TPB winners 01

Fables-Legends in Exile
published by Vertigo/DC comics

The first volume in the currently ongoing monthly series,Legends in Exile sets up a lot of the plot for the first few years of the series. Basic premise is every fairy tale,tall tale,or piece of folklore you have heard is true. And the characters from these tales live in a series of interconnected worlds. Some years ago a great evil referred to as the Adversary starts to take over the various worlds,and most of the characters are captured or killed. Some escape to the real world,The ones that can pass for human live in a Burroughs of NYC called Fabletown. The non-human ones live on a farm in upstate New York. Fabletown has it's own mayor who is Old King Cole,but the town is really ran by Snow White. Who is Cole's second in command. The fables of Fabletown self police themselves and the head of security is Bigby Wolf AKA the big bad wolf of Lil red riding hood fame. The story starts off with Snow White's sister Rose Red being murdered in her apartment. At first the main suspect is Jack,of Jack in the beanstalk,lil Jack Horner,and various other fables with a protagonist named Jack fame. Bigby is in charge of the investigation and over the next couple of issues find many clues. The Fables celebrate each year a holiday that marks when they left their homelands to come to NYC. And at this celebration Bigby reveals who the killer is,and it is a shock. This is the first storyline so it uses much of it time introducing us to the various main stars of the series. We find out that Sleeping Beauty,Cinderella,and Snow White were all married to the same Prince. Who it turns out is an incredible cad and has an ability to seduce pretty much any woman he wants. While truthfully not the best outta what i have read from the series so far,I am currently on the 5th trade, Legend in exile is a good read that has amazing artwork. And as you read the next couple of trades you can see where the author has laid the groundwork for the series. This series is written by Bill Willingham,who before I had read this I only knew from his 80's indy series Elementals. And has great artwork by Mark Buckingham. What I love about Buckingham's artwork is how he draws the females characters. While still gorgeous they don't have the over the top anatomy that most comic females have. They look like real life women,sure the are all very beautiful,but they still look real. My only real gripe about this series so far is the covers don't accurately portray what is happening in the issues. Most of the covers have a slightly surreal style,that kinda clashes with Buckingham's cartoony but realistic artwork. One word of warning this is a Vertigo series which usually means that it isn't for young readers,and this series isn't. With a fair amount of foul language and some graphic violence and some nudity I wouldn't let any kid under about 15 read it. But still Fables is a great series that thanks to Jamie D of WWW.comicgeekspeak.com for recommending. Legends in Exile gets an B+.