Publisher Website: Bill Willingham (Author), Lan Medina (Artist), Steve Leialoha (Artist), Craig Hamilton (Artist), Sherilyn van Valkenburgh (Artist)
Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Brothers Grimm in New York, same ol story with same ol twist...or is it?
Hints Of: Murder Mystery, Clue, Once Upon a Time, a bit of Harry Potter
Warning: If you're not into fairy tales probably ignore this one
Publisher Synopsis:
When a savage creature known only as the Adversary conquered the fabled lands of legends and fairy tales, all of the infamous inhabitants of folklore were forced into exile. Disguised among the ""mundys,"" their name for normal citizens of modern-day New York, these magical characters created their own secret society that they call Fabletown.
From their exclusive luxury apartment buildings on Manhattan's Upper West Side, these creatures of legend must fight for their survival in the new world.
Review:
It feels like every other year we've got fairy tale characters trying to survive in our world. Enchanted, Once Upon a Time, now Fables. However, this one is different. Trust me.
After a battle commences in the magical world our beloved fairy tale characters escape to our world. Hiding up in the Upper West Side of New York they've created an entire government to maintain their secrecy and keep tabs on less humanoid characters in the hopes to one day return to their lands. All in all a murder mystery emerges that may expose them to our world.
It starts off a bit like all the other fairy tale in real world novels. Couple puns and jabs at the characteristics we know about them. For example Beauty and the Beast are in Snow White's chambers discussing a marital dispute. The joke here is that since their marriage is failing the Beast is turning back into his horrid self. However, it doesn't hold onto that for long and we move on from that thankfully quickly. There are still tropes and jokes about the characters but it doesn't feel like it defines the comic. Which i'm grateful for.
Its a classic who don it in this first volume of the series and Red Riding Hood has fallen victim to a particularly violent evening. Both her killer and her body are missing and the writing on the wall "No Happy Endings Ever" is ominous for Snow White as she's trying to maintain the secrecy of their kind in our world. The wolf from three little pigs is the detective and he's a reformed citizen, a pride of Snow White who wants more of her kind to be like the wolf. A bit of romance emerges during the investigation between the wolf and Snow White, which is a breath of fresh air since Snow's ex, Prince Charming has come back to New York after running through all the European Royal families as he's a smug asshole. Fitting.
The artistry is nothing to get excited about but it gets the job done. Don't try to warp your Disney images of these characters though, this is a strict interpretation of Brothers Grimm characters.
If you want something that isn't too dense and just a fun story to blow through check this out. Again it starts out slow but picks up as we go along. Also the underlying story about the adversary keeps you engaged and wanting to move on to the next comic.
Drink Pairing: Big Bad Wolf
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