Years ago, writer Bill Willingham hit upon a great idea — base a comic book on fairy tales, legends, nursery rhymes and folk tales, but do it with a very adult spin.
With that, “Fables” was born. That comic book let readers peek into a world where Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf get it on. Where Pinnochio, a never-aging puppet turned boy, is still waiting to grow up and Beauty and her beast are having marital problems.
“Fables” is now 100-plus issues old and still one of the most enjoyable comic books being published today, mostly thanks to its quirky nature and the unique ideas pouring out of Willingham’s head.
“Jack of Fables” is a spinoff from “Fables.” It stars the ever-popular Jack. Which Jack? The Jack. In Willingham’s world, every nursery rhyme and fairy tale that featured a Jack is this Jack. He’s the one that broke his crown. He’s the one that climbed the beanstalk. He’s the one that’s nimble and quick. He’s the one that was forced to sit in the corner.
And with all those heroic adventures and bad-boy misadventures, Jack has turned out to be quite the jerk. He’s arrogant. He’s a womanizer. He’s a first-class jackass.
Willingham knows this, of course, and plays it up to its full comedic potential in “Jack of Fables: The Nearly Great Escape,” a trade paperback that collects the first five issues of the series.
Inside, Jack finds himself captured by Mr. Revise, a person whose mission is to strangle and suppress the growth of folk tales. How does he do that? A variety of ways. For American folk tale hero Sambo, he pulled the politically correctness card. For the “Wizard of Oz,” he helped make a movie that so stuck in the American consciousness that any other attempt to expand upon it seemed to be blasphemy. And Paul Bunyan? Well, we all realize now that kids shouldn’t hold a drunk up as a role model.
Yeah, it sounds weird, but in comic-book/fantasy-style logic, it all makes sense.
Of course Jack doesn’t like the idea of being penned up here anymore than he did in the regular “Fables” book, so he organizes and executes a massive prison break.
Like most prison break stories, it isn’t that it gets done, it’s how it gets done. With escape plan wound up in the magic of being a living tall tale, Willingham spins one heck of a funny — and exciting — story. The main story aside, half the fun of reading any “Fables” book is the oodles of characters and amusing side stories you find inside. Just wait until you see what happens to Dorothy’s dog, Toto, and you’ll see what I mean.
Sure, Jack is a jerk, but sometimes the jerks are the most interesting people around, and I can’t wait for the next story.
“Jack of Fables: The Nearly Great Escape,” Volume 1, Vertigo/DC Comics, $14.99, ISBN 978-1-4012-1222-3
Leave a Reply