Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities FABLES (Spoilers Possible For the TPB Folks)

Thank you, Lardy.

I do love me some Phil Jimenez art, so I'll definitely read the first arc of Fairest.

Yeah, Lardy summed it up. You don't need to read any of them unless you feel the need to check them out.

I never read any Jack of Fables.

I loved the various Cinderella miniseries. They totally stand alone, and feature a great ass-kicking female spy protagonist with a Fables twist.

Fairest was hit or miss, and I eventually gave up after the first year.

Thanks, Cobie.

Cinderella sounds great!

I never read any Jack Of Fables (except the crossover), but have always thought of Jack as a one-note song, so I doubt I missed much.

The Cinderella specials, on the other hand, are lots of fun and well worth looking into.

I would definitely check out Fairest as well, as it fills in gaps that aren't covered in the main title. For awhile (during the main title's Toyland arc) Fairest was actually the better of the two titles, and the last few issues are closely tied to the main series.

Thank you, Hermit.

Just finished the third Fables trade, with Goldilocks and Bluebeard conspiring to kill Snow and Bigby, two delightful flashback issues guest-drawn by Bryan Talbot and Linda Medley...and a guy falling asleep on the toilet. Were you thinking of that last scene when you recommended Fables to me, Lardy? LOL

I thought it was full of jaw-dropping-OMG moments. The mixture of soap-opera, subversiveness, dark humor, and in-depth characterization is splendid. Looking forward to trade 4.

I WISH I could say I was thinking of that! The ol' memory ain't what it used to be..... I remember what a bastard Bluebeard was, though!



However, I can state that trade 4 is unquestionably one of my very favorite batches of Fables storylines, so I can't wait for you to get and read it!

Yeah, Bluebeard -- the exact kind of guy readers love to hate. Love him for his Old World gravitas, hate him for being a murdering, misogynous bastard.

I'm happy to say that trade 4 is on its way.

Yeah, after some allusions and build-up, trade four is the true opening salvo in the masterful saga of the Adversay--I'm envious of anyone who gets to read it for the first time!

I'm on needles and pins!

To put it another way, I think Vol. 4 took me from "gotta get that next Fables TPB soon-ish" to "GOTTA GET ALL OF 'EM, LIKE, YESTERDAY!!!"

I've felt that way before, back in the 90s before everything was in TPB, like "GOTTA GET ALL THE BACK ISSUES I MISSED!"

I remember feeling that way about PAD's Hulk (first issue: 400) and the Harras/Epting Avengers (first issue: 356.)

Still awaiting the solicits to preorder the final issue/trade(!)...

Aaaaand it's going on this month's DCBS order!

I know I didn't post anything about the fourth and fifth Fables trades. My life was a bit crazy at the time that I read them, and I've forgotten a lot of the details, but I can say with certainty that I thoroughly enjoyed both trades, and found them to be virtually flawless.

Now I've just finished the sixth trade, which starts with the Jack in Hollywood 2-parter -- which I loved, Jack has become my favorite love-to-hate fable -- and follows with the Homelands arc, where we finally learn the Adversary's identity.

For those who haven't read this series yet, I'll put my thoughts in a spoiler box:



So I'm still enjoying this series a great deal, and can't wait to see where it goes next.

So glad you are loving it, Le Ficques! And there's still 5 great trades left in the wonderful Adversary storyline!!!

YAY!

Thanks, Lardy.

A satisfying ending to a fantastic series. The final issue had its ups and downs, I think directly related to how much I liked the individual characters featured, but for a wrap-up, it was well done. Rose Red redeemed herself and it was good to see how the wolf cubs' prophecies turned out, albeit briefly.

In the afterword, Willingham explained that he could have gone on, filled in the stories between the start and the end of this final issue (trying to avoid spoilers here) but this was a good stopping point. It's rare to find a successful series that isn't wrung out for all it's worth - and usually suffers in quality as a consequence. I'll miss Fables, but I think the creators made the right choice.

AAAGH!!! So looking forward to this in my next shipment... It will be my first read, even ahead of CHEW: BLOOD PUDDING, SABRINA #4 and DESCENDER #5...

Thanks to the evil monopoly known as Diamond Distributors I am STILL waiting to get my copy of Fables 150.

Let me explain.

For months I had reserved a copy of Fables 150. The week of July 22, I sent the proprietor of my CBS an e-mail letting him know I would be in town that Friday to pick it up. When I arrived at the shop...no Fables 150. I asked what happened, and he told me that he thought I was joking, as there had been no solicits from Diamond Distributors for Fables 150 yet. He tried looking it up on his computer, but still couldn't find anything until I mentioned, out of desperation, that the book was also TPB 22. Bingo! Apparently Diamond ONLY solicited the book as a TPB, and not as a regular issue of Fables at all. Now, thanks to the book being a sellout, I am still waiting for my copy to come in.

Meanwhile, I have been re-reading the entire series from the start (the deluxe hardcover books are absolutely gorgeous, btw) and am now sitting here typing instead of reading the last half dozen issues, just in case the last issue doesn't come in again this week.

Aaarrgh!

So, while I sit here waiting for Wednesday I thought I'd talk a bit about the somewhat wonky timeline of the last few issues of Fables/Fairest.

As near as I can tell it goes something like this: Following the Of Men And Mice storyline (Fairest 21-26), we have a Geppetto one-shot in Fables 138, followed by the two-part Boys In The Band story that sets the stage for the final year of Fables.

From there, the timeline jumps to the final issue of Fairest (33), which, although published last, serves as a prequel to the Fairest In All The Land TPB. Fair warning, though; reading it in this order undercuts the central mystery of the TPB, so if you don't like spoilers, read them in the opposite order.

From there it can be a bit confusing, as Fables 141-142 and Fairest 27-28 both feature the 13th floor crew, but in different settings. I'm still not sure of exactly when in the Fables storyline the witches head for (and return from) the Farm, but there is a pivotal scene in Fables 142 that definitely happens after the first few pages of Fairest 29.

From that point Fairest goes off on a tangent and can be read through to the end of 32 without really spoiling anything.

That leaves just Fables 143-149, which I keep making excuses not to read until I have 150 in my hands.

Again I say Aaarrgh!

OK, I finally got and read Fables 150 last week, and I have to say a few things.

First off, it seems pretty obvious that the decision to end the series with 150 came fairly late in the game, and that many of the storylines were intended to go on much longer, and in a different direction, than they actually did. In fact, I would even guess that the whole Snow White vs. Rose Red tontine was tossed in at the last minute to provide a way to wrap up the series quickly.

As to why all this came about, I suspect it has more to do with changes at Vertigo itself than any desire on the part of Bill Willingham to stop doing Fables. My own theory is that his decision to end the series when he did is somehow tied in with Karen Berger's decision to leave Vertigo. Either Willingham saw Berger's departure as a sign that it was time to leave Vertigo himself, or something else happened that caused both of them to leave. Given the recent history of DC comics, I'm inclined to go with the second theory.

At this point, all this is is theory. I'm not up enough on what goes on behind the scenes in the comics industry to know anything for sure. Does anyone else here have anything more concrete to either support or discredit what I've laid out here? If so, I'd really like to hear it.

^ I think that is a very good theory and likely very true. But I don't have anything to back it up other than gut feeling.

All that aside, I enjoyed Fables #150 immensely. I thought it was a wonderful end to the series and captured all of the various emotions the series often gets you to feel: terror & anxiety, heartfelt cheerworthy moments, outright joy and a constant sense of comedic whimsy.

In fact, I think I enjoyed #150 more than I've enjoyed #126 - 149 combined. It ended on a good note, and it was a pleasure to read.

At the end, the series of "The Last ____ Story" were great and I loved each and every one.

Finally done with the last trades and get to join the thread.


Always well constructed and beautiful to look at, somewhere along the way Fables reflected too much the difficult parts of life and less the fun. I don't imagine myself reading the last 50 near as much as the first fifty and nowhere near as much as The Last Castle but sometime I supposed I'll dig down from the beginning, knowing the end.

Never let a successful franchise go gently into that dark night. The Fables universe continues in Everafter #1.

I have mixed feelings regarding the first issue. It's gorier than most of the Fables stories and it's not clear if this is the tone they intend to pursue.

The characters are familiar to Fables readers, but not that well-known. There is an appearance by Snow and Bigby, but the action centers on Hansel, Bo-Peep, Peter Piper, Connor Wolf and Featherstone, all working for the Fables spy agency. Magic has escaped into the Mundy world and is finding expression in new human stories, such as zombies. The Shadow Players are the Fables who try to keep the new bad magic in check.

The first issue does a good job of explaining the situation, introducing the newish characters and setting up a messy murder mystery.

Whether Dave Justus and Matt Sturges can capture and hold that old Fables magic remains to be seen. This issue is promising, so I'm on board for now.