Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile

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Average customer rating 4.7 (6 comments)

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This is a fantastic series. The way Willingham has spun these well-known characters is always surprising. This particular volume isn't my favorite of the series as it was just getting its footing, but it evolves into an amazing story. Highly recommended!

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This is a fantastic and creative graphic novel series. This is one of those thing where if I find out a friend has not read Fables, I lend them all of the books I have. I highly recommend.

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This is a very creative spin on the world of fairy tales. Bill, starts the tales of many of our favorite story characters, Snow White, The Big Bad Wolf and more, and sets them into modern life situations and tribulations. This is the first of a series of 13 Adult Graphic Novels, and continues to keep your attention thoughout the series. There is even a big surprise half way though as one our our favorite fairy tails becomes a evil dictator of a deadly army. Art work is excellent and it's a beautiful publication.

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This was a great start to the series. I love the reimagining of all the fables and fairy tales as exiles from their own world. The art is equal to the story.

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Fables: Legends in Exile #1 collects the first five issues of Bill Willingham's Vertigo comic. The high concept is a wonderful conceit--what if fairy tale characters, ranging from Snow White to Bluebeard, all lived, in secret, in New York City (and upstate New York in the case of the animals). Trying to avoid revealing their nature to the populace, they are a small community unto their own, and yet, unmistakably, expatriates in the Greatest City on Earth. And what happens when one of these (implied) immortal characters is brutally killed, and the evidence points not to an ordinary New Yorker, but one of Fabletown's own denizens? With this idea, great drawing and writing,and plenty of visual eye candy, Fables is an example of a good graphic novel which uses the full strengths of the form. Certainly one could have told this story in a straight novel format, but this is a case where seeing is believing. Snow White as a deputy Mayor. The Big Bad Wolf as a detective. Prince Charming as a schemer using his looks and charm to make his way in the world. These characters have pasts rooted in their fairy tales as well as previous relations between them in the expat community. We get the feeling that the characters have always been there, hidden, in New York. There is a continuity to their existence. And much more awaits the reader. It all works so very well, and the murder puzzle is a fair one. I look forward to at some point getting additional graphic novels of the series (something I need to do with a couple of others, like Sandman...). In the meantime, if you have any interest in fairy tale characters and in graphic novels (or love the former and want to try the latter), this is a graphic novel which is a painless way to try and enjoy the form. If you love Urban Fantasy, this volume is a must. The only downside is that only 5 issues of the comic were collected in the volume. I read this almost *too* quickly. Highly Recommended.

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The first [t]Fables[/t] collection. This is a fun who-done-it that does an admirable job of introducing the major players in this series, but it pales in comparison a bit to the later volumes.