Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9781563899423
ISBN: 1563899426
Label: Vertigo
Manufacturer: Vertigo
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: 2002-12-01
Publisher: Vertigo
Release Date: 2002-12-01
Studio: Vertigo

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great start to a great series
Comment: I discovered this series a week ago, and almost finished all 11 plus the prequel. This is a wonderful start to a wonderful series. I was never much of a fan of Snow White until now. She is no longer the meak, mild woman from the Disney version. She is in charge of Fabletown... more or less. I love her and Bigy Wolf. There were a lot of funny quips. You do need to know who the fairy tale characters are and a bit of their story for this to be as funny as it is. I highly recommend this series to adults who loves fairytales. This series is definitely NOT for kids.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Best comic book series ever?
Comment: When it comes to comic book geeks we think something like Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol is a masterpiece but what are true masterpieces are titles that transcend the hobby to appeal to people other than aficionados of the hobby. A testament to the series is that it appeals to people that don't normally follow comic books. This will go down in comics history as one of the top comic books in the industry if not the best.

Please note that this first volume is considered the weakest and Mark Buckingham had yet to join as the regular artist. Starting from Vol. 2 it gets much better.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth checking out.
Comment: I found this book worth checking out. The idea is that all your favorite fairy tale characters have had their homeland invaded by some evil force. All of the "fables" have had to evacuate their homelands in fear of their lives, where do they end up? Manhattan. They've even created their own community within Manhattan that they call Fabletown. This first book tells us the story of Rose Red, and her sister, Snow White. Rose Red has been murdered and Bigsby (Big Bad Wolf) is sent to investigate. Who killed Rose Red? I guess you'll have to read to find out.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Off to a Great Start
Comment: Sometimes, even the best comic series take a while to get into. Y: The Last Man didn't hit it stride until the fourth volume. IDW's Angel line didn't get good until Brian Lynch and Joss Whedon took the reigns three years after the series started, and now it's my favorite comic being published. My point is that these classic series took a while to get good... but "Fables" doesn't. By the second issue, I was hooked and devoured the rest of this volume (titled "Legends in Exile") in no time at all. As the back of the book says, it's "instantly compelling."

The story takes characters from various fables and throws them into modern day New York, which has made them more like us (potty mouthed, romantically troubled, and complex) than anything else. The backstory, which deals with an unknown figure named the Adversary taking over the fable worlds while lead to the exile to the mundane world, is dealt with masterfully. What happened in the past is hinted at and fleshed out through dialogue, avoiding that expositiony feel. It isn't a perfect book, and it reads better as a single story than reading the book issue by issue. However, pages that seemed strangely wasteful of panel space during some points, but in the final issue, all of that seemingly wasted page space was paid off.

Part fable itself, part detective novel, all strong story-telling, if "Fables" keeps going at this rate, it looks as if this comic is going to be a must-read title.

PS: This volume also features a bonus prose story written by Bill Willingham (with illustrations by him as well).

8/10

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Decent and Clever
Comment: Fairy Tale characters are thrust into the real world due to demonic invaders destroying thier homelands and the cabal are forced to co-exist in modern day New York. Initially, I thought this would be more tongue in cheek and along the lines of Shrek, Hoodwinked and Enchanted. This is more sophisticated and adult oriented. It's smart and it's clever and just when you think that you have found a loophole Willingham has a logical explanation. For example non-human legends live in a place called "The Farm" and former crimes from Bluebeard and the Big Bad Wolf (now human) are protected under a general amnesty. But there is no emotional hook and I found myself pre-occupieid trying to figure out who everybody was. However that tends to be a typical shortcoming when introducing a new series, particulalry in a comic. I'm curious to see what the next volume has to offer and judging by the length of the series and the strength of the writing, this doesn't seem to be a one trick pony. But I don't see myself dusting this one off and re-reading this from time to time like I would Gaiman or Moore.

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