fable Town and known for being a bit of an ice queen. She is intelligent, determined and sharp-witted. She is a little bit confrontational but is one damn good deputy mayor.
Bigby Wolf used to be the Big Bad Wolf but is now reformed and living in Fable Town. He's learnt how to take human form and is now the cigarette smoking and trench coating wearing sheriff of Fable Town. Bigby doesn't always play by the rules and can still turn into a wolf when he wants to scare the pants off people.
Rose Red is the twin sister (and pain in the backside) of Snow White. Rose Red and Snow White have not been friends ever since Rose slept with Snow's husband Prince Charming. Rose is a party girl and a bad seed. In Legends in Exile Rose is embroiled in a murder mystery plot. Has she been murdered? Snow White and Bigby Wolf are on the case.
In Animal Farm readers get introduced to the Farm. The Farm is where monsters and talking animals and other non-human Fables have to go and live in the Mundy world. The farm is based on an isolated stretch of land in New York state. The farm is protected by spells to keep the Mundys from noticing it. Any Fable who lives at the farm is forbidden from leaving the farm if they cannot take a human form. The only problem with this arrangement is the Fables who call the farm home feel imprisoned there. Are the residents of the Farm going to riot?
Fables is a wonderful comic book series that I highly recommend. There are 14 deluxe volumes in total available to collect. They would make a handsome addition to any bookcase.
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86912 - 2023-06-11 07:29:39