Friday, July 18, 2008

Fables 1001 Nights of Snowfall-- Bill Willingham-- Thoughts

Fables 1001 Nights of Snowfall-- Bill Willingham-- Thoughts

Snow White comes as an emissary from Fabletown in New York to court of the Arabian Nights ruled by king Shahrayar. She is there to seek help against the adversary. During her audience with Shahrayar she takes the place of Sheherezade for a while having to tell tales to preserve her life.

The tales Snow White tells are fractured fairytales for adults. She is describing the fables fight against the adversary, a compilation of oz, pinocchio, and other modern mythical concoctions that is slowly taking the place of the traditional tales. She conjures up modern boojums like goblins, orcs, and other critters.

The traditional fairytales must outwit these modern tales to escape to freedom in Fabletown.

This is a graphic novel or large format comic book. There are a wide variety of artists presented. Bill Willingham, however, is the sole writer.

There are a number of tales presented. There are three stories which I liked more than all the rest. The first is the tale of how Snow White achieved her revenge on the seven dwarves with a little help from Prince Charming. The second is how Reynard the Fox tricks the goblins of the adversary into providing christmas pies for the talking animals before they escape to freedom. The third is how Mersey Dotes becomes a mermaid.

The stories are presented in a variety artistic of styles. I especially liked the art of Brian Bolland, Michael Kaluta, Charles Vess, and Tara McPherson. All of the stories are in full color illustration. There is a brief paragraph biographical snapshot at the end of the book of each artist.

Of course at the end of the book, Sheherezade comes to take her proper place from Snow White, and Snow White is gifted with many magical treasures to help defeat the adversaries including a magic carpet and several djinn's bottles.

This is a very interesting collection of short stories presented in graphic form. It is part of the Fables Series. The Fables Series is a graphic novel series under the DC Vertigo imprint. This is the same imprint as Sandman.

If you want some interesting non-superhero tales in the graphic novel format, this collection is for you.

No comments:

Post a Comment