Fables

I've read a handful of graphic novels over the years but last year a friend of mine introduced me to some series that I have really come to love. Today I want to talk about the one that touches my inner child: FABLES.

This series is basically about what every day life would be like for fairy tale characters if they were forced to move to our modern world. They call themselves Fables and they live on Bullfinch Street in New York City in a section they call Fabletown. Unless they are talking animals or make-believe creatures that can't fit in with modern society. Then they are shipped off to The Farm in upstate New York.
Why are they here? Because they were forced from their worlds by The Adversary, a mysterious tyrant who's armies sweep through every fairy tale world and who's identity isn't revealed until later on.

Some of the main charcters are great. They have the Big Bad Wolf, aka Bigby who is now usually seen in human form. There's the ever serious Snow White and her mischevious sister, Rose Red. Other characters include King Cole, Jack Horner, the Three Blind Mice, the Frog Prince, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Prince Charming, Aladdin, Mowgli, Pinnochio, etc. Other main characters are obviously there for you to despise, and despise I do!
I really love how they throw in obscure fairy tale characters sometimes. King Thrushbeard appears a few times and if you have no idea who that is, it's okay, none of my friends who read the series did either. But I knew the name immediately. He has his own short story told by the Grimm Brothers after all. And I adore me some Grimm tales.
There's also the interesting idea that many of the Fables believe: that your popularity with the humans directly affects your mortality. All Fables are immortal in the sense that they don't age and die, apparently. Or is it that they do age but super, super slow? Anyway, whenever someone is fatally injured and they miraculously survive, they believe it has to do with how popular their tale is with the "mundies", as they call us.

The stories themselves are marvelous. They are much like the old fairy tales before Disney and Studio Ghibli got a hold of them and PC'd the hell out of them. There is violence, mystery, romance, backstabbing, unlikely heroes, plot twists, gruesome murders, and more often than not, justice. Everything a good story should have, in my opinion.
I don't want to give too much away but eventually we do find out just who this mysterious Adversary is and that there are plans in motion to "take out" Fabletown. And there is an unexpected romance that I kind of saw a mile away but gushed over just the same.

I've only read the first fifteen volumes but I just can't wait to get my hands on what else is out so far. Then I will be impatiently waiting for new volumes to come out, like I do with many book or manga series that I follow. This will be my first time doing it with a graphic novel series though. The suspense, the suspense!
I highly recommend FABLES to anyone who enjoyed the Inheritance series, The Hunger Games trilogy, or anyone who just loves fairy tales from all over the world. The art is amazing, the dialogue engaging and the story itself, addictive.