"I'm a trickster by nature, but I'm not violent."

Hey, happy Friday! Today's title comes from Jack, and he's one of the central stars in today's issue of Fables, number 2, The (Un)Usual Suspects. We'll be picking up right where we left off earlier, so if you've just started following (*wave*), go back through the tags & read that post before coming back here.

This issue opens on The Woodland, the City Hall of Fabletown. We get a little glimpse of Snow White entering the building before the story shifts to what Willingham calls "the Woodland's smallest studio apartment," the home of Bigby Wolf.

Bigby has an unexpected and unwanted guest, one of the three little pigs, who shouldn't even be in Fabletown as all animal Fables are supposed to be up on the Farm. Bigby and the pig have a little battle of words which gives you a lot of their history and enmity in a short, short time. Bigby kind of gets the last word, however.

From there, we get to see how much of a cad Prince Charming really is. Really, I can't describe this well enough, so here's that page.

Snow White & Bigby have a conversation in the Woodland's garden about the search for Rose Red and her attacker. He reveals that he doesn't really think Jack is the perp, but he does believe Jack is guilty of some other crimes, and this gives him the perfect opportunity to hold him.

Bigby runs down the list of current suspects with Snow. He doesn't think Jack did it, he doesn't think it was one of the mundys Rose liked to hang out with (a mundy is normal people, non-Fables), and, surprisingly, Snow is one of his suspects. She and Rose had been estranged for a number of years. That's all the info we get from him for now as to why he's got Snow on his list.

Next is a lovely little scene where we get properly introduced to Cinderella and Bluebeard. He's teaching her how to fence, and we quickly see that this is not the Cinderella we got from Disney. For starters, she's got a rather filthy mouth, and she can defend herself pretty readily.

Snow has a little dinner date with her ex, Prince Charming, and he hasn't come just out of the kindness of his heart. He wants Snow to help him auction his title and lands on an internet auction site. He's broke, and he figures this is the perfect time of the year to try and auction it all off because the Rememberence Day celebrations are approaching (Rememberence Day is a Fable holiday where they remember the last ship that escaped the Adversary and those who stayed behind to ensure its safe escape). Snow tells Charming that she won't help him because he had an affair with Rose, and she says that he belongs on the list of suspects.

Next, we get to see Bigby in his element as he interrogates Jack. Snow is present for this interrogation as she wants to be right where the information is on her sister's disapperance. These pages are largely exposition, setting up some plot points to come. We learn that Rose & Jack had been involved for the past four years, but not continuously. They had a big old public fight a year prior, and after that, Rose got involved with Bluebeard. Jack says that she only dated Bluebeard to make him jealous and that he should be the one Bigby is questioning, and Bigby says that they will get around to Bluebeard.

Bigby confronts Jack about some of his previous schemes to make money (like using the seven league boots to win the Boston Marathon), and Jack gets highly defensive and starts calling Bigby names. Snow tearfully interrupts the pair.

Snow asks Jack if he's stashed Rose's body somewhere, which he promises he didn't. Bigby says that he's going to keep Jack in his current jail cell while he searches his apartment, and before they leave, Rose asks Jack if there is anyone he can think of who would want to hurt Rose.

Next up, Snow & Bigby travel to question Bluebeard. He thinks that they are there to collect his annual donation he gives to the Fabletown government, but Bigby just jumps right into the thick of it. He tosses the crimescene photos onto Bluebeard's desk and asks him point-blank why he killed Rose. I'm going to just share the rest of this investigation scene because it's too incredible to try to describe.

Well, that's a lot of info to end with! If Jack didn't hurt Rose & Bluebeard didn't hurt Rose, then who did?

I'm not 100% sure if I'll have a post for you tomorrow, but, hey, I made it Monday-Friday with a blog post every day! That's got to count for something, doesn't it?

I always like suspecting Jack. He's been such a perpetual load in my pants since day one of the Exile.

Today's title comes from Bigby Wolf of Fables, and that's going to be today's topic because it's Fables Friday! I deeply apologise for not posting anything yesterday. I've been fighting my allergies or a cold (can never tell for sure which it is this time of year), but I will post what I had planned for yesterday's post tomorrow.

Instead of covering issue 2 of Fables, I'm going to take a slight detour. I was going to give you my top 10 issue list, but there are so many storyarcs, it would be difficult to do that, so I'm going to give you my top 5 storyarc list (including the issue numbers so you can search them out, if you want). Next, I'm going to show you one of my favorite characters from Jack of Fables, Babe the Blue Ox (from Paul Bunyan fame), and then finally, I'm going to take you through a couple of stories from 1001 Nights of Snowfall, the mostly prose book that came out a couple of years back and which expands on the backstories of several of the main characters.

My Top 5 Fables Storyarcs (in no particular order) {Here be spoilers! but not too many} [Thanks to Wikipedia for helping with the issue numbers & for refreshing my memory]

5) Legends in Exile (issues 1-5): This is the one that started it all, and it's a fantastic introduction to the world of Fables. Rose Red has apparantly been murdered, and Bigby Wolf & Snow White must investigate her murder & keep Fabletown from being exposed to the Mundy world.

4) The Mean Seasons (issues 30-33): I know I said I wasn't putting these in any particular order, and I'm not, but I have to say that I think this is probably my favorite storyarc. Bigby & Snow White have become a couple by this time, and Snow gives birth to their children, who are shapeshifters between wolf & human forms. Because they're not fully human, Snow must relocate to the Farm, but the Animals of the Farm fear and hate Bigby, so he exiles himself. Snow ends up learning about Bigby's youth from his father, the North Wind, and Snow learns that one of her children is not exactly normal. It's a beautiful tale, and always makes me cry.

3) Arabian Nights (and Days) (issues 42-45): Sinbad brings a delegation of Arabian Fables to Fabletown to help form an alliance against the Adversary. This arc was nice because we finally got to see more than just the Anglo/European storybook characters in the Fables universe.

2) Jack Be Nimble (issues 34-35): Jack goes to Hollywood and sets up a film studio. I loved this because Jack is one of my favorite characters, and seeing him trying to get a film made of his fantastic exploits was a treat.

1) The Good Prince (issues issues 60 to 63 and 65 to 69): I believe this was the longest storyarc in the Fables history, and I think it's probably the best. We finally get to see more and learn more about Flycatcher. His backstory was revealed in 1001 Nights of Snowfall (he was the Frog Prince, and in times of extreme emotion, he would revert back to his froggy form; unfortunately, this happened when the Adversary's forces attacked his castle, and he was forced to watch his wife & daughters be brutally raped & murdered, all because he couldn't keep from changing back into his frog self), and in this story, we get to see him be the hero for once. He finally remembers his past and leads an assault against the Adversary's forces. It's a heart-wrenching and gorgeous story.

So, there you go. Five fantastic storyarcs (though, honestly, it was very hard to pick just five because I love the entire fun of Fables), and most of these you can find in trade now, if you don't want to buy the issues.

The Mind of Babe the Blue Ox

And now, a little levity. Jack of Fables was spun off of Fables a few years ago, after the Jack Be Nible storyline, and it has featured a lot more comedy and a regular series of revolving characters. One of these characters is Babe the Blue Ox. His pages always make me laugh my head off.

In the world of Fables, a character's notoriety in the Mundy world helps with their ability to recover from death, injuries, etc. For example, because Jack is SO well known (partially because he's nearly every Jack in every folk tale imaginable, partially because he's so well known because of Jack & the Beanstalk), he pretty much can't be killed.

On the other hand, Babe & Paul Bunyan have become less powerful because very few people nowadays know their tales. This affected Babe by shrinking him to about the size of a small dog. He relieves his boredom by creating these fantastical stories and situations in his head, and below are a few of my favorite of these pages. I hope you find them as funny as I do. Oh, and there will be no explanation about the issues because his pages never make sense in the context of the story. And I apologize, but you'll have to click the pics to get them to load at the right, readable size.







1001 Nights of Snowfall

This lovely books came out in 2006, and it's a great companion piece to the Fables comic series. It contains several self-contained stories that aren't necessary to read in order to understand the Fables series storyline, but it does add a little more flavor to the characters. As I said earlier, you learn more about the characters in many cases, and in a few, you're introduced to them for the first time.

These stories are interwoven in a prose piece that tells of Snow White visiting the Arabian fables in order to warn them about the coming Adversary and to broker an agreement between the Arabian kingdoms and Fabletown, but she finds herself taking the place of Scheherezade. She is forced to tell the Sultan a new story each night or else she'll be executed. The comic sections are these tales she spins.

Each section has a different artist, and each artist adds his or her own unique flair to the story being told. Some of the art isn't my favorite, but I'm going to show you a couple of pages from my favorite stories.

My first story is the first one Snow tells, and it's of her own past with Prince Charming, a story called The Fencing Lessons. We finally learn why Boy Blue told Beauty & the Beast way back in issue 1 of Fables, "But above all, when talking to the Deputy Mayor -- never mention the dwarves!"

I'm not going to spoil this story because it's a wonderful, wonderful story, but to give you a little info before showing you the art, before Snow & Charming married, he promised her that once they were married, she could have any wish she wanted fulfilled. Her wish was to having him teach her how to fence, and they have to go about this covertly since it's not proper for a woman to know how to fight. I think the art in this story is absolutely my favorite. Snow has never looked stronger nor more beautiful.


The last story I'm going to cover is one I alluded to earlier, about Prince Ambrose, also known as Flycatcher. Before this story was published, Flycatcher was pretty much just a comic foil and friend to Boy Blue; we would just see him as the janitor for the Fabletown government offices. This story tells of his past, the past he himself didn't remember until recently. I'm going to show two pages from this story. The first is adorable; the second is rather brutal (not gory, but just warning for triggering material & nudity).




And that's it for today. Tomorrow, I promise pirates. I'm holding to the Code this time!