Goodbye "Fables" :'( Thank You For All the Fairy Tales

Today is the very final release of the last installment of Bill Willingham's Fables and it's a very special finale, made with care, love and, in true Willingham-form, a few surprises:

On Wednesday, July 22, “Fables” will take a bow with its 150th issue, which is a full-sized, 178-page graphic novel (that doubles as the series 22nd volume). Titled “Farewell”, the graphic novel will wrap up the story Willingham and Buckingham have been telling alongside a deep roster of other talented creators like Steve Leialoha and Andrew Pepoy for over a decade. (source)

An Open Letter of Thanks to Bill Willingham

Dear Mr. Willingham,

A huge and heartfelt thank you for being a wonderful writer, researcher and advocate for fairy tales and folklore in general, and for persisting with this world and these characters for so long. It seems so short now... 

You've been an inspiration to so very many, and people are really only just beginning to understand some of the innovative work, writing and art you (and your Fables teams) have done. 

We can't thank you enough.

We also thank you for introducing us to Mark Buckingham, James Jean and a host of other talented people, who now have a special place in our hearts for treating the Fables characters with such care and excellence.

We hope the yet-to-solidify Fables film does your work justice and inspires a whole new generation of fans, bringing good things back to you as well. We also look forward to seeing your work studied in Universities around the world.

And we can't wait to see what you do with fairy tales next!

Best wishes, with grateful thanks.

Sincerely,        

Your Fairy Tale Friends & Fans

 Once Upon A Blog... Fairy Tale News

Bill Willingham on the End of "Fables" and The Power of Folklore

By Nimit Malavia - front view of the wrap-around cover for the final issue of Fables

Note: Just for fun, the first image in this post is the cover for the upcoming, very last issue of Fables, while the last image is of the very first Fables cover. Throughout I've put 'in progress' sketches, some are the designs used and some are ones that were never published until the Special Edition hard covers.

Bill Willingham, creator of the long running comic series Fables, was just at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) a couple of weekends ago, and took some time to talk to The Mary Sue about a few things, including the status of the Fables movie (as far as he knows), how it feels to be at the end of Fables and, among other things, his opinion on the power of folklore. The Mary Sue posted their interview at the beginning of the week and...

I have to share!

So here's what Bill Willingham has to say on fairy tales, mythology and folklore, via The Mary Sue (emphasis in bold is mine):

TMS: I’m always curious why certain nursery rhymes or certain fairytales–stuff that isn’t mythology–

Willingham: Well it’s folklore, and folklore is mythology told by people who stopped being impressed with you. Mythology is “oh the Gods are this and that and mysterious and exciting,” and folklore is “well I’m going to tell you the tale of the Gods, but I’ve been their housekeepers for 600 years, and I know how he used to poop his diapeys. I am not impressed.” There’s a sense of wonder, there’s a sense of justice and absurdity, but not a sense of removal, you’re right in there. This is a story that doesn’t happen to important people far away, it happened to me or my aunt. So I like that, I like the immediacy.

When I was putting Fables together, I like this idea of a hidden community, and it was either going to be mythology characters or fairy tale characters, I liked both. The origin of my love for fairytales was when I discovered that they’re folklore. You know as a kid, fairytales, I liked them but I was not in love with or that impressed by them, it was just ‘these are the things that are available.’ But then, there’s this show Bullwinkle, and within this show there’s a cartoon called “Fractured Fairytales” wherein they take fairy tales and tell them in funny, mocking ways. As a kid I assumed there were rules for everything. So I’m watching this thing about the big bad wolf or something, and I knew this was not how it went, and I expressed my outrage. My mother was there and I said “how can they do this? Aren’t they going to get in trouble? This is not how it happens!” And without knowing the term public domain, she explained the whole thing. “These are folklore, they belong to the folk.”

Folklore–the thing I love about it–is it belongs to everyone, but not in a community. It’s not like we get together and decide what we’re going to do with our ownership of this, we individually own 100% of it. Every single human being who exists. We’re all born rich with this wonderful treasure.

             

Thank you Bill! I want to cheer in response to that last part in particular.

He goes on to talk about criticism, using the "a cat can look at a king" saying, which fits well on this theme. Here he's talking about how the internet has affected expression of ideas, feedback and how that's a good thing (the middle man and gatekeepers are often cut out) and a bad thing (the lack of manners and being able to converse civilly is being shown to be seriously lacking.)

Willingham: There’s an old saying I used to love, “a cat can look at a king.” Which is, there’s no person that’s so great that the great unwashed masses are physically unable to see them, the peasant and the king still share some commonality. And now with the Internet, that is the case. What we’re trying to do is figure out the rules of life now, because the Internet has changed everything. So we’ve come up with notions and spread wacky ideas. The notion that ‘I can dress this way but you shouldn’t be looking at me,’ in my mind that’s nonsense because a cat can look at a king. Anyone can look at anyone. And yet that’s a thing we’re wrestling with now, but we’re not really wrestling with that, we’re wrestling with ‘it’s a whole new world, and we’ve lost manners along the way and we’re beginning to perceive that we need them.’ But to call them manners and etiquette and things like that is kind of old fogey, so we’re coming up with new terms...

You can read the rest of his response and ideas about the internet, and how they affect creators in the interview - definitely worth it, if you're a writer, artist or working the public in any way.

You can read the whole article HERE, which isn't at all your standard interview at all. I also really like how he talked about his approach when beginning to work with the first, and very quickly the main or key artist, Mark Buckingham on Fables. Willingham's 'version' of the Hippocratic oath, "first, tell the story", which was the golden first pass editing rule for any script or idea. I love it.

Re the Fables movie - as far as he knows, it's still happening but has had issues with the script so there's a new writer on board now (I do't know if it's the same one that was announced not long ago, or if this has happened since). Most importantly, he has great respect for the writer and is happy to see them on board. But no other new details.

                     
The Guardian also had a nice and personal summary and tribute to the end of the Fables series and Willinghams' work, which you can find HERE. Here are some extracted highlights:

By the end of this month, after 13 years of stories, Bill Willingham’s multiple award-winning series, Fables, will reach its 150th and final issue. What a long, strange, sweet, weird, sad, rambunctious, irreverent, wistful and elating ride it has been.

Besides the series itself, there have the spin-offs: the 50 issues of Jack of Fables, two volumes of Cinderella adventures, 33 issues of Fairest, The Wolf Among Us and Werewolves of the Heartland and 1001 Nights of Snowfall and Peter and Max and The Last Castle.

...The idea was so brilliantly simple it was immediately complex. In Fables, there has been a coup d’état across the realms of the imagination, orchestrated by The Adversary. The huddled masses of familiar faces – Cinderella and Snow White, Little Boy Blue and Prince Charming, the Wicked Witch and Bluebeard – find sanctuary in our world. Made glamorous by their magic, they create a safe haven for themselves in New York and an upstate hideaway for the Three Little Pigs, Chicken Little, Reynard the Fox and Tom Thumb (who’s dating Thumbelina, OMG) and all the other Fables who wouldn’t quite manage to pass themselves off as “mundanes” if you met them in Central Park.

The genius of Fables was to be as expansive as the fairytales themselves. The first few issues were a gumshoe detective mystery, with Bigby Wolf, who used to be both big and bad, trying to solve the mystery of Rose Red’s death. Then it shifted to political thriller, to comedy, to romance, to caper, to horror, to metafictional gallimaufry, to tragedy, to farce, to elegy, to slapstick.

Its success has demonstrated the resilience of fairytales themselves – I can imagine editorial meetings where they might have said “Can we really stretch Cinderella into a covert Modesty Blaize figure without the sexism? Or the Frog Prince, can he be a bit like Dostoyevsky’s Prince Myshkin? And that crazy badger, Brock – OK to make him a religious fanatic?” They stretched it and stretched it and it did not break.

I want to include more, but you really should read it in context for yourself. There's enough of a summary for those familiar with most to be reminded and enough of the plot to catch you up if you missed some of the big stuff, but it still leaves plenty to be surprised by.

If you wondered what happened to the Fairest series, that wrapped with Issue #33, concentrating on the baddest bad girl in Willingham's universe: Goldilocks. There's a great interview about it HERE.

The Fables comic series finishes in JULY this year (currently scheduled for release July 22nd) with the giant 150th - aka FINAL - issue. Here's the official write-up:

Fables final issue #150: Written by Bill Willingham, art by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Andrew Pepoy, Mark Schultz, Gene Ha, Neal Adams and others, wraparound cover by Nimit Malavia. 

Final issue. It's the final trade paperback volume of Fables! No, wait -- it's Fables #150, the grand finale of the best-selling, award-winning comic book series! And it's also an original graphic novel in the tradition of 1001 Nights of Snowfall! Yes, it's all this and more! Join us for 150 -- that's, right, 150! -- pages of new stories starring your favorite Fables, all from the mind of Bill Willingham. It all starts with an 80-page lead story illustrated by series regulars Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha, plus stories illustrated by Mark Schultz, Gene Ha, Neal Adams, Andrew Pepoy and many more! 

The final bows for Boy Blue, Stinky, Lake and more in this once-in-a-lifetime issue that also features a foldout cover by Nimit Malavia that opens into a four-panel mural! It's even got metallic ink! 

160 pages, $17.99, in stores on July 22. 

Note: Fables artists featured above are: Top of post - Nimit Malavia, Joao Ruas - winged monkey versions and the 100th issue versions, James Jean - all the rest.

Last "Fables" Artist Signing Event in UK Before Series Ends

It's going to be one of the last Fables signings, (I'm fairly sure), with the Fables series wrapping in just a few months... I was so disappointed to see there wasn't a single Fables-related thing happening for Free Comic Book Day this past weekend. Would have been the perfect chance to encourage a new teen readership. -sigh-

For those wondering who Mark Buckingham is, he's been a (the?) primary/key artist working very closely with Bill Willingham since Fables began and the series is almost as much his 'baby' as it is Willingham's at this point with their collaborative work over the last decade plus (*almost*).

Press Release:

Artist MARK BUCKINGHAM signs FABLES VOL. 21 and FABLES DELUXE VOL. 10* (FTNH Edit: to be officially released May 19th, 2015) at the Forbidden Planet London Megastore on Wednesday 13th May from from 6:00 – 7:00 pm! 

Published by Vertigo, FABLES is an Eisner Award-winning series telling the tale of many familiar fairy-tale figures forced out of their Homelands by The Adversary who has conquered the realm. The Fables have travelled to our world and formed a clandestine community in New York City known as Fabletown.
Vol. 21 is the penultimate volume, and the residents of Fabletown look to live ‘happily ever after,’ but there’s a steep price to pay for happiness as Rose Red clashes with Snow White! 

In the deluxe hardcover edition of Fables vol. 10, the existence of the Fables is threatened by The Literals, who just don’t like their messy, mythical lives. 

MARK BUCKINGHAM started working professionally on strips and illustrations for a British satire magazine called The Truth in 1987, where he first worked with Neil Gaiman illustrating some of his articles. His American debut came the following year as inker on DC Comics Hellblazer. Mark is best-known for his work on Marvelman, Hellblazer and Fables, though has worked on may titles for both Marvel and DC. He and Fables writer Bill Willingham have announced that they will switch roles in an up-and-coming one-off for the title’s hundredth issue. 

Forbidden Planet London Megastore179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR

*Description for Vol. 10: In an epic from FABLES #77-82, JACK OF FABLES #33-35, and THE LITERALS #1-3, the existence of the Fables is threatened by The Literals, who just don't like their messy, mythical lives. And in the original graphic novel FABLES: WEREWOLVES OF THE HEARTLAND, Bigby Wolf goes on a quest to find a new location for Fabletown, only to find a village populated by werewolves! *** COVER SUBJECT TO CHANGE ***

I really hope they DO change the cover - it's not going to look so nice next to my other volumes if they stay with this artwork. (Not being shallow - they've just worked so hard on the aesthetics of the covers to work together to date - it would look weird for it to look so very different, even though they will have to represent the crossover with "The Literals".)

An Update from Bill Willingham on the "Fables" Finale from the Vertigo Panel at ECCC 2015

I still cannot quite believe we are barreling toward the end of Fables. With not much time left and very little, if any news about the upcoming Fables movie (please let it be happening and be awesome!), everyone was very curious to see what Fables creator and chief writer, Bill Willingham, had to say at the Emerald City Comic Con, which began at the end of March.

Willingham headed up the Vertigo panel on the Opening Day of the Con, titled New Blood, immediately explaining this was an out-with-the-old (including himself) and in-with-the-new, sort of panel. (!)

From Newsarama:

"So why is this called New Blood?" Willingham began. "For one, the old blood is being moved out. I can reveal now that I did not decide to end Fables, I was told to end Fables. You'll notice that the 'Old Guard' like Kurt Busiek and Gail Simone haven't made it here yet because we're old, and we're tired, and our walkers just don't work the way they used to." 

...(Eventually) the panel switched gears (away from the new staff and talent), putting attention on the upcoming final issue of Fables. While Willingham spoke, exclusive art from Fables #150 was shuffled quickly across the projector screen. 

"The final issue of Fables is 150 story pages long," said Willingham. "So it's a collection and an individual issue, and it's coming out in July. Mark Buckingham is doing the best work of his career here, which is saying a lot. One thing Mark and I promised #150 would do, unlike the Jack of Fables series, is that we wouldn't kill everybody. If someone survives, we've kept our promise. The story spans from when #149 left off to about a hundred and fifty million years in the future. It's gonna be pretty fun." 

The floor was then opened up to audience questions..
... directed to Willingham - which Fable did he regret killing off the most?"I know you want me to say Boy Blue because it was a really good death," he replied. "I think we got a good story out of that, so I don't regret it. We got a good death out of Shere Khan, his was the first big death in terms of significance, and the atomic moment that the book was out and we couldn't take it back, I thought of all these things I could have done with him. We try to make the deaths count, so we couldn't bring him back."
"The truth is ideas are easy," finished Willingham. "Very similar ideas come to a lot of people. Execution is everything. That's what you need to know how to protect." 

Wow. I can't imagine how that must have been, to be told to end Fables when you weren't really ready to do so. I can only hope that the popularity, excellent reviews and critical acclaim of the video game The Wolf Among Us, and the obvious anticipation of fans for the upcoming movie will mean that perhaps Willingham will be given license to work in his favorite fairy tale world again in some capacity - even if it's in a completely different way to anything ever hinted at before. 

I do know he's announced that he will continue writing and creating comics and that he plans to focus on novels for a while. I know there have been plans to create other Fables-based novels, like Peter & Max, that haven't yet seen the light of day, and I know that he remains passionate about fairy tales - in a more serious, critical studies manner than most of his fans have any idea about.

July is going to be a weird month when all this goes down - and that's likely when we'll have a better idea of which direction Willingham goes next. I have a feeling that it will also be around that time that we'll get some more concrete information on the Fables movie - even if Willingham continues to not be directly involved. Bittersweet times.

These end of the era-things can get rough on the tear ducts.

Note: all illustrations are from Fables comics covers from the last arc, titled Happily Ever After, except for the header (which is from a very early issue). We've yet to see if this is a literal description of the end of these stories, or if it's ironic.

"Fables" Movie Gets "Kick-Ass" (& "Stardust") Screenwriter

Snow White by James Jean front cover for the expanded edition re-release of the Fables Cover Collection
(coming Feb 2015)

Here's some news that's getting pop culture (and possibly some fairy tale) geeks excited again: Warner Bros and the Fables movie has announced they have a new screenwriter: Jane Goldman. She's known for the recent movie Kick-Ass, Stardust, two X-Men films, and has most recently worked on Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (currently in pre-production).

In pop culture terms, Kick-Ass got a lot of 'street cred' (critics either thought it was an smart and outrageous black comedy or thought it was just violent and distasteful - I haven't seen it so can't comment), so people are REALLY excited to see what she will do with Fables.

Here are some quotes from the press release interview with Producer David Heyman (best known for the Harry Potter movies and, at the moment, Paddington), care of Slash Film and Comic Book Resources:

Rose Red by James Jean
back cover for the expanded edition re-release
 the Fables Cover Collection
(coming Feb 2015)

[Arcel] did a draft, and now he’s supervising Jane, who’s doing a draft. Hoping that it’ll come in and we’ll be able to move to the next stage. All these things always take longer than you want. And ‘Fables’ is not easy, by any means, but I think it’ll be pretty great.

Heyman also spoke about what attracted him to the property:

I’m drawn to stories about outsiders, and I think the Fables are outsiders. They’re people torn from the place where they were raised, by The Adversary. They arrive in a New York City-type place, and how we’re approaching is that they’re people who are all separate, and how they ultimately have to form the community in order to survive. They’re all inhabiting their own little universes within this world. But they have to form this community, and that really appealed to me. And I just think the characters are so vivid. And I also think the farm is, again, it’s very human. That’s what I like. It’s a challenging film.

The long-running Fables comics are rapidly drawing toward their final release (I cannot quite believe it!). They're in the midst of the Happily Ever After story arc (the Finale) and issue #148  - Chapter 8 of the last story - was released today. The last story arc echoes the opening, focusing on the two female leads, Snow White and her sister Rose Red and their ongoing troubled relationship (a different take again on the meaning of Beauty and the Beast here...).

Below are the synopsis for issue #148 and the cover. (The cover appears to be the Snow White character, surrounded,or being attacked, by red roses.)

 Chapter Eight of Happily Ever After; The Last Story of Beauty and the Beast

At long last Rose Red learns the truth about her mother, her sister and herself. This is why they’re so magical. This is why all of that wild magic is affecting their lives now. And this is why one will ultimately have to kill the other. Apparently that’s what siblings in this family do. 

Plus: Terry Moore illustrates the backup feature, “The Last Story of Beauty and the Beast.”

Tomorrow is the Beginning of (the 10 Chapter long) Happily Ever After for Willingham's "Fables"

Issue 141 - 1st of the Happily Ever After finale chapters. Cover by Nimit Malavia

Issue 141 of Fables is the last big turning point in Willingham's popular comic series, marking the beginning of The End (for real!) for the long-running, critically acclaimed, fairy-tales-like-you've-never-seen comic-cult favorite.

In true classic storybook-ending style, this story ends as it begins, with the sisterhood conflict of Snow White and Rose Red - but turned up to 11.

“HAPPILY EVER AFTER!” part 1. Good knight vs. bad knight. King Arthur vs. Morgan le Fay. Rose Red vs. Snow White. The two sisters are caught up in the roles Camelot has set for them, and now they’re ready for battle. Plus, don’t miss the backup story illustrated by P. Craig Russell!

I admit I'm not caught up yet, having yet to navigate my way through the various crossovers etc but I've kept a general eye on things and have been following the Fairest spin-off, which also culminates at Issue 150.

Note: Issue 150 will be 150 PAGES LONG! I'm kind of looking forward to that actually. Since it has to finish, I have fairly high hopes that this will finish well and Willingham will pull out all his stops to add the notes from his fairy tale research that he hasn't yet been able to use. *fingers crossed* And I'd like an annotated version of the comics with reference to all the research too please... (No I did not happen upon a genie and am making outrageous wishes, I'm just choosing to be extremely optimistic!)

This seem like a pretty significant point in time for alternate fairy tale pop-culture influence so I'm going to do what I can to personally follow the final ten issues. It's unlikely I will comment on them until the finale is said and done, if then. It's just one of those events that should be marked by people watching the influence of fairy tales in pop-culture (and vice versa).

A little bit from Willingham on the finale arc (note Flycatcher is "The Frog King" for those a little hazy on the many, many denizens of Fabletown. He's also a fan favorite, and included on my short list too):

"I'm not saying that everyone dies and everything's horrible. But as the story plays out, it becomes clear that that's it. The story comes to an end."

Some characters in Willingham's expansive Fables cast will have their final curtain calls in the main story line — others star in short backup stories in the last run of issues, beginning with Flycatcher in No. 141, and then moving to Sinbad, Cinderella, Prince Charming and others.

There will also be some skipping around in time, Willingham says. "The final story of Flycatcher for example takes place at some undisclosed time in the future, but apparently he's had time to have kids between now and then."

The article mentions how Willingham made good use of a Fables forum to keep track of all the questions of character fates, unresolved plot-lines and other fan puzzlers (smart!) and will be dealing with a lot of those danglers in the final arc as well. Hopefully that will be satisfying story-wise without being too "i" dotting and "t" crossing.

You can read much more about The End HERE (though it might seem a little confusing if you're not a decent way into the series).

I read vague possibilities of Fables one-off "specials" in between the lines of Bill Willingham's admission that it's not as easy to let go as he originally anticipated.

"Just doing this last story line," he says, "these pesky characters keep suggesting, well, if you've done this then here's something nice, or here's something that could happen to this character down the road."

Oh - and don't forget: the movie is still actively in development. Things are still looking very good for a Fables film.

Tons of "Fables" News: Movie Update, Willingham Teases End Of Series Details, the Fables Game "Levels Up" + Bonus Awesome Cosplay

Bigby Wolf & Snow White of Fables, "The Wolf Among Us" video game cosplay by Saskeks-Cosplay

The Fables movie news is pretty small but very significant. Warners is now in direct competition with Disney, now that Disney has bought Marvel so the amp up on superhero movies is expected and speculated on. The big question is, since it's Warner's property: will they be doing a Wonder Woman movie? The answer is "not yet" because there are a bunch of others already in production ahead in the cue, including...

...several other movies in development unconnected to the Justice League that are based on DC superheroes and fantasy and crime titles from its Vertigo line of genre comics, said Mr. Silverman and Toby Emmerich, president of Warner’s New Line Cinema label. They include “Shazam,” “Metal Men,” “100 Bullets,” and “Fables.” (Wall Street Journal)

What does that tell you? That Warners are confident enough in how the Fables movie is going that it's been put forward as a major property, currently in active development, and that other likely-to-be-hot properties (aka Wonder Woman) are going to have to wait their turn until after Fables is complete (or at least well established in actual production).

AKA: it's very good news! At least, that's where it stands right now, anyway. These things change so quickly but for the present it's full steam ahead on another fairy tale film of major proportions. *fistpump*

And regarding the long-running, critically acclaimed, Eisner Award-winning, fan-favorite comic book series, Fables ,wrap -up (cue wailing and gnashing of teeth), here's a little teaser that came out on Monday (April 29th), care of ComicBookMovie.com and DC All Access:

In this exclusive clip from DC All Access, Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham reminisce about their long running Vertigo fantasy series and share some hints on where it's going in its final year. Plus, look for an exclusive announcement about Fables #150 and the final arc of Fables!

Did they just say "I guess there MIGHT BE A POSSIBILITY of returning to those (surviving) characters..."? I hear more fairy tale possibilities for the future care of Willingham & Co... *double fistpump!*

By the way, the images are cosplay for the TellTale Games video game Fables prequel The Wolf Among Us. The talented cosplayers are Saskeks-Cosplay team and aren't the only cosplay I've seen for the game (though their comicbook-line approach is pretty cool and unique). And you know what they say about cosplay, right? OK, I don't know what the phrase is exactly but it's akin to someone tattooing one of your characters on their body. It's considered a "level-up". 

Note: the most recent episode of The Wolf Among Us, A Crooked Mile, is getting amazing reviews. It's been called addicting and akin to The Walking Dead (which TellTale Games won Game of the Year for last year). The Wolf Among Us seemed to slump slightly with the second chapter but people are revved all over again and demanding the next chapter release dates be moved up. (I'm sure they're adding a pretty please in there somewhere... with bared fangs..)

Additional sources: HERE & HERE (and a ton of other reviews from gamers - official and amateur)

A Dark Rapunzel Coming to OUAT (No, I'm Not Talking About Her Hair or Skin Color, Although She's Not Blonde Either)

Here we come to one of those times when the internet shows it's personality disorder: "..we want more diversity among Disney princesses!" is currently having a head-on clash with "..why is OUAT's Rapunzel not blonde?!".

:/ Yeah.

What is more interesting (to me) is not how 'non-white' the new Rapunzel character for OUAT's features will be, but how dark the storyline is promised to be (by OUAT creators Kitsis & Horowitz), and when we say "dark" here we mean The Grudge Japanese horror film dark.

Apparently.
No doubt it will be toned down a lot to keep the current mostly-family-friendly rating but that's the promise: The Grudge-dark.

In the second half of season three, we will meet Rapunzel (Alexandra Metz).

 

The executive producer, Adam Horowitz, has confirmed this to be true. 

However, he stated that, “We’re not doing Tangled; we’re doing our spin on the character.” This just makes the news all that more exciting. 

Kitsis went on to describe Rapunzel’s character. He said that she is going to be a little darker and freakier. Think of a horror story like the vein of The Grudge. 

The long-locked damsel (Alexandra Metz) will be visited in her tower by Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) as well as a mysterious hooded menace. Might it be the Wicked Witch of the West (Rebecca Mader) lurking under that hood? "I can't tell you," says Mader.

I'm immediately reminded of the Fairest (Fables comic spin-off) Rapunzel and how perfectly that Japanese horror aspect is explored, not to mention how well it fits with Rapunzel's story. I guess the OUAT people aren't keeping up with Willingham's Fables/Fairest? Or are they?

Not only is the trend for understanding the villains' side of the story continuing but it has well and truly expanded into "the heroes aren't exactly as squeaky-clean as you thought..".

I have to say I'm enjoying the look at the anti-hero a lot - the perfect princess/hero approach of the last 20+ years has been cloying but at the same time this trend of villain stories and exposing the dark hearts of the heroes can occasionally feel a little forced. I'm curious to see where on the spectrum this storyline lands.

The way people are viewing fairy tales is certainly richer than it was a few years ago but instead of mining the multitude of stories that already have complex heroes and villains we're still in re-mix mode for the familiar ones.

This is not a complaint - exactly - more of a sigh at a missed opportunity but honestly, I'm just glad people are still considering different aspects of fairy tales more than they have for some time.

Sources: HERE & HERE

Breaking News: "Fables" Series End Planned (NOOooooo! *cue sobbing*)

I'm being a little dramatic, I know. In truth, we've been lucky to have fairy tale retellings from the Fables world for as long as we have (over ten years!), and there had to be an end at some point. Turns out, that end point will be issue #150, which will be in about one year.

I've been wondering if something like this would happen soon, since Mr. Willingham has been increasingly busy over the past year with a movie finally taking off*, a critically acclaimed video game, a new Fabletown & Beyond convention, spin-offs like Fairest doing really well and more. Deciding to finish on a high note is hard. It means you have to stop doing something that you love and is going well/is profitable, but it's smart if you care about your work and are lucky enough to have the choice.

It doesn't mean there won't be Fables-esque properties appearing here and there from various corners, nor does it mean Mr. Willingham will never return to working on a Fables story. It does mean that we won't have monthly installments of tale retellings and new fairy tale art each month from one of the most respected teams in the comic book world though.

Here's the official announcement from Bill Willingham's website (via talking comic books):

Bill Willingham

“After more than ten years of publication, and hundreds of issues of Fables, and various Fables-related works, I have decided the time has come to begin the process of bringing our sweeping story to a close. And, along the way, I’ve decided to retire from a great deal of my comics work. 

Retirement in the storytelling trade means, still working and writing every day, but being a bit more selective in what projects I take on. Pushing 60, I thought it would be a good time to start making concrete plans for those remaining good writing years. 

Fables will end with Issue 150, which will be a larger than usual size, as were many of the other milestone issues. Fairest, our companion series, will also come to an end just before the big final Fables issue. 

Both DC and I will announce more details later on, but first and foremost I wanted to let our wonderful readers know about this as soon as I could, and note that our story plans leading up to Issue 150 made it increasingly clear that this upcoming saga should naturally be the final story. 

Of course Mark is already well aware of this and said, “I respect Bill’s decision and am looking forward to working with him on the book’s epic final year, leading to the series’ grand finale.” 

Newsarama is going to have more details, and I’ll link to their story as soon as it’s ready to go. (FTNH Update later in evening: That interview is now live and I'm including excerpts of the interview below as well.)

Let me restate my thanks to the best, sustained readership in all of comics. I promise to do my best to make the coming year in Fables a great one.”

And here are some excerpts from the newly posted Newsarama interview, beginning after the initial announcement of wrapping up the series is addressed, when questions turn to the arc and plot lines:

Willingham: Well, we have the end of the "Camelot" story. We have, following that, a two-issue story that's sort of a side story, but it sets up the final, big saga. And that story is called "The Boys in the Band." And it's all about Boy Blue's Band up at The Farm. They go off on an adventure together. The adventure sort of lays the groundwork. It asks a few specific questions that, the answer to those questions are the last big Fables saga.And then that lasts for nine issues, I believe, ending in issue #150, which is going to be an oversized issue.

Nrama: Obviously you know, now, how the series is going to end. At what point did you know that ending? You said it could have gone one of two ways — did you have this in your mind as a possible ending for awhile now? 

Willingham: This is one of the planned ways to end it. But it's just like issue #75, wherein the war is won and Gepetto signs on to Fabletown, could have been one of the moments of ending. This is one of those situations where you could end it there, or you could find other ways to go on. And we decided to wrap it up. 

Nrama: Is Fairest ending as well? 

Willingham: If the timing works out, the last arc of Fairest will end one month before issue #150 of Fables.In that sense, both will wrap up around the same time. 

Nrama: There are a lot of threads hanging right now in Fables, like the promised return of Prince Charming, the effect of The Unwritten crossover, or even the giant rats that Junebug saw. Are you trying to wrap up all the loose ends before the series ends? Are all those things I mentioned going to play into this ending? 

Willingham: Most of it. The giant rats is dealt with in the new Cinderella arc in Fairest, which is the next major arc coming up in that book. The Prince Charming return is dealt with partially in the Fairest In All The Land graphic novel, about to come out, and will also play into the final big arc of Fables. The Unwritten crossover will be addressed pretty close to the end. 

Nrama: I'm just floored. And I'm sure your fans will be too. I mean, I can't speak for everyone, but I just always thought Fables would be around. 

Willingham: Well, me too. But you know, the story was good enough, the scheduling kind of fell into place, and I will make one promise — the ending of this will not be everyone dies....I think that's the way to approach any possibility of doing more Fables in the future, as just special revisit types of things....Mark Buckingham and I are not leaving the fairy tale realms entirely. There are specific projects planned, coming up in the future, when Mark and I will work together in a non-Fables, non-DC kind of thing. And I think those need to be announced a little closer to the actuality of them happening. That's a couple of years away, probably.There are at least two projects that I'm starting up with other artists and such that will continue beyond this.I'm not quitting the business. I'm working on new things. And as you said, maybe I'll be able to wrestle a little more time for the novel I want to do along the way.

Cover art for the current issue: #137
In which Rose Red finishes up the Camelot arc -
at a cost...

And hmmm…. what do I want to give away about the final act? The main plotline of the final arc will deal with what's happening with Snow and Bigby and a new conflict involving Rose Red, in a very definite way. And that's as much as I want to say about that. 

Nrama: We've already seen Snow and Rose Red at odds with each other. And you know, it's interesting that these characters would finish Fables, because Bigby, Snow and Rose Red were the focus of the very first storyline, when the series started. 

Willingham: They were. And the issue that just came out, issue #134, had clues about what the final, big saga is going to be about. I will tease the end by saying that the clues are right there in front of you right now. 

You can read the whole interview HERE. (Note: if you're not up to date in reading Fables, there are some spoilers.)

Did you take note of the section I put in bold and dark red? The part about "not leaving the fairy tale realms altogether"? Hah. Yes. If you truly love the tales, how could you? Fairy tale addicts unite. *solidarity fist-pump*

In fact, as a good example of just how into fairy tales Willingham has delved over the years, the newly released Fables Encyclopedia has over 230 characters profiled (groups like the 3 Billy Goats Gruff are listed under a single entry so in reality there are a lot more) and that doesn't cover all the characters included to date either, since there are more issues out than are referenced in the volume. Almost all these characters are from fairy tales and folk tales (ie only a small few are original creations by the Fables writers) and many of them are surprisingly obscure inclusions most people who aren't fairy tale readers would never have heard of. For example, have you ever heard of "Fair Katrinelje and Pif-Paf-Poltrie"? It's a tale from Grimm's Children's and Household Tales. For reason of this example alone and as a fairy tale reader, if you only ever acquired one volume from the Fables realm, make it the Encyclopedia. It breaks down where each character originated with a very brief tale history as well as how they are used in the Fables world, and makes for a handy reference of characters that have found their way out of lesser known texts and into the hands of comic book lovers (and many more) everywhere.   


As someone who loves fairy tales, and is particularly excited to discover any new works (or uses) today by people who research the early versions really well, I can't describe how grateful I am to have discovered and delved into Fables while it is still being created, to see that universe actively expanding into spin-offs and to cross over into other mediums of novels, art and film. Being able to explore all this when the sky was the limit truly made the stories and characters feel alive, rather than reading history and a tale already told.

I'm glad Mr. Willingham has left room to consider other Fables projects in the future, so it's not exactly as if we will be without Fables ever after. Thank goodness. Writing "The End" on fairy tales like these doesn't feel quite right.

In the meantime, we're currently at Issue #137 newly released, leaving us 13-ish monthly updates to go to the finale. Let the countdown begin...

Fairy tale news extra:

Bill Willingham on Fables video game & the Fables film (Oct 15, '13)

"[The Wolf Among Us video game is] unlike the first two attempts at a pilot for a Fables TV show that people have produced," Willingham said. "In those cases, there were loads of things I could have done, loads of notes I could have given them — you know, you missed this here, you violated this here, etcetera, etcetera. But luckily neither of those two pilots were produced because they bore only a passing resemblance to Fables. I asked myself with those two pilots, 'Did these guys even read the book?

"Unlike them, the writing team at Telltale Games really know the stuff," the writer said. "They knew the stuff backwards and forward. So even though I'm going to take the money for helping to keep them on the right track, I feel like I'm stealing most of that, just because I've had very little to do in the sense of correcting them, in the sense of, you know, 'you can't do that' and reminding them of things in the series. They know it. They know the material backwards and forwards.

In June, Warner Entertainment announced that Fables is also currently being developed as a film by Harry Potter franchise producers David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford of Heyday Films. Heyman, while promoting the film Gravity, has confirmed that the first draft of the script is currently being written.

"If the movie plans come as close to the material as this," Willingham said, "and as faithful to it as this, then I will be as happy as can be." (source)