FABLES V1-6 ...world-building's not afraid of the big bad wolf

FABLES, by Bill Willingham, is a multi-Eisner award-winning comic telling THE modern-day story of the legends of folk and fairy tales - living in our modern, mundane — or mundy — world. We're talking Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, Rose Red, Prince Charming, Cinderella, Jack, Goldilocks, the 3 little Pigs, Santa Clause, Beauty & the Beast, Pinnochio, and many more. And while Fables definitely sounds like some weird shit - don't worry it is - Fables combines the narratives of many characters from popular literay legend and smooshes them into a multi-versal tale with stakes and consequences, unlike a lot of modern superhero comics.

This is a 2-part episode reading, where this weeek we cover FABLES Vols 1-6 - setting up almost all of the major characters - living in exile from their countless Homelands, after a mysterious villain known only as “The Adversary” appeared with an unstoppable army and began conquering Fable worlds one after another. Hundreds of our years ago, the main Fables of our story came up with a desperate plan: to hide in a world The Adversary would never even want—a world so boring and utterly mundane that magic doesn’t even exist there: our own. New York City, to be more specific.

Fables finds itself mostly set in the oft-overlooked, and soon-to-gentrified neighborhood known only as "Fabletown" - but spans the centuries and worlds, to weave a long tale. While the first couple of volumes get off to a slow start world-building and setting up the main characters, it soon starts to speed up the stakes and drama for an entertaining romp. The first 2 volumes are a slog, but then shit gets real...really good.