This graphic novel
is a crossover between The Fables and The Unwritten, two long running
Vertigo comics. I've read a number of the Fables stories, written by
Bill Willingham and drawn by Mark Buckingham; in them the characters
of fairy tales live real lives—and I suppose you can read a lot of
the influence here of Neil Gaiman, both in American Gods but also in
the Sandman series. The Unwritten, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, is
about Tommy Taylor, a boy turned into a Harry Potter-type hero in a
series of novels, who becomes his character, as it were. I hadn't
read any of them before, but it's easy to see how close the
connection is.
Now the Fables are
fighting their last stand against The Dark Man, who wishes to wipe
away their power, the power of story, and as they suffer defeat after
defeat, Tommy Taylor appears from his world where story is real, to
help.
The story appeared
as five issues of The Unwritten, and Carey and Gross are the primary
creators (the Fables creators are credited with only three pages
each, though oddly not the same three pages; Buckingham is also
credited as the 'continuity cop' for the storyline) but it seems to
flow smoothly in the Fables universe. As in those stories, the real
pleasures are in the more human sense of evil that lurks behind the
friendly familiar faces: this of course is where the Fables' traction
arose, the reality that our fairy tales are dark and fearsome at
their core. Seeing the Big Bad Wolf as a human; Boy Blue as a Galahad
hero; or Frau Totenkinder as the ambiguous force behind the fables
resonates with deeper meanings.
And on the other
side, the beautiful conceit of Snow White, having gone over to the
Dark Man, and given her children by the Big Bad Wolf to him, gives
the story a human depth appropriate for our times. It reminds us how
those archetypical stories not only reflect our consciousness, but
help form it.
Or it's just a lot
of apocalyptic fun. Which it is.
The Unwritten Fables
by Carey,
Willingham, Gross and Buckingham
DC Vertigo $14.99
ISBN 9781401246945
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