Bill Willingham's Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile

This is an adult rendering of the fables in comic(s) and is not for children.

From the Back Cover

FABLES is the winner of 14 Eisner Awards and is one of the most enduring Vertigo titles ever. Here, in this new, 10th anniversary edition, is a newly colored 8-page story from the Fables prose work PETER & MAX: A FABLES NOVEL, as well as a beautiful new cover from series artist Mark Buckingham.

When a savage creature known only as the Adversary conquered the fabled lands of legends and fairy tales, all of the infamous inhabitants of folklore were forced into exile. Disguised among the ""mundys,"" their name for normal citizens of modern-day New York, these magical characters created their own secret society that they call Fabletown.

From their exclusive luxury apartment buildings on Manhattan's Upper West Side, these creatures of legend must fight for their survival in the new world.

About the Author - Bill Willingham

Bill (William) Willingham is an American writer and artist of comics, and is known for his work on the series Elementals and Fables.

NB - This is a review of the book based on my personal interaction with this book and is limited to the book as a piece of literature.

Any allegories or alleged allegories, comparisons to real life, if represented in the book are the authors Bill Willingham own.

His views and the views or writings in these books are his own and I neither promote nor condone them.

Bill Willingham's Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile

This is the first comic in the Fables series by Bill Willingham. I thought this was a great start to the long running series.

Almost all of us have at some point or other in our childhood been exposed to Fairy tales couched as morality stories, folk lore and myth all aimed at diverting our attentions or to condition our thinking.

But amidst it all the tales were to add a feel good factor (fairies) or to limit roving with tales of witches and demons. 

The one thing that is accepted is that these tales had dark overtones and were never intended to be palatable for children. Stories having been dumbed down over the centuries. 

In recent years several books and movies have been made that are for adult audience and show the dark vicious undercurrent. 

Bill Willingham is a cut above them all. He has turned the tales (Fables) on their head and produced a mind-blowing series with offshoots of fables and stories with adult themes, kickass violence and sensuality, blood and gore, one night stands and nudity. The characters by and large have stayed true to their characteristics but what seemed innocent has been amped up to adult levels.  

This book and the series builds on the tones and creates an atmosphere that is aimed predominantly at adults. The story arcs, art and the characters all display these themes. Bill deserves credit for creating a complete Fables universe which has and can have all kinds of novel offshoots and crossovers.

It has been my misfortune that with book reading for me bordering on frenzy, I had never come across any of his books having had a distrust for the Graphic novels genre despite a more than a healthy dose of comics in my life. I have been more conservative in my choices going primarily for the DCU, MCU, Archies & Disney characters and reading the comics from the Indian domestic stable - ACK's, Tinkle's, Pran's and the outputs in between. 

KU first gave me an exposure to explosive graphic novels wherein initially I went for the regular novels and then started exploring MCU before stumbling upon the Misbegotten series Runaway Nun a graphic novel that is wildly blasphemous and follows the journey of a warrior priest sent to rescue a Jesus-clone from being sacrificed, with characters drawn to the faces of Marilyn Monroe, Gandhi and Jesus. 

The series followed by Afterlife with Archie converted me and I learned the power of the graphic novel(s). Vampirella, Jungle Girl and Red Sonja followed and there has been no looking back. I read regular and graphic in equal doses and have been willing to experiment with them. 

Fables came later, I got to Fairest earlier and after that short hors d'oeuvre I reached the main section and Fables has me in tangles. Despite the author's political rant there is no denying the fact that the Fables or Fairy Tales as we knew them have been reset for ever. I remember reading about the late Anne Rice's early trilogy on Sleeping Beauty way back in 1983 which were very BDSM and this is where Bill's Fables have followed a different path. The series is for adults but any erotica is essentially a part of the story and not the whole story. 

Legends in Exile is the first book/graphic novel/comic in the Fables series. The book has a great story arc and this is great reading despite the decade plus time since it first released. 

We have our well known fables living in exile as the name suggests away from their homelands incognito amongst us in a place created in NY. The story arc tells us about multitude of worlds all connected with each other through portals/entrances and housing the various fables from various countries. An unknown named only as the Adversary has taken their worlds by force and subjugated them, the people who escaped the wars have gathered in this "Safe Place" called Fable town that they have created using magic and spells to hide it from humans whom they call Mundy's short for Mundane. 

We can see the impact of the Harry Potter novels here with Mundies coming eerily close to Muggles and closeting their own fabled lives from the prying eyes of the humans or Mundies a full time chore.

This is a great introduction to the series and this book starts off with a murder committed in Fable town. It focuses on the Wolf - Bigby Wolf and Snow White who in their roles as Sheriff and Deputy Mayor are trying to solve the mysterious murder of Snow White's sister Rose Red. The story follows typical sleuthing and I am sure that people who read murder mysteries would end up figuring out the mystery as I did. 

The casting redefinitions were wonderful if not inspired like the Big Bad Wolf, the infamous one who blew the house of the piggies, cast here as a reformed Chief of Police/Security for the Fables as Sheriff Bigby, Bluebeard as the reformed or not so reformed rich manipulator, he extremely blue blooded King Cole is the Mayor and the most famous of them all, the obviously philandering character of fairy tale after fairy tale Prince Charming, as a much married and divorced womanizing playboy, with the most iconic women of the fabled realms like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and many others. and these make the comic reading that much more interesting and intense. 

The art and illustrations in this comic are beautiful, the special cover arts inserted in between the chapters give the feel of being painted watercolors. Most of us now know the sinister bits in the ancient tales but this retelling breaks new ground in extending the stories and entrenching it in our collective mindsets.

This is 5 * recommendation. 

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