Fairest, Vol.1 – “Wide Awake” (Vertigo)

Writer: Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges | Artist: Phil Jimenez, Andy Lanning, Steve Sadowski, Mark Farmer, Andrew Pepoy & Shawn McManus | Colours: Andrew Dalhouse & Shawn McManus

Balancing horror, humor and adventure in the FABLES tradition, FAIREST explores the secret histories of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, Snow White, Rose Red and others.

The first 6-issue tale follows the misadventures of Briar Rose immediately after the events of FABLES #107 (collected in FABLES VOL. 16: SUPER TEAM), in which she was stolen away by the goblin army.

The first issue of Fairest was the first comic I’d read written by Bill Willingham. Since then, I’ve read the first five Deluxe editions of Fables, his expansive re-interpretation of fairy tales transposed onto a contemporary setting (New York, for example). He has quickly become one of my favourite comics writers. With a bit more Fables under my belt, I was a little better informed about some of the content of Fairest. This is a superb series.

“Fables” Deluxe Vol.5 (Vertigo)

Writer: Bill Willingham | Artist: Mark Buckingham, Steve Leioloha, David Hahn, Lan Medina, Andrew Pepoy, Dan Green | Colours: Daniel Vozzo

In these tales from FABLES #34-45, Boy Blue undertakes a mission of revenge as he uncovers the Adversary’s true identity! Plus, Jack’s adventures in Hollywood and Mowgli's return to Fabletown!

This is another very strong addition to the series, and I really enjoyed “Homelands” and “Arabian Nights & Days”. “Jack Be Nimble” was also very good, but as the seed of a new spin-off series, and despite featuring one of my favourite characters, it didn’t have quite as much punch. Of course, “not as much punch” when talking about Bill Willingham is still very high quality, so this is nevertheless probably one of my favourite collections.