By Robin Jones
“Once upon a time, in a land of glass, steel and concrete, lived a displaced and homesick people wandering the sidewalks, hidden from the wider world. Fabled characters of lore and stories, they co-exist with us, the mundys, whilst dreaming of reclaiming their stolen lands. In the shadows however, lurked an ancient evil. An evil of many forms and shapes. Wampir, Striga, Peuchen, Kasha…Vampire. Different breeds and legacies inhabit the night, but in this modern world of steel and glass, a new breed lurks. Different. Feral. Wild. The American Vampire. In this land of fables and monsters, only one will inherit our world…let the battle commence…THE COMIC BATTLE!”
Rather than have two books of the same nature facing off against one another in the latest comic battle, I wanted to see what would happen if I chose two beloved series and threw them head to head at one another; snarling, gnashing, clawing at each other until one stands victorious over the other, it’s ink leaking all over the pavement, pages torn and ripped and it’s spine tattered and broken. Step forward, the challengers: Scott Snyder, Stephen King and Rafael Albuquerque’s American Vampire and Bill Willingham and Lan Medina’s Fables: Legends In Exile. Two unique books from two very talented creative teams. They were unleashed upon each other all over my twitter feed and during the course of the day the poll swung in both books favour. However, only one could stand victorious…and that one was…
Fables.
New York. Home of immigrants, the hot dog, the Empire State building, community spirit, yellow taxi cabs and the displaced refugees of the fairy tale worlds. Our once upon a times are their worlds and existences. A world and existence that was ripped from them by the omnipotent and malevolent Adversary.Those who survived the invasion and onslaught fled into our world, the one world the Adversary had no interest in, the one world without magic, the Mundane world. Fables: Legends in Exile collects the first five issues of Bill Willingham’s sprawling epic, introducing us to the world the fables inhabit and several key figures. Snow White, deputy mayor/director of Fable affairs, and Bigby Wolf (formerly the big bad wolf, in a human form) are tasked with investigating the suspicious death of Snow’s sister Rose Red. Effectively a prologue, the volume suffers slightly due to it acting as an introduction. The pacing is slow to start with, but as you follow Bigby’s investigation, it picks up, the writing starts to shine through and the detective story really picks the pace up.
What Fables: Legends in Exile does, is provide us with a great deal of characterisation, despite the (at the time) ludicrous idea of fairy tale characters existing in the “real” world. The murder mystery feel of this first volume concentrates more on the reactions to Rose Red’s apparent death rather than the procedure, which adds a nice touch of charm to things, instead of focusing on the procedure behind the investigation, and it helps us to get our bearings in Willingham’s world through the eyes of the reformed Bigby and Snow. Snow is a strong character, albeit a slightly stereotypically 90’s woman, however her dialogue is snappy, her emotive scenes work well and she is an excellent companion to Bigby’s grizzled, noir-ish detective and his unrequited affection for Snow offers us laughs. The side characters are also intriguing, and it’s obvious that they are being setup for future issues/arcs. There’s Jack the fabled giant killer, an inept tricksters and schemer and his girlfriend Rose Red, Snow White’s estranged sister, socialite, party animal and the assumed missing. Then there’s Bluebeard and Prince Charming, the former a posturing, wealthy villain, the later a slick, womanizing conman with a list of conquests who haunt him.
Lan Medina’s artwork, unfortunately, can feel very dated. However his style is evocative and the detail he puts into each panel is beautiful. The character designs are fantastic, with Bigby’s gruff detective reflecting his wolfish nature, the other animal fables shining through with personality and charm and each fable has a modern element added to them. to keep a fairy tale theme, there are scroll designs throughout the artwork, playing on the comics roots and the colours and shading, whilst dating the comic, do also lend to its charm. Each of the cover’s are a standalone work of art, with cover artist James Jean creating masterpieces.
Whilst there can ultimately be parallels drawn between Fables and the TV shows Once upon a Time and Grimm, it was Willingham’s idea that came first and this first volume sets the scene for the long running story, chock full of characters with an unexpected amount of complexity and tantalizing storylines. From what I understand, it only gets better from here.
Inter-Comics currently has Fables and the Comic Battle loser American Vampire on sale at the moment, where you can pick up single issues starting at 99p! Just follow the LINK!
Until Next Time…
Rob Jones is an honourary Yorkie, but for the life of him, he can’t understand why. He writes articles, is attempting to write comics and his life ambition is to own a solid gold Donkey… For more comic news, reviews and the odd bit of sense, follow Robin on twitter @Hulksmash1985
Posted on May 30th, 2014
Category: PAPERCUTS AND INKSTAINS VOL. 2, REVIEWS
Tags: American Vampire, Bill Willingham, Comic Battle, Fables, Rafael Albuquerque, Robin Jones, Scott Snyder, Stephen King
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