Fairy Tales for Non-Fairies
Fables (Vertigo Comics)
The problem with doing fairy tales for adults is that we can't easily identify with pure motives. Snow White is supposed to be pure good, which means she'd have to be a lousy date. The genius of Bill Willingham's Fables is that the pure motives of fabled characters exist side-by-side with modern sensibility.

Here's the story; most of the characters from classic fairy tales actually exist. They lived more-or-less peacefully in their own dimensions, until a monstrous presence called the Adversary began killing or corrupting them. The characters, called Fables, realized it was too late to fight back on their own turf. They came to our world a few hundred years ago. Like other refugees, many of them came to the Land of Opportunity, and in the present day many of them live in an apartment house in Manhattan.

Besides their near-immortality and their occasional knowledge of magic, the Fables solidly represent various virtues and vices. They have their characters down pat and they stick to them. But that doesn't mean they're free of human temptations. For instance, take Snow White, the "operations manager" of the Fables government. She may dress in business suits instead of ball gowns, but she remains practical and aristocratic. She's also very feminist. She divorced the good-for-nothing Prince Charming when she caught him two-timing - with her lesser-known sister Rose Red.

Or take Bigby Wolf, the "sheriff" of the Fables. He is the Big "B" Wolf of the fairy-tales, who magically takes the human form of a scruffy Bogart-like detective/cop. He is fierce and wily, but he has become a good guy who defends Fabletown against its criminal element. As he explains, he never was a villain; he was just a powerful predator, like real-world wolves, except he has principles.
In the first graphic novel comprising the first six or so issues, Fables: Heroes in Exile, we meet the Fables through a classic locked-door mystery. Snow's sister Rose Red has disappeared, and her blood-filled apartment suggests murder. The detective story is a good one, so I won't spoil it, but it establishes the main characters of the Fables world beautifully.

Thanks to a general amnesty, none of the legendary crimes the Fables may have committed can be held against them. Bigby Wolf's incident with the Three Little Pigs makes him unpopular with the less-human Fables, but he isn't considered a criminal. Neither is Bluebeard, the legendary bride-murderer, who is the richest Fable and upon whose contributions the Fabletown government relies for its budget. This means that bad guys might turn out to be good guys, or they might be the scumbags we always knew they were. Only by reading the comic regularly can we find out who's who.

The story has grown with each new story arc. The Animal Farm graphic novel shows the Fable animals plotting a conspiracy. And who better to be the villain than Goldilocks, now revealed as a radical in the mold of the Weather Underground? (She sleeps with the Three Bears, so you know she's weird.)

The current Fables storyline is building to a momentous climax. Apparently the Adversary's forces have arrived in our world, and their assault on the members of Fabletown might reveal their existence to the outside world. And Snow White, although unmarried, is visibly pregnant...and how that happened, you'll have to read the comics to find out.

Greedy, stupid folks have done lousy things to fairy tales. Disney isn't anywhere near the worst; take a look at the awful "Goodtimes Videos" sold in video stores. But Willingham took those characters, cleaned them up, gave them heart and soul, and put them in one of the great mature comics of the last few years.

Photo Copyright Bill Willingham and DC Comics
Thomas E. Reed is a television engineer in Orlando, Florida. While Bigby Wolf is his favorite Fable, he also likes Pinocchio, for a snarky thing he says in the first graphic novel during the Rememberance Day celebration. Adults can find out what that is by e-mailing him at hatemail@off-model.com.