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Wednesday, 18 October 2006 11:22 |
 | | David Forbes |
"Some topics are best never brought up. Never discuss personal hygeine with a bridge troll. Never trade casserole recipes with a Black Forest witch. But above all, when talking to Deputy Mayor Snow White ÇƒÓ never mention the dwarves."
That piece of dialogue, uttered by Boy Blue (of horn-blowing fame) in the graphic novel "Fables: Legends in Exile," by Bill Willingham and Lan Medina (Vertigo, 127 pages, $9.99), is representative of the sly and sometimes raunchy wit that pervades this sharply written piece of work.
The concept is this ÇƒÓ itës the present day and every fairy tale we were told as children is real ÇƒÓ and the live in New York.
Chased from their own magical lands hundreds of years ago by the mysterious Adversary, the Fables, as theyëre known, made their way as so many other immigrants, to New York, where they live amongst us (secretly) in a community known as Fabletown.
Many
of the most famous Fables have quickly fallen into places appropriate
to their personalities. King Cole is jolly as ever as the mayor, Snow
White is a coldly efficient administrator, Bigby Wolf (take a wild
guess) is the scruffy, disheveled, but very effective sheriff, Jack (of
the Appalachian tales and the beanstalk) is would-be con artist while
new arrival Prince Charming is busy seducing waitresses because he
canët afford to pay for his meals.
The story (this
is the first volume in an ongoing series) revolves around an apparently
brutal murder with a multitude of suspects ÇƒÓ and Bigby Wolfës quest to
solve it without destroying the delicate balance of power that keeps
Fabletown working.
Willingham chose
his story well. The "whodunit" nature of the mystery allows him to
quickly introduce the reader to various denizens of his world without
bogging them down in detail. Itës also an ingeniously constructed yarn
in its own right.
 But the strong
characterization absolutely makes it shine. In the hands of a lesser
writer, this story would have ended up overly serious, a convoluted
fantasy or tongue-in-cheek postmodern dreck.
Willingham,
though, obviously sees no contradiction between the many humorous
moments generated by classical fairy tales struggling in the modern
world and the more serious and archetypal nature of their characters.
Remember, for all that their current situation seems everyday, this is
still a group that includes talking animals, the ultimate predator,
villains of various gruesome types, decadent aristocrats and
no-longer-innocent princesses.
Both Bigby Wolf
and Prince Charming particularly benefit from the authorës deft hand.
Bigby comes off as a blue-collar type whoës good at his job but doesnët
fit into the world he finds himself in and still doesnët understand
human social graces. Then the animal nature underneath shows up and the
reader sees that the character is far deeper than first glance.
Prince Charming
meanwhile, is taken to his logical extreme. He rescued and married Snow
White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, just as in the fairy tales. He
also cheated on, and left, every one of them. He has a quick
intelligence, but in the way that is good for flirtation, seduction or
impressing people at parties ÇƒÓ and not much else. Not exactly kidës
stuff.
Medinaës art
complements the story well, though I found myself at times wishing it
was just a little more energetic or fantastic. A particularly nice
touch is putting memories of the past in a rosy-hue surrounded by
ornate frames.
Does everyone
live happily ever after? Not quite. But "Fables" is perhaps about
realizing that even fairy tales donët get happy endings and that, in
some ways, that makes for an even better story.
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