At the apartment Rose shares with Jack, Bigby finds a gruesome scene blood splatter everywhere, a room tossed and thrashed, and no sign of Rose Red's body anywhere.

The three volumes I'm going to look at today tell two major stories, and then a few minor stories, setting up the world of Fables and growing the cast of characters exponentially as you read through.įables Volume 1: Legends in Exilebegins with Jack Horner (The Giant Killer), rushing into Bigby's office to announce something terrible has happened to Snow White's sister, Rose Red. A few others, like Little Boy Blue and a Flying Monkey named Bufkin, round out those working for King Cole in the Mayor's office. Snow relies on Bigby, The Big Bad Wolf in human form, to act as Sheriff, enforcing the laws of Fabletown. Really, Snow runs things for Cole, who doesn't like to get his hands dirty doing the heavy lifting. The Fables were forced to come to this world when theirs, part of hundreds of worlds existing in the multiverse, were invaded by the mysterious Adversary, who sought to rule all the magical worlds, but who has never taken any sort of interest in the Mundy World.įabletown is fairly insular they have their own government, with Old King Cole acting as Mayor with Snow White as his Lieutenant. Some choose to travel among the “mundys,” which would be normal people who have no idea magic is real or that the Fables exist and are living in their world.

Any who can't pass for human live on a farm upstate. I mean-where do you start? Turns out, you just have to start at the beginning.įairy tale characters such as Snow White, Old King Cole, Pinocchio, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Bluebeard, Prince Charming-even The Big Bad Wolf and The Three Little Pigs-are all real, and, as it turns out, live in a small section of New York City called Fabletown. Up until now, I've avoided reviewing Fables simply due to the sheer volume of material available. Quickly growing in popularity with comic book readers, the book has kept going for over a decade, and has spawned several spin-offs.

Before Emma showed up in Storybrooke to shake things up on Once Upon A Time (ABC), or Nick found out his family had a certain, special heritage on Grimm (NBC), fairy tale characters were making a come back in a comic book series called Fables, written by Bill Willingham and published by DC Vertigo.

Fables vol 1 legends in exile