Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book One
Posted in Graphic Novels on 12. Apr, 2010
- ISBN13: 9781401224271
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
$14.95
Product Description
When a savage creature known only as the Adversary conquered the fabled lands of legends and fairy tales, all of the infamous inhabitants of folklore were forced into exile.
Disguised among the normal citizens of modern-day New York, these magical characters created their own secret society-within an exclusive luxury apartment building on Manhattan's Upper West Side-called Fabletown. But when Snow White's party-girl sister, Rose Red, is apparently murdered, it is up to Bigby, Fabletown's sheriff, and a reformed and pardoned Big Bad Wolf, to determine if the culprit is Bluebeard, Rose's ex-lover and notorious wife killer, or Jack, her current live-in boyfriend and former beanstalk-climber.
This Deluxe Edition collects the first two trade paperbacks of the series, issues 1-10, and Bill Willingham's prose story from Vol. 1, as well as character sketches.
AWARDS:
YALSA: 2004 annual recommended list of Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
·Willingham, Bill. Animal Farm (Fables series). DC Comics: Vertigo.
·Willingham, Bill. Legends in Exile (Fables series). DC Comics: Vertigo.
YALSA: 2007 Great Graphic Novels for Teens
·Willingham, Bill, Todd Klein, and others. Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall. 2006. DC Comics/ Vertigo
As of 2008, Fables has won twelve Eisner Awards.
·Best New Series in 2003
·Best Serialized Story in 2003, 2005 and 2006 (Legends In Exile, March of the Wooden Soldiers and Homelands)
·Best Anthology in 2007 (Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall)
·Best Short Story in 2007 (A Frog’s Eye View, by Bill Willingham and James Jean, in Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall)
Hugo Award Nomination 2009:
·Fables: War and Pieces was nominated for the first Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story
Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book One
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Prince Charming is a womanizer. Goldilocks is a communist. The Big Bad Wolf is a hard-boiled detective. And they’re all living in present-day New York.
The premise may be ridiculous, but the execution is so masterful that it’s reminiscent of nothing less than Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. It’s an engrossing new mythology, full of humor but tinged with darkness. Forget Disney’s “Enchanted”–this graphic novel is very much for adults, the story of a struggling underground community of exiles. The art is excellent, the characters are memorable (of course, we already know most of them in some form or another) and the writing is top-notch.
This volume was my introduction to Fables, so I can’t compare it to other editions. (This hardcover is equivalent to the first two softcover volumes.) If you already have the comics in some other form, then there’s little reason to upgrade to this “Deluxe Edition,” which has few extras. But the production quality of this slim, glossy hardcover is very good. It was clearly made to last. I look forward to passing this down to my children some day–when they’re old enough.
Rating: 5 / 5
Just a warning that for DC/Vertigo, “Deluxe” apparently doesn’t actually mean “Deluxe” enough to warrant a proper sewn binding. Instead, as per the usual practice in the comic book industry, this is just a paperback glued into a cardboard cover. The pages are glued in and the book does not open as wide as a proper hardcover, so in some cases you lose some of the art in the gutter between the pages.
While Marvel has, seemingly, come to their senses, and is producing at least some of their hardcovers with sewn bindings these days, DC can’t be bothered. Even for a deluxe edition like this, which will probably be a double-dip (at least) for many potential purchasers, they can’t bother to spend the extra pennies to bind it like a real book. Sorry, fans. DC apparently thinks we’ll buy anything and they’re probably right.
Rating: 3 / 5
I have been reading this incredible series on paperback. I own all of the first 9 volumes on paperback and when I saw this I decided to purchase it to add to my collection. It is beautifully bound with a wrap-around dusk-jacket and glossy, high quality paper (not the cheaper paper used in the paperback compilations). I suspect that Fables will be producing these collector’s editions in years to come and eventually we may even see these collected in Absolute Editions. DC-Vertigo are masters of re-packaging, but these editions are truly for the hard-core collectors.
Rating: 5 / 5
Imagine if all the legendary story characters were living secretly in New York — and they weren’t quite fairy tale material?
In short, Prince Charming is a thrice-divorced lech, the Big Bad Wolf is now a werewolf cop, Goldilocks is a violent communist, and a suit of armor prophecies future conflicts when it isn’t singing drunkenly about its mommy. “Fables Deluxe Edition Vol. 1″ brings together the first two volumes (ten issues) of Bill Willingham’s complex, humorous and sometimes gleefully strange graphic novel series.
The daily business of the hard-nosed Snow White (a Fable government official whom everyone comes to with complaints) is interrupted when Bigby Wolf brings her some ghastly news: her estranged, wild-child sister Rose Red has been murdered, and there’s no sign of her except for buckets of blood all over her apartment. The most obvious suspect is Jack, whom Snow White helps interrogate when she isn’t dealing with her womanizing, impoverished aristocrat ex, Prince Charming.
But some of the details about Rose Red’s death don’t add up — and as Bigby investigates further into the people who knew her well, he begins finding aspects of her life hidden from everybody. Not to mention an irate fiancee who wants revenge on Jack. As the Remembrance Day approaches, Bigby puts together the clues to a very bizarre case where not everything is what it seems — and not everyone is doing what they claim.
And then Snow White takes a trip with Rose to the Farm, hoping to repair their damaged relationship. The Farm is basically a secret little town for Fables who are unable to pass for humans — but they’re acting very strangely, with secret meetings and claims that they want to reclaim the Homelands from the Adversary. Then the head of one of the locals turns up on a stake outside the women’s hotel — and the Farm Charter keeps Bigby from coming to investigate.
What Snow doesn’t know is that the radical communist Goldilocks is staging a violent rebellion, claiming that the animal-type Fables are “enslaved.” While Bigby and Boy Blue try to figure out what’s going on, Snow sets out across the dangerous countryside with only one unspelled ally by her side. To reclaim the Farm and quell the bloody rebellion, Snow must call on the help of some very unusual Fables… but that doesn’t mean she’s out of danger yet.
Bill Willingham is an expert in taking beloved characters from legends, fairy tales and nursery rhymes… and then turning our perceptions of them on their heads (example: Beast and Beauty’s marital troubles cause his curse to reassert itself). He’s also created a pretty unique fantasy concept — the Fables and their magic have been driven out of their fantastical homeland, and live as secret refugees in the middle of New York City. It’s actually a pretty cool idea.
If it were nothing but a “cool idea” gimmick, “Fables” might be a fun read but not a great one. However, Willingham has a knack for weaving together action-packed, gritty plots with a touch of sex, plenty of splattered gore, and plenty of quirky twists (Pinocchio is angry about being a “real boy” who never grows up). And the first half of this deluxe collection is especially clever — he spins up a solid murder mystery that intertwines with the other subplots like ivy vines on a stone wall.
And Willingham’s cast is as large as the number of beloved free-domain characters. The inhabitants of fairy tales and folk legends loom especially large in the story — the hard-nosed, no-nonsense Snow White; the bickering Beauty and her Beast hubby; the flirtatious much-married Prince Charming; the grizzled cop Bigby Wolf; supposedly reformed serial killer Bluebeard; a rather embittered Cinderella, and so on.
There are even characters from nursery rhymes, myths and older books, such as animals from “The Jungle Book,” Boy Blue and the mythic smith Weyland Smith. Despite the vast cast of characters, Willingham juggles them adeptly and gives each character a distinct personality.
“Fables Deluxe Edition Volume 1″ brings together the first two volumes of the now-classic graphic novel, and while each story arc is nicely wrapped up, it leaves you anticipating more of the Fables’ battles.
Rating: 4 / 5
If you ever loved fairy tales as a kid, or fantasy, this is a book for you!
Reading this and going back on what characters I remember from child hood was alot of fun! Even if you haven’t read many story tails as a kid, you will still enjoy this. I can’t believe they waited this long to come out with big hardcover collection as this, only thing better would be an Absolute edition. The jist of the stories follow whats happened to our fairy tale characters in modern time, and how they come to be in New York, after The Advisary runs them out of their Fable lands. Not much is learned of the Advisary other than they slowly destroyed fables lands and took over, until the rest of the fables they had no choice to come to the human world or mundy’s world.
Although some of the story telling isn’t perfect, and at times its like “oh come on”, anyone who enjoyed sandman would enjoy this.
I truly hope that they will further quickly come out with these deluxe editions, i’ll buy each and everyone of them !
Rating: 5 / 5