Every Wednesday, JP makes the after-work run to his local downtown comic book shop. Comics arrive on Wednesdays you see and JP, fearful that the latest issue will sell out, rushes out to purchase his copy. This regular, weekly column will highlight a particularly interesting release, written in short order, of course, because JP has to get his – before someone else does!
Fables #102
Written by: Bill Willingham
Illustrated by: Chris Bachelo
Vertigo Comics
Here’s the big question: are comic book characters, specifically superheroes, fables? Are they the modern day stand in narratives for those old-time stories our grandparents read to us as wee children: Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, Tom Thumb, Hansel and Gretel and Three Billy Goats Gruff?
Well, according to Bill Willingham, the writer of the monthly Fables series from Vertigo Comics, they are.
Issue #102 of the acclaimed series marks both a new five-part storyline and a departure for the universe that is Fables. It’s the first time in over eight years that the series, which has dealt with just about everything else, has dealt with comic book superheroes.
Leave it to the exuberant character of Pinocchio to come up with the idea of putting together a super group (with costumes and all!) to go against an evil adversary – it’s like witnessing the forming of the Justice League of America! You know, minus Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.
Who needs those characters when you’ve got heroes like Werewolf Man, Golden Knight and The Green Witch looking out for you?
Fables, the series, has been around for quite a long time but issue #102 seems to be a good point to jump in. Who could resist that painted “golden-age” influenced cover of Joao Ruas? Besides, if you want to catch up on the better part of a decade of storytelling, all you need to do is search high and low for the various trades and deluxe editions that are out there.
It’s an undertaking (and monetary expenditure) worthy of a fable itself, isn’t it?
