Rereading Fables: Vol 3, Storybook Love
And I’m done with volume 3. I finished it a while back, life interceded, then I needed to read it again. But, at any rate, it is here now.
Fables: Vol 3, Storybook Love
Writer: Bill Willingham
Pencilers: Mark Buckingham, Lan Medina, Bryan Talbot, Linda Medley
Inkers: Steve Leialoha, Craig Hamilton, Bryan Talbot, Linda Medley
Colorist: Daniel Vozzo
Letterer: Todd Klein
Covers: James Jean, Aron Wiesenfeld
Issues: 11-18
Price: $14.95
I’m going to handle the discussion of this trade a little differently. There are four stories (Two one offs, a two parter, and the main ‘Storybook Love’ arc) in this one, so I’m going to discuss them independently of each other.
First up is ‘Bag ‘o Bones.’
This story focuses on Jack after he came into the Mundane world. He has joined the Confederate army so that he can become a hero and marry into wealth. He realizes that this wasn’t a good idea when they start loosing and he deserts. First, he plays poker against the Devil and gets a bag of holding. Then he stumbles across a ‘cursed’ house, in which the last member of the estate, a beautiful woman, lays paralyzed in her bed, waiting for death. In order to gain her favor and get laid, he captures death. This results in nothing dying (a bad thing during a war) and thus, Jack frees death.
It is a simple story with great art by Bryan Talbot. The most interesting thing about it, in my opinion, is the appearance of the Devil. It is not said whether or not he is a fable. So this either shows a theist leaning in the universe, or shows religious tales to have happened in the Fable homeworld as well. It would be interesting to see this addressed again. Similarly, I wonder if death is a fable or if he exists across all of the realms in this universe. His does answer the question of whether this is in anyway connected to the DC/Vertigo universe, firmly separating it. This was pretty abundantly clear from the setting and tone before, but this acknowledges a different cosmology.
Also of note is the further building of Jack as a character. We see his ability to cheat and the way he does not consider the outcome of what he’s doing. It is stuff we have already seen before, but we get an idea of the extent of his inability to plan with each new story.
Next is the two part “A Sharp Operation.”
This focuses on an operation to suppress a journalist’s story about Fabletown being a group of immortal vampires. The art team is the same as the first story arc, and it fits well with the tone of the story. The gritty espionage tale is well serviced by Medina’s more scratchy pencils.
This story has a lot of interesting characterization. We see Bigby as a mastermind (again) and as a truly intimidating individual (at least to the fables at large). We see Bluebeard as a manipulative coward who can only truly do things the easy way. We see Jack as resourceful, he actually has a successful plan. We see Boy Blue as a more childlike character. These further what we already know, but build the relationships between these characters. The animosity between Bigby and Bluebeard is a significant idea throughout this volume.
And the story has a fun quality to it because of its black sense of humor. The most obvious example of this is Jack’s solution involving Pinochio. There is something disturbingly humorous about this perpetually young character going along with sexual blackmail.
Next up: “Storybook Love”, a four part arc.
This arc focuses on a plot by Goldilocks and Bluebeard to kill Snow and Bigby. It also looks at the relationship between Prince Charming and Bluebeard.
This furthers three characters and removes two. Snow and Bigby’s relationship gets helped along when Bluebeard compels them to spend some time in the forest together. This leads to an interesting conversation that ties into the short story at the end of volume one. Apparently Snow is Bigby’s true love in the way that wolves determine these things, essentially he can’t ignore her scent. I also like the fact that Bigby’s smoking habit is explained here as a way to block out the scents of the city and kep from going insane. Prince Charming gets a little bit more noble, in that he stands up for Snow. This is tarnished when it is revealed that he is mostly standing up to Bluebeard for the money.
The characters that are removed are Bluebeard and Goldilocks. They are conspiring to kill Bigby and Snow, respectively. The reasons for this have been shown through earlier arcs. It is interesting to note the difficulty of killing each of them. Bluebeard is a relative unknown in the mundy world, thus he can be stabbed and it is over. With Goldilocks, however, she is thrown off a motorcycle, has a hatchet embedded in her head, and is hit by a semi. That is not necessarily assumed to do the trick. This emphasizes the ideas presented by Rose in the last trade.
This arc also shows the state of the fable government. When Snow and Bigby leave, the Mayor becomes worried. He may actually have to make some decisions. Boy Blue is essentially the only character around that can run the government. The true nature of the government is shown, however, after Price Charming kills Bluebeard. When he explains to the Mayor that the town will get all of Bluebeard’s money and magics, the Prince’s crimes are essentially washed away. They put on a show trial before Snow and Bigby can get back to investigate. Of course, with the Prince now seeking election, this could bite ing Cole in the ass.
The big plot point for this arc happens at the end, however. Snow is pregnant and Bigby knew about it because of his senses. After their relationship seemed to be moving in the right direction, it now seems to be grinding to a halt. And with a possible change in administration, where will that leave them?
The final story in the trade is “Barleycorn Brides.”
This is a short tale explaining a Lilliputan tradition that serves to give us a glimpse at the homelands. Essentially, a Lilliputan expeditionary force goes to meet the adversary’s forces, realizes that they would be crushed (literally) and joins the fable refugees leaving for the mundane world. This force is all male and, when they set up on the Farm, they grow depressed as there are no women for them. Matters become worse when Thumbelina arives. Now there is one woman to all the men. But one Lilliputan decides to go get the magical barleycorn jar from which Thumbelina was hatched. When he succeeds, everyone is happy and babies can be made. Now whenever a Lilliputan reaches manhood, they attempt to steal a barleycorn from Fabletown.
The most interesting thing in this story was the scene with the bear. Here we see a member of the Adversary’s forces that joined so that he could be left alone and because he had no place else to go. Of course, once he does have someplace to go, he leaves. This says a lot about the adversary’s forces. They are cobbled together from goblins and fable defectors. These defectors are not necessarily reliable. Of course, this could just be the Adversary planting agents in the mundane world.
Thats all for Storybook Love.
