Rating: 
Summary: Good stuff!
Review: Like fairy tales (twisted or otherwise), modern fantasy, or fresh takes on old ideas? This is most definitely for you. Imagine a story pulled from one of Windling & Datlow's Snow White, Rose Red collections and translated into a graphic novel. The artwork is above average (especially for a new Vertigo title) and the storyline, while very self-contained, lays down relationships between characters that are sure to be played off of in future volumes.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing covers, good art, mediocre characters
Review: Ok, the art is quite good and Willingham takes a sort of dumb idea: fairy tale characters taken to contemporary NY, into quite an interesting crew of people. However, I really missed more character development. Ok, there's conflict and relationships between them, but it all seemed so straightforward and simple!Besides, Snow White appears like such an interesting character with her attitude and all, along with B. Wolf, but I really think that they've been treated with not enough respect. I think they deserved more development, more texture and depth. And the end of the story is kinda obvious. Although if you take it as a sort of wink to classic detective novels such as Agatha Christie's, etc, it may acquire a better edge. Though not enough. I still liked the book, read it quickly and enjoyed it enough to get me the second part. However, I don't see how this can compare to other Vertigo titles such as Sandman or Preacher, which are an absolutely different kind of literature, more mature and the kind that really makes you think and question things. And I REALLY don't see how this could ever be compared to Sandman... please... Still, I want to see how the series develops, I have some faith in it. Take a look at the covers for the second book: wow.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing covers, good art, mediocre characters
Review: Ok, the art is quite good and Willingham takes a sort of dumb idea: fairy tale characters taken to contemporary NY, into quite an interesting crew of people. However, I really missed more character development. Ok, there's conflict and relationships between them, but it all seemed so straightforward and simple! Besides, Snow White appears like such an interesting character with her attitude and all, along with B. Wolf, but I really think that they've been treated with not enough respect. I think they deserved more development, more texture and depth. And the end of the story is kinda obvious. Although if you take it as a sort of wink to classic detective novels such as Agatha Christie's, etc, it may acquire a better edge. Though not enough. I still liked the book, read it quickly and enjoyed it enough to get me the second part. However, I don't see how this can compare to other Vertigo titles such as Sandman or Preacher, which are an absolutely different kind of literature, more mature and the kind that really makes you think and question things. And I REALLY don't see how this could ever be compared to Sandman... please... Still, I want to see how the series develops, I have some faith in it. Take a look at the covers for the second book: wow.
Rating:
Summary: book 1
Review: Rose Red is missing, presumed dead and everyone is a suspect. Volume One of Bill Willingham's Fables follows Sam Spade-like detective Bigby Wolf as he investigates the crime and interviews suspects, which include Rose's boyfriend Jack (of Beanstalk fame), her sister Snow White, and the retired pirate Bluebeard. The sudden arrival of Snow White's ex-husband, Prince Charming, only complicates the already bizarre enclave in New York they call Fabletown.
Fables: Legends in Exile collects the first story-arch of the award-winning Vertigo comic. I want to describe this as a "romp" or "a lot of fun" but that does not do Fables justice; this book is an ethnographic exploration of those who inhabit our stories. The pages of the Grimm Brothers and Rudyard Kipling serve as history here, while a flying monkey acts as the librarian's assistant in City Hall. The Fables seem to know they are fables, giving the book an unresolved and unstated tension.
Fans of Neil Gaiman's American Gods or Sandman also will enjoy this book, as it directly confronts the idea of our shared narrative heritage as a living thing. The Fables come across as flawed (often cursed) as the humans who write stories and make cartoons about them, creating more of a statement about our lives than those of people in a land a long time ago who lived happily ever after.
Rating: 
Summary: One of last year's revelations
Review: Subverting expectations and inverting cliches is one thing, but Fables is also a book with heart underneath its undeniable style. The art by Lan Medina is deceptively good: at first glance it looks fairly standard but covers all the basics of storytelling, creates some interesting visuals and is attractive to look at. More importantly it serves the story and is one of the major reasons it works so well. But the book is all about the story. Willingham takes a good premise and runs with it. The characters are engaging and seem human, despite their origin. The climax of the story is a little staged and generic, but everything else about the story (including the actual explanation) sparkles. Overall, one of the best Vertigo books of recent years.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining **AND** Original
Review: The Fable series is one of the better "mature" lines to come out of D.C. This is basically the first "self-contained" story in the series and a great place to kick off. Get this one, I don't think anyone will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining **AND** Original
Review: The Fable series is one of the better "mature" lines to come out of D.C. This is basically the first "self-contained" story in the series and a great place to kick off. Get this one, I don't think anyone will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Once upon a time....
Review: Vertigo is known for it's weird and often disturbing books. Fables extablishes itslef as being part of this fine tradition, taking something that we all know and love and putting a new, unique, and above all, intelligent spin on it.
Fables revolves around a neighborhood in New York, where a large group of fairie tale characters are in hiding from a entity knwn only as the Adversary. The story is centered on a murder, being investigated by the no nonsense Deputy Mayor of Fabletown, Snow White, and the Sherriff, Bigby Wolf (Big Bad Wolf. Get it?). To tell any more is to betray the story, but this is one of the most fun reads, and one of the cleverest stories ever created by Vertigo.
Rating: 
Summary: Underdone Fairy Noir
Review: Wizard magazine has been hailing this comic as fresh and exciting for well over a year and I waited for the graphic novel to arrive with no small measure of anticipation. Sadly, hype is not the same as quality. The story is basically your average whodunnit with the twist coming from the fact that it takes place in a community of exiled characters from assorted fairy tales and works of fiction. Snow White's wild child sister has gone missing, her apartment awash with blood and painted with the ominous warning of 'no more happily ever after', and it's up to Detective Wolf to solve the crime before the annual Remembrance day. Why the deadline? I have no idea. And that it is only one of the many perplexing holes in the story. The overlying problem is the length; this would have made a taut four-issue miniseries but it's been inexplicably stretched into five. Because of this, there are pages of lackluster filler featuring cameos of other literary characters for no point other then to try and be clever and edgy but succeeding only in its abilty to be crude and childish. Instead of getting a good chuckle out of seeing a modern Cinderella or Pinocchio you're struck more by the fact that Willingham writes them with exactly the same voice. Yes, it's funny seeing people who've been Disneyfied cursing, but only the first time around. Snow White has a chip on her shoulder the size of an ogre and when she isn't tearing into someone she's crying about what might have happened to her sibling. That's it. That's her character for the whole affair. Everybody else is written with about the same voice, always more than slightly bitter and always ready with a witty remark. Willingham has all of the literary world to play with but doesn't take advantage of any of it aside from character names and a few story details that makes the comic feel like a cheap gimmick. As things progress the story only further unravels. Dialogue de-evolves into random word ballons laced with profanity and almost the whole final issue is nothing but Bigby giving an explanation of the crime that had already been solved in the previous issue. The last few panels try to shoehorn in a romance angle but because interactions between Snow and Bigby haven't evolved at all over the course of the story- in the few places where they haven't been completely abandoned in favor of showcasing another 'hip' fairy tale re-creation- it just doesn't work. The art is near flawless. The painted covers are beautiful sendups to the old poster-painted dimestore detective novels and the interiors are lovingly rendered with storybook flourishes and the occasional background object that's a little wink at the audience- three chairs in Old King Cole's apartment with three fiddles waiting on them is the one that immediately springs to mind. There's a bonus prose story by Willingham included as an extra accompanied by his own illustrations which suggest where his real talent lies. For a much better look at fantasy and reality existing side by side in the city, pick up one of the Aria or Sandman graphic novels instead; their authors can weave webs out of even the most obscurely gossamer strands of myth and magic. This prefers to strive valiantly in the direction of a hardboiled detective tale but is little more than slightly poached. Two and a half stars for the art and the novelty but you'll come away with little else.
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