Top of the Pile 9/19/2012

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha
Backup Art by Shawn McManus
Cover by Joao Ruas

Fables is fast becoming the longest series I have stuck with. I’d still be getting Hellblazer, but the college thing got in the way. But with Fables 121, we reach the end of an eight part story arc “Cubs in Toyland”. In the story, one of Snow White and Bigby Wolf’s daughters, Therese, is swept away to the dead Kingdom of Toyland. There we find out that all the broken toys have dark secrets and have kidnapped her to try and revive and fix the land. Her brother Dare, on Therese trail, does everything he can and more to try and rescue her.

Bill Willingham has written another interesting story. Instead of using the traditional fable characters, this story is filled with the original characters of the children he has created. So there is no baggage of how Pinocchio or Beauty and the Beast would be portrayed. Therese, up to this point, was written and a whiny, selfish little girl. And Dare was a boisterous almost bullying boy. Both go through dramatic changes in this story and it will be interesting to see how their continuing story is told in the book.

And I don’t know how long Mark Buckingham has been working doing the artwork for Fables. But his work is as much a part of the book as everything Willingham does. And the cover art each month for just about every issue is as close to fine art as anything on the comic book shelf. And this issues cover is one of the most sorrowful images I have seen in a while.

I’m glad I put this at the top of my pile and I’m ecstatic that even after 121 issues, Fables is a book I still look forward to each month.