Not That Long Ago, And Only Kind Of Far Away. A Fables Retrospective Index.
Do you like Fairy Tales? Do you wish they had more violence and nudity in? Then you're in the right place! Welcome to the magical world of Bill Willingham's Fables, a multi-award-winning spin on a series of classic stories, or Fables, if you will.
Collected in this Index you will find all of my Retrospectives for this legendary series. All you need to do is click the cover art to be taken to the review you want to read, enjoy!
Fables Volume 1: Legends in Exile.
Welcome to the world of Fables. Deep in the heart of the magical realm of... New York City, lies Fabletown. A home away from home for The Fables. Storybook characters forced to flee their homelands, after the dread Adversary pushed them out.
Our tales begins, as so many stories do, with a MURDER!
Yes, Rose Red has been offed, but who did it, and why?
Fables Volume 2: Animal Farm.
Trouble is brewing, down on The Farm!
After her cunning plan to trick people into thinking she was murdered, Rose Red is sentenced to Community Service down on The Farm, a Fabletown community for those Fables who are unable to blend in with the Mundys (us normal folk).
But, tension is building amongst these outcast stories, and adding Rose Red into the mix is like adding a lit match to petrol...
Also, Goldilocks is freakin HARD CORE. She also totally banged a bear.
Fables Volume 3: Storybook Love.
All hell breaks loose. With Snow White still on the mend, Bigby Wolf has to deal with a rather tricky situation, involving an annoying, persistant journalist!
Then, Bigby and Snow White take a little camping trip, because who doesn't love the great outdoors? And of course no camping trip is complete without a life or death duel with a gun toting maniac.
Back in Fabletown, Prince Charming shows up and is generally awful.
Fables Volume 4: March Of The Wooden Soldiers.
Fabletown prepares for WAR!
Jack Horner, who you will soon
be seeing entirely too much of, returns to Fabletown. It seems he needs money for his latest ridiculous scheme...
There's someone else on the way, though. Three creepy wooden brothers, who are in the process of buying huge amounts of firearms. I'm sure they're just hunting enthusiasts.
Then, the war kicks off! Igniting my lifelong distrust of one Frau Totenkinder.
Fables Volume 5: The Mean Seasons.
We're introduced to one of my favourite Fables, Cinderella, AKA Cindy The Super Spy.
Then, Snow White goes into labour, and Fabletown finally votes to see who should be in charge: the man who has kept them safe for centuries, or the guy whose only notable feature is his ability to lie a load and get women to sleep with him.
You'll NEVER guess who gets in...
Fables Volume 6: Homelands.
It's time to go home, people!
But first, a little interlude, as Jack Horner is up to his old tricks again. Off in Hollywoodland, Jack is setting up a freakin film franchise, in order to build his reputation, and with it, his power!
Then, Little Boy Blue puts on his big boy pants and a magic cloak, and sets off to bring down The Empire from within!
At last, the truth of The Empire and The Adversary, will be revealed!
Fables Volume 7: Arabian Nights (And Days).
We meet a delegation from the Middle East! As Baghdad sends an envoy to strike up talks with Fabletown.
And, with Prince Charming trying and failing at his new job, you know this is going to go really well.
Fables Volume 8: Wolves.
Bigby has gone off wandering, because frankly he's way too good for Fabletown.
Sadly, he's also pretty necessary, and so Prince Not Actually That Charming dispatches Mowgli to track him down and get him to return.
Then, once he's back, he goes on his most dangerous mission yet... he also gets married.
Fables Volume 9: Sons Of Empire.
We get to see the other side of the battle.
After volumes of seeing Fabletown prepare for war, we turn the tables and spend some time with The Empire and see how they're getting ready to stick it to the Fables.
They also take Bigby up on his offer, and dispatch an only borderline useless envoy, to talk to the residents of Fabletown, and also spy on them.
Then, Bigby takes Snow White and his kids to see his father, The North Wind. Things go about as well as you would expect them to.
Fables Volume 10: The Good Prince.
Looking back, this was probably my favourite volume.
There's some other parts going on, furthering the main arc of Fabletown and its war...
But, mostly, this volume is about Flycatcher being an absolute LEGEND. Pure Arthurian Myth of the best kind, as he takes some friends on a long journey, to establish a new, safe kingdom, away from the war.
Love it.
Fables Volume 11: War And Pieces. Great title.
As Fabletown readies to stick it to the Empire, Boy Blue decides there's someone else he wants to stick it too, first.
Then, Super Spy Cindy does her thing!
And it all comes to a head when, with a little help from the Baghdad Fables, Fabletown invades The Empire! Ready to kick ass, and take names.
Are you ready to take back your home?
Fables Volume 12: The Dark Ages.
The War is WON! But a great price has been paid...
Prince Charming is dead, and Little Boy Blue is gravely injured.
Meanwhile, a couple of ne'er-do-wells are picking over the remains of The Empire and accidentally unleash a centuries old foe, who isn't exactly in the best mood.
And by that, I mean he uses his evil powers to remove pretty much every spell that is currently keeping Fabletown safe, leading to the collapse of everything.
Jack Of Fables Volume 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape.
In a change to no listings, and precisely when and where we'd planned to review it, I jump over to the Fables side hustle, Jack of Fables.
Jack is in a bad way, exiled from Fabletown, broke and alone, things can't get any worse.
And then he's picked up by the freaky "Mr Revise" and locked up in Golden Boughs.
Because when it comes to Jack of Fables, there's no such thing as "reaching the bottom of the barrel".
Jack Of Fables Volume 2: Jack Of Hearts.
Jack heads to Vegas, where he spends a lot of time doing not a lot of stuff.
Jack wakes up in Vegas, and he's MARRIED!
Of course, married life doesn't really agree with Jack, because Jack is fairly disagreeable.
Jack Of Fables Volume 3: The Bad Prince.
Jack gets stabbed through the chest with freakin Excalibur.
A bunch of other stuff happens, but the main part is Jack gets run RIGHT through, with a magical sword. It's awesome.
Also, Kevin Thorne begins to be an issue. But don't worry, I'm sure that won't come to anything.
We're also introduced to Wicked John, who it turns out is pretty important to Jack's story.
Jack Of Fables Volume 4: Americana.
Welcome to Americana!
Jack goes off in search of a fabled golden city, because he REALLY wants to get rich.
We're also introduced to Bookburner, who is another character that is in no way going to be of vital importance in the volumes to come.
There are also lots of Zombies, but they're surprisingly chill, so this doesn't go full horror story.
Jack Of Fables Volume 5: Turning Pages.
From the heart of Americana, to the Wild West!
After a short trip back in time, to find out that Jack was just as insufferable as a cowboy as he is as everything else, we spend some time getting to know the Page Sisters.
I can't lie, this one gets SUPER meta, as the fourth wall is directly broken to address the audience, to explain about the Page sisters, as Mr Bookburner begins his march towards The Golden Boughs, intent on destroying them all!
Jack Of Fables Volume 6: The Big Book Of War.
Mr Bookburner begins his war on the Golden Boughs!
And then it ends, just as quickly.
Yeah, it's all kinda over before it began.
Bookburner is defeated, some Fables get a bit of a power-up that is never mentioned again, and everything kinda calms down.
Except, this is Fables, so it doesn't stay calm for very long...
It's Crossover time!
The Great Fables Crossover Part 1!
It's finally here, people! The reason I had to put up with six freakin volumes of Jack being a douchebag.
Our boy Jack Thorne is making something of a nuisance of himself. Turns out he's a Literal. I'm still not 100% sure exactly what that is, but he is one, as is Revise and Bookburner.
The difference is, Jack has the ability to rewrite all of reality, and he's going to use that power to create a world without Fables.
And the only person that can stop him is, urg, Jack.
The Great Fables Crossover Part 2!
Fear my epic photo editing skills!
The great battle with The Literals comes to its conclusion.
It's not great, I can't lie.
Fables Volume 14: Witches.
I hide my disappointment really well, as we dive back into Fables, to see how they conclude the Mister Dark story.
In the ruins of Fabletown, Bufkin proves he's the best, by saving everyone from some rather nasty sorts.
Then, on The Farm, we meet some of the more important members of Floor 13, as Totenkinder gets up to her usual shenanigans and the other witches scramble to keep everything going.
Fables Volume 15: Rose Red.
The Farm edges ever closes to absolute chaos.
With various factions, including freakin Geppetto, trying to take over, Rose Red decides the best usage of her time is the same thing she's been doing since the war with the Empire. Sulk in bed. Thankfully, someone has arrived who can actually snap her out of her funk.
Then, we take a trip down Memory Lane, as we learn just how fraught Rose Red and Snow White's relationship has been, over the years.
Then, Frau Totenkinder attempts to steal all the experience points, by fighting Mister Dark on her own!
Fables Volume 16: Super Team!
Not THE ending, but certainly AN ending.
Pinocchio decides the best way to defeat Mister Dark is to assemble a team of Super Heroes, from the Fables. He spends the whole volume gathering them, training them, and working out strategies to defeat their seemingly unbeatable foe.
Then North Wind does what Totenkinder tried and failed to do, by killing Mister Dark on his own.
That was the point when I basically gave up.
Taheg Gloder is a Freelance Copywriter from England. Obsessed with comics and Manga since his teens, he now splits his time between writing comic reviews and retrospectives for POP, and doing reactions on his YouTube Channel, The Dragon & The Hound. He lives alone, because he’s a hermit.