Bill Willingham's Blog

C2E2 2015 Schedule

Bill will be at C2E2 all days during the convention and when he’s not at a panel (listed below), he’ll be at Booth N12, which you can find on the .

Saturday April 25

Title: Mark and Bill Fix Comics

Time: 12:30PM – 1:30PM

Location: Room S405b

Description: Mark Waid and Bill Willingham don’t quite see eye to eye on everything, including what’s wrong in their chosen field and how to fix it. In this hour, they’ll literally draw subjects from a hat and vigorously, respectfully and (one hopes) entertainingly debate those issues. If they finish everything in the hat, comics is fixed at last and the audience takes them out for beer.

Sunday April 26

Title: Farewell to Fables

Time: 12:00PM – 1:00PM

Location: Room S403

Description: It’s the end of an era and Fans are bidding a fond farewell to Fabletown. Come join Bill Willingham and Creators from across the industry as they discuss their love and memories of one of Vertigo’s longest and most acclaimed series.

Emerald City Comicon 2015 Schedule

Bill’s Amtrak Adventures

This is a bit late but we wanted to share with you the blogs that Bill wrote while on the train to Seattle and back. They’re directly copied from Bill’s section on the Amtrak web site, which you can find here.

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The Amtrak Residency Thing: On Departing

It’s 8:12 on Saturday night. I’m in the tiny but picturesque Amtrak station in Red Wing, Minnesota, waiting for the 8:49 Empire Builder, bound for St. Paul, Fargo, and other parts west.

I’m anticipating a fine two days or so of writing, napping and riding, all on Amtrak’s generous  dime. The Roomette and meals are covered. The promised service detailed and attentive. Tips aren’t covered though, so I plan to do that with a vigor. I intend to seriously overtip, partially to compensate for my guilt at receiving anything for free, and partially to mess with the other 23 writers chosen for an Amtrak Residency. Set the bar high, right?

What will I write on this trip? I have a few things to finish on the final issues of Fables, coming to an end after 12 years and 150 monthly issues. So Shelly, my DC Vertigo editor, wants me to work on that. But there’s also the current novel that needs a bit of polish, not to mention my need to write a screenplay treatment of it, since Ken, my agent, has been typically deft at setting up many deals and opportunities. Then there’s the new comic series at Image Comics that could use some more script pages. And what about the other new project, still secret until announcements later in the year?

All are worthy projects deserving attention, but here’s the thing. I’m taking an extended train trip in October, both legs of which I’ll be occupying Roomette 13. That practically demands I set all of those more pressing projects aside and write a haunted train story. And so I will. My almost antique sense of occasion would allow for nothing less.

Here comes the train now. We’ll speak again.

Bill Willingham

Amtrak Writer in Residence

11 October 2014

The Amtrak Residency Thing: Day Two

It’s been too many years since I’ve slept on a train. I’m just old enough to remember when sleeper compartments were the standard method of cross-America travel. Okay, not more common than driving, but still more common than flying. They’d stick bunks four high back then, from floor to ceiling, in cars that were only one story high. Each Willingham kid got a narrow bunk, with only inches to spare from the one above, and a curtain to establish a pretense of privacy. But that was enough. The little bit of space that was mine was all mine.

The Amtrak Roomette is small, but luxurious compared to those old bunk berths. The bed is comfortable enough for one. The swaying of the train rocked me to sleep in a sure way that’s been long hard wired into the human experiment. But my dreams were vastly strange.

While I slept too well we passed through St. Paul, Minneapolis, St. Cloud, all in Minnesota, then on into Fargo, North Dakota. I woke sometime just before Grand Forks. We’re headed west now, through sprawling Dakota, past Devils Lake and Minot. It’s most fields of crops and cattle, who sometimes stampede away as the train passes. Sometimes there are lamas and fields of resting geese.

So far there’ve been no murders on board, or mysterious disappearances, which is a tad disappointing. No missing Rembrandt Letters to recover, or Agents of Her Majesty’s Secret Service cleaning compartments of various super villains. I’m beginning to suspect our films haven’t accurately depicted the romance and adventure of train travel. I’m ready to solve though, so maybe soon.

In the meantime I’m writing my ghost stories, with occasional breaks to produce pages of comic scripts.

Bill Willingham

Amtrak Writer in Residence

12 October 2014

The Amtrak Residency Thing: Day Three

It’s 5:47 in the AM and I’m awake, showered and waiting for breakfast to begin. We just pulled into Spokane, Washington, where the train is about to be split into two, half of which will go to Portland, and my half of the train which will go to Seattle.

About seven hours to Seattle from here, then I spend a couple of days there, before getting back on the train and doing it all over, coming back the other way.

I made progress on the ghost story and may be able to finish it on the way back. Several script pages for comic books were also completed. Not too bad so far.

One of the other Amtrak Writers asked me for any helpful tips I might have, based on first experience, so here then is…

Some of the things I learned that may be helpful to the rest of the 24 Writers in Residence:

Bring a good pair of slip-on shoes or even slippers, for wearing the entire time while on the train. When the Roomette’s bed is deployed, there isn’t much room for bending over to tie laces.

Also pajamas are a good idea, for those nighttime walks to the bathroom, down the corridor, past all the other Roomettes full of innocent travelers.

The showers are nice, but small, a real luxury on a long trip though. They provide soap and towels in abundance, but no shampoo. I didn’t realize that. Bring all the lotions and unguents you need to be comfortable.

At least by my limited experience: If you reveal to other passengers that you’re one of the Amtrak Writers they will be fascinated enough by the program to grill you on it for the entire meal in the dining car (for instance). You won’t have a moment to ask them anything. This frustrated the writer part of me, who always wants to ask the questions, in hope of getting inside information on interesting professions, or locations, or anything else that might work it’s way into a story someday. I want to do what I can to promote the program, which I think is a fine one, but also have that need to be the one prying into other lives. It’s a dilemma.

Absolutely don’t forget to bring a power strip/charging station thingie (as in the photo here), to plug into the one outlet in your Roomette. Only being able to charge one device at a time would suck, right?

I brought snacks, but never touched them, since they fed me well on the trip. But better to have some, just in case, neh?

Don’t go to sleep with open containers of anything perched on the armrest/shelf above you. The train sways and you’ll end up wearing it. I kept my nighttime water in closed bottles after… well, let’s just call it the incident.

I found writing on board pretty easy — or at least as easy as writing ever is. But it takes more time because of the constant movement. I got into the rhythm of the sway, but it slowed down the basic mechanical ability to type. My words per hour rate was cut roughly in half.

Bill Willingham

Amtrak Writer in Residence

13 October 2014



The Amtrak Residency Thing: Day Four: Interregnum

It’s Tuesday and I’m in the Marriot Waterfront hotel in Seattle, my favorite city in the world. A couple of places in Italy come close. I’m thinking of living in Venice for a year to write, but Seattle still wins. I’ve already lived here three times, for more than a year each, so the math proves it’s at least three times better than Venice. Can’t argue with the math, right?

In a couple of days I get back on the train to return home. I plan to write more on the way back than I did on the way here, because I think I’ve finally gotten the knack of writing on a train. On the final day of travel, my typing during the constant clack and sway has sped up, not quite to my stable desk rate, but faster than the roughly half-speed it settled into at first. As is the case with most things, practice improved it.

Some things I forgot to mention on the first half of my journey. Tashi Gurung was the attendant for our sleeping car. He did an excellent job meeting all of my travel needs, turning an enjoyable trip into a lap-of-luxury trip. Thank you, Tashi. My waitress in the dining car was Donna. I regret I never got her last name. She was terrific and had a delightfully acerbic sense of humor. A funny waitress is a joy. A funny waitress who always gets your order right is a treasure. She was that.

Tashi and Donna were my most regular on-board liaisons with the brobdingnagian Amtrak organism. They acquitted themselves well and did their company proud.

One other thing I forgot to mention in previous posts, for which my assistant Stephanie has scolded me more than once, is to mention my Twitter name (or is it an address?), so that I can glean new followers from those who read these blogs.

Here’s the problem with that: I don’t like that they call such people followers. It smacks of cultism and I’d make a truly lousy cult leader. I don’t want all your money, I don’t want thirty wives, I don’t think we’re all going away to live in a comet together, and I hate living in big, crowded compounds.

I don’t want followers.

I do however want readers. More than once I’ve suggested the lords of twitter change followers to readers, but so far they seem unmoved. Still, Stephanie likes looking after me, and insists that social networking is important, so I’ll mention my twitter name. It’s @BillWillingham. If you’d like to be among the readers of my tweets, I invite you to come do so.

So far I’ve both tweeted and blogged my Amtrak Residency, one being more immediate and the other being more thorough. I plan to do the same on the way back. Even though my route wasn’t one of Amtrak’s wifi available trips, I was pleasantly surprised to find out how much connectivity was available, even in some pretty remote corners of our country.

My writing plans for the way back are to finish things started on the way here. One prose story, inspired by the trip, about a haunted train; one more comic book script (I finished one and started another on the way out); and more notes towards the screenplay. Also those tweets and blog posts.

And, if any other words of advice occur, to help the 23 other Amtrak Writer/Riders avoid possible pitfalls on their journeys, I’ll pass those along too.

Bill Willingham

@BillWillingham

Amtrak Writer in Residence

14 October 2014

(photos by Stephanie Cooke)

The Amtrak Residency Thing: Day Six: The Return

It’s noon on Thursday the 16th. I’m in the architecturally impressive King Street Station in Seattle, killing time until my train home is ready for boarding. I’m also keeping an eye out for CBS News Producer Charlie Brooks and his camera crew. They’re going to ride with me on the way home, all the way, filming, interviewing, and maybe getting a good story out of the Residency program.

I’m going to cooperate, and even try my best to be helpful to them, because I like the program. I want Amtrak to repeat it in years to come. I want the fraternity of Amtrak Writers in Residence to grow to include hundreds. I want us to gather years from now in good bars, with scotch as old as I am, to trade war stories, and complain that the pups chosen for this year’s program have no clue what it was like back in our day, when we had it tough.

Having done this for all of three days so far, I’m not qualified to opine on whether or not writing on a cross-country train is practical (I suppose it certainly is, if you’re writing a story set on a train, but that has to be an atypical undertaking, even for fiction writers). But it sure is romantic (in the old sense of the word). I’d like to see a sense of romance return to train travel, for no better reason than I’m just old enough to have gotten a taste of it in its glory years and I want it back.

But here’s the thing. There are those born to be in front of the camera and those who aren’t. I belong in the second grouping. It’s not only a matter of physical attractiveness (although that can figure into it). I’ve a good friend who’s about as pretty as I am, which is to say we’re both proud UgloAmericans in good standing. But he couldn’t take a bad picture to save his life. Cameras love him, and I can’t for the life of me say why. There may be no rational or scientific basis to the notion that some people are photogenic and some not, but it’s still empirically true.

I don’t like being in front of cameras ever, and cameras clearly return the animosity. But I can’t always avoid it. I’ll try my best to bite the bullet and soldier on, and not entirely embarrass my hosts, the news crew, and the rest of the 24.

But any joy and composure will be faked.

More later.

Bill Willingham

@BillWillingham

Amtrak Writer in Residence

The Amtrak Residency Thing: Day Seven

It’s just shy of eight in the morning on Friday the 17th. We’re down out of the mountains of Glacier National Park and galloping like a pack of over eager cheetahs across the Montana planes, headed east, towards North Dakota and, eventually, Minnesota.

I’ll be filming the main part of my interview with the CBS news crew a bit later this morning. Veteran newscaster Dean Reynolds will be the one grilling me, about my career and about the Amtrak Residency. Over drinks in his much larger-than-mine super deluxe suite He gave me sage advice last night to better prepare for it: “Don’t screw it up,” he said, with a disarming smile. It worked. I’m disarmed. No guns.

Yesterday they filmed the establishing shots needed for the story. I don’t think that’s what they called them, I’m substituting comic book terms to camouflage my ignorance. They shot me boarding the train in Seattle, which I had to do twice, because I messed up the first take, by continuing a conversation with John (I apologize for forgetting your last name, but I’m not the one who forgot to bring his business cards – okay I forgot mine too, but I have a very good excuse, being absent-minded about such things) who runs the entire Empire Builder section of the Amtrak enterprise. I’d barely started grilling him on how one runs a railroad, so just brought him with me when we shot the here’s-Bill-boarding-the-train sequence.

On the second take I did it correctly, boarding alone. Sorry, John, but you just weren’t right for the boarding scene. Maybe later in the pirate battle sequence, or the sudden and surprising freak velociraptor attack.

And they filmed me at work in my cabin. This is me typing. Now I’m typing a bit. More typing. Scratching my nose (Excellent work, Bill. You really committed to the scratch!) and more typing. Oddly enough, I got a good deal of actual writing done during this process. Apparently I’m a method actor. Who knew?

The crew, Charlie the producer, Jake the cameraman, and Dean the talent, had already interviewed others of the 24 residency winners. Through them, and from other sources, I discovered I’m taking one of the shortest trips. I just went there and back again, from Minnesota to Seattle. Others have put together truly ambitious tours, circling through the entire nation. Truth is, I thought I was asking too much, when I proposed my route. I was fully prepared to go just one way and fly back on my own dime. Turns out I’m the wimp, the short haul guy.

Twelve years from now, when the hundreds of Amtrak writers are in that bar, reminiscing, Short Haul will be my beloved nickname, to which I’ll smile and pretend not to mind it.

The news story, if it airs, will most likely show on CBS Morning News, this coming Thursday. But be mindful big breaking news tends to push out less critical stories like this. We’ll see.

We just pulled up to Shelby. Time to stretch my legs and then get back to that ghost story.

One more entry to go.

Bill Willingham

@BillWillingham

Amtrak Writer in Residence

17 October 2014

The Amtrak Residency Thing: Day Eight: In which I return.

Everything went horribly, disastrously wrong on the final day of travel. First, I overslept, ruining my heretofore-perfect record of being first in line for the shower. Normally I’ve been waking about 6 in the AM, but traveling east meant the too ambitious 6 was arriving earlier each day. Having to stand in line for the shower made me late for first breakfast call, which delayed my morning writing by at least an hour.

Okay, looking back at the preceding paragraph, “horribly and disastrously” might be a tad too strong. But this blog needs drama, and since my fellow passengers conspired to commit no murders, perpetrate no mysteries, nor engage in not even a single small covert ops battle on the top of the moving train, The Tragedy of the Tardy Shower will have to do.

After breakfast I wrote for a while and spent the rest of the time grilling Amtrak employees about their various jobs; everything from dealing with dire criminals discovered on board, to train-meets-vehicle crashes, and any other scenarios I could imagine. The Amtrak folks were surprisingly forthcoming, and it turns out there are policies and procedures to cover the most unlikely of occurrences. Granted, as of now there are no official doctrines to deal with a sudden space-time rift resulting in a return of the over-tentacled dark old gods of Lovecraftian nightmare, but I’m now confident they’ll have something in place soon. Truth is, any cool material gleaned from the interviews (and there were tons of cool material) will have to wait for use in stories someday.

In the night we’d dropped down out of the Dakotas, into Minnesota. The final hours of the trip were all through familiar territory. I arrived at Red Wing station sometime in the afternoon to be greeted on the platform by beloved friends. At least that was the plan. Turns out said beloved friends got distracted by a gift shop featuring interesting Viking objects d’art (the ancient warrior culture, not the football team) and didn’t quite make it to the platform. But a rendezvous in the parking lot was nearly as welcoming, right?

On to the wrap-up paragraph then. This was a long, mostly relaxing trip, in which the goal of writing in comfort and an atmosphere of inspiration and romance was well met. With only one of the 24 Residencies completed, I suspect it’s too soon to pronounce this program a rousing success, or even a tentative success, but I don’t think I’m entirely out of line unilaterally pronouncing the program off to a good start. My hosts at Amtrak are too many to be thanked individually here, but I’d like to collectively thank them for the long good ride.

I’ll try to call attention to the various stories and projects that I worked during the trip, when they’re published and/or produced over the coming months and (perhaps) years.

Perhaps this is a good place for Amtrak to mention the next writer-rider about to go?

Bill Willingham

@BillWillingham

Amtrak Writer in Residence (Emeritus)

18 October 2014

Baltimore Comic Con 2014 Schedule

Friday September 5

1:00pm – Show opens

2:00-3:00pm – Signing at the Dynamite Booth – Booths 2005-2007, 2105-2107

4:00-5:00pm – Bill will be doing character head sketches at his table, in return for donations to the Hero Initiative bucket of goodness.

6:00-7:00pm – Bear wrestling is cancelled, mostly due to our hosts’ inability to gather up a sufficient quantity of wild bears to make the event worth doing. Bill wears out a bear pretty quickly. True fact.

7:00pm – Show closes

8:00pm – All-Star Reception

Saturday September 6

10:00am – Show opens

11:00am-12:00pm – Once again Bill will be doing character head sketches at his table, in return for donations to the Hero Initiative bucket of goodness.

2:00pm – Dynamite 10th Anniversary Panel (Room 339-342)

4:00-6:00pm – Fables Panel (Room 339-342) – Contrary to previous reports, Bill will not be auctioning off Mark Buckingham to the highest comic writer bidder in this hour. It turns out Bill never actually owned Mark. Blame a confusion in the way certain contracts were worded.

5:00pm – Show closes

Sunday September 7

10:00am – Show opens

11:00am-12:00pm – Once again Bill will be doing character head sketches at his table, in return for donations to the Hero Initiative bucket of goodness.

12:00-1:00pm – Whatever Bill is doing at his table during this hour is much more interesting than whatever Adam Hughes is doing at his table, so don’t even bother going over there.

1:00-2:00pm – At Bill’s table we’ll either have a rollicking discussion of the great soldier-philosophers of history or a planning session for the local chapter of the Klipspringer Appreciation Society’s annual Frog Kicking Contest and Doughnut Bake-off.

2:00-3:00pm – Signing at Dynamite Booth – Booths 2005-2007, 2105-2107

3:00-4:00 pm – Unfortunately the Mighty Queens of Cosplay Arm Wrestling competition will not be taking place at Bill’s table this hour, as previously planned. Sorry for the confusion.

5:00pm – Show closes

Additional information…

Anytime Bill is not listed at a panel or signing, he will most likely be at his booth (#116) along with the rest of the Fables crew.

If you’d like to get anything signed by Bill, make sure that you’re bringing along your books, prints, comics or whatever or you have a game-plan to find some while you’re at the show. We do NOT bring books to sell while we’re tabled to allow retailers the chance to sell the books that they have brought.

Bill will sign as many things that you have brought but if there’s a long line, we will ask that you have 10 things signed and then move to the back of the line, have 10 more things signed, move to the back of the line and so on and so forth. You can do this for as long as you have the physical strength and indomitable will to continue.

Bill doesn’t charge for autographs but he does accept donations on behalf of the Hero Initiative. It’s not required but it’s a great cause that Bill loves to support so anything you can spare for them would be greatly appreciated. We’ll have a bucket of goodness right there in which you can place your donation.

Unfortunately Bill cannot do sketches, quick or otherwise, during signing sessions. That is why we’ve added specific head-sketch sessions to his daily schedule. Head sketches of Fables characters, or characters Bill has written or drawn only. No formal commissions. He’ll do them in paper or sketch books you provide, or he’ll also have card-sized paper available. The amount of donation to Hero Initiative in return for a sketch is entirely up to you, but must be made then and there, in the handy bucket of goodness.

Fables and Where To Start

This is a guide to getting into Fabletown and Beyond for those new and potentially new Fables readers. Especially those coming over from The Wolf Among Us, who may be refugees seeking additional time in Fabletown (welcome to you all).

There are many ways to read Fables, from inexpensive to more expensive.

By far, the most inexpensive way to read Fables is at your local library. Many libraries now carry comics and Fables is popular there.

Next in order of lowest expense is buying digital copies, from online places such as ComiXology, for a buck or two per issue. Or, if you prefer to have printed copies, your local comic store has Fables, for only a couple of bucks more per issue.

If you don’t want to spend the time tracking down the more than 140 back issues individually, I recommend the soft cover collections. The collections comprise full Fables stories, of six to twelve issues each, and priced to be the best overall value. There are twenty or so soft back collections in print now, and most comic shops, and many bookstores, keep them in stock.

And next up are the deluxe hardback collections, which are pricier, but the definitive version, if you want to hold onto your Fables. I believe there are nine of those by now, and more to come. All versions are numbered, so no worries about reading them out of order.

The final, and most pricey way to get Fables is to pay me sixteen thousand dollars, to have me fly to your house and tell you the complete story in person. For an extra 20k I bring along an out of work Hollywood actress to act out all the female parts. Please note that all of the Fables collections are kept in print, so there’s no worry about being able to start from the very first issue.

Apologies if the next little bit appears at all overwhelming. It’s a complete list of everything Fables, including the spin-offs, original graphic novels and more. Don’t feel compelled to get all of it, it’s just here as a guide to what’s available if you’re new to the franchise.

Click on any of the links below to be taken directly to the Amazon page.

Fables Soft Covers:

Vol. 1: Legends in Exile
Vol. 2: Animal Farm
Vol. 3: Storybook Love
Vol. 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers
Vol. 5: The Mean Seasons
Vol. 6: Homelands
Vol. 7: Arabian Nights (and Days)
Vol. 8: Wolves
Vol. 9: Sons of the Empire
Vol. 10: The Good Prince
Vol. 11: War and Pieces
Vol. 12: The Dark Ages
Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover
Vol. 14: Witches
Vol. 15: Rose Red
Vol. 16: Super Team
Vol. 17: Inherit the Wind
Vol. 18: Cubs in Toyland
Vol. 19: Snow White
Vol. 20: Camelot
Vol. 21: Happily Ever After (due after March 3, 2015)

The issue breakdown for each volume of the softcovers can be found here.

If you’re overseas, you can buy the Fables collections at your local comic book shop, bookstore or online at Amazon via this link.

Fables (hard cover Deluxe Editions):

Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four
Book Five
Book Six
Book Seven
Book Eight
Book Nine

The issue breakdown info on additional content for each volume of the Deluxe Edition hardcovers can be found here.

One-off original graphic novels and novel novels:

Fables: The Last Castle (included in the Vol. 2 Deluxe Edition)
1001 Nights of Snowfall (included in Vol. 4 Deluxe Edition)
Werewolves of the Heartland
Peter & Max

Fairest:

Vol. 1: Wide Awake – By Bill Willingham. It focuses on Sleeping Beauty, Lumi, the Snow Queen and Aladdin. This arc takes place after Fables #74. It’s not necessary to have read Fables to jump into the book.
Vol. 2: The Hidden Kingdom – By Lauren Beukes (last name rhymes with muckus) It focuses on the adventures of Rapunzel in Japan. No previous Fables knowledge is necessary to enjoy.
Vol. 3: Return of the Maharaja – By Sean E. Williams and tells the story of Nalayani
Vol. 4: Of Mice and Men – By Marc Andreyko
Vol. 5: Clamour for Glamour – By resident Fables artist Mark Buckingham

Fairest One-Offs:

Fairest In All The Land

Cinderella:

From Fabletown With Love – By Chris Roberson
Fables Are Forever – By Chris Roberson

Another Cinderella story is available in Fairest Vol. 4: Of Mice and Men.

Jack of Fables is written by Matt Sturges. You can jump onto this series anytime but it’ll make much more sense to you if you read up to where Jack disappears in Fables. You’ll know where and when. The series is available in soft cover editions.

Jack of Fables:

Vol. 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape
Vol. 2: Jack of Hearts
Vol. 3: The Bad Prince
Vol. 4: Americana
Vol. 5: Turning Pages
Vol. 6: The Big Book of War
Vol. 7: The New Adventures of Jack and Jack
Vol. 8: The Fulminate Blade
Vol. 9: The End

Also available:

Fables: The James Jean Covers
The Fables Encyclopedia by Jess Nevins

Other Fables Goodies:

Snow White and Bigby Statue
Rose Red and Shere Khan Statue (pictured on the right)
Snow White Bust
Bigby Bust Statue
Fables Bookends
The Wolf Among Us Video Game by Telltale
Blue Boy Scarf (rare and not available for sale anywhere other than maybe eBay)
T-shirts by Graphitti Designs including this Rose Red baseball shirt
Escape to Wolf Manor (Fables 100) poster
Fables Postcards (you can get one by sending Bill a letter via good ol’ fashioned snail mail. Details here)

Note: The links to the statues are mostly just through Amazon, but they might be available cheaper elsewhere if they are something you wind up wanting to pick up.

Awards:

And if awards mean anything to you, Fables has won the following awards (as of 2012):

Best New Series in 2003
Best Serialized Story in 2003, 2005 and 2006 (“Legends In Exile”, “March of the Wooden Soldiers” and “Homelands”)
Best Anthology in 2007 (Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall)
Best Short Story in 2007 (“A Frog’s Eye View,” by Bill Willingham and James Jean, in Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall)
Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team in 2007 (Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha)
Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (Interior) in 2007 (Jill Thompson)
Best Cover Artist in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 (James Jean)

While Fables only advertises winning fourteen Eisner Awards on their covers, the following Eisner awards have also been won by members of their staff for their work on Fables:

Best Writer in 2009 (Bill Willingham)
Best Lettering in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2011 (Todd Klein)

ECCC 2014 Schedule

If you’re going to be at ECCC this upcoming week and want to talk to Bill, see him speak or get something signed, these are the places he’ll be officially doing those things over the weekend:

Friday March 28

1:00-2:00pm – Signing at the Dynamite Booth

5:00-6:00pm – DC Entertainment All Access Panel – ROOM TCC 301

Saturday March 29

12:00-12:50pm – Dynamite 10th Anniversary: The Best in Barbarians and Sci-Fi – Room 2B

4:00-5:00pm – Signing at DCE Booth

5:00-6:00pm – Press Interviews at DCE Booth

7:10-8:00pm – The Official West Coast Fables Panel – Hall B (Room 608-609)

Sunday March 30

12:00-1:00pm – Signing at the Dynamite Booth

2:00-3:00pm – Signing at DCE Booth

And when Bill isn’t at any of the above places, you can find him at his booth with Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha here:

The Wolf Among Us: Smoke & Mirrors Reviews

The Wolf Among Us: Smoke & Mirrors, the second episode in the series has finally been released for Xbox, PS3, PC and Mac.

As usual when we’re posting up reviews, we want to thank you SO much for your support of Fables and your support of the amazing game that Telltale has put together. We hope you continue to enjoy the episodes and we’ll try to post up snippits of reviews for each as they come out.

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The Escapist – 9/10

“The writing in the second episode of Telltale’s A Wolf Among Us series does more to investigate the dark corners of your soul than your shrink can in an hour.”

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DigitalTrends – 9/10

“… able to keep you perched at the edge of your seat.”

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Cheat Code Central – 8.6/10

“…I was on the edge of my seat the whole time trying to piece together clues…This is the video game version of the great mystery novel, a digital Sherlock Holmes if you will.”

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Destructoid – 8/10

“Whereas the first episode of Wolf Among Us had me intrigued, Smoke and Mirrors has me hooked.” –

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GameFront – 8/10

“Indeed, this kind of multifaceted, nuanced story-telling is hardly unique in other media, but it’s practically revolutionary for a “mainstream” game.”

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GamesRadar

“Smoke & Mirrors is far from dull, and pushes the story along well and builds some great suspense for the next episode.”

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Gameplanet – 8/10

“Episode 2 contains all the elements we’ve come to expect and deeply admire from a Telltale series.”

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CGMagazine – 8/10

“One of the best-written Telltale games in recent months.”

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The Daily News

“The energy, both dramatic and visceral, continues from the first episode, and takes us to a new level of tension and suspense.”

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GameInformer – 7.5/10

“Can’t wait to see where Telltale goes as it explores more of the seedy world of Fabletown.”

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Joystiq – 4/5

“Things in Fabletown will almost surely get darker before they get better, but “Smoke and Mirrors” guarantees we’re in this for the long haul.”

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IGN – 8.5/10

“Packed with memorable characters and scenes, as well as some of the most agonizing decisions Telltale has ever forced me to make.”

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The Mary Sue

“Combined with the same whip-smart dialogue and engaging gumshoeing as the first episode, Smoke and Mirrors stands, in my eyes, as the stronger of the two.”

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If you want to see some review highlights from Episode 1: Faith, check out this link here.

Publisher’s Weekly: Image Expo 2014

Publisher’s Weekly did a wonderful write-up about last week’s Image Expo and included a piece about Bill and Barry Kitson’s upcoming project, Restoration. In case you haven’t read it yet, check out the piece below and make sure you visit Publisher’s Weekly to see the article by Deb Aoki there.

——————————————————–On a sunny Thursday morning last week, Image Comics presented Image Expo 2014, an innovative single-publisher media event organized by the hot indie publisher, held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in downtown San Francisco to show off its artists and forthcoming projects. Image Publisher Eric Stephenson reported sales were up 20% in 2013 and announced a five year deal with writer Ed Brubaker, new deals with creators Bill Willingham and Scott Snyder, and showed off a long slate of new titles and projects coming in 2014.

Last years’ Image Expo was so successful, Image held this year’s event only seven months after last year’s show. This year’s event was sold-out and drew over 600 fans, retailers, and members of the entertainment and comics press corps to see what’s new, cool, and coming soon from this Berkeley-based indie comics publisher.

This latest incarnation of Image Expo marked the second time that the indie comics publisher opted for the one-day conference format rather than the traditional multipublisher “comic-con” that marked the first Image Expo event in Oakland in 2012. Just like the July 2013 event, Image Expo 2014 felt like a mix between a sales conference, press junket, and family reunion.

 

While many attendees came from California, more than a few from other states made the trek to San Francisco to snatch up show exclusive variant issues, meet their favorite creators and get their books signed in a setting that was much less crowded and manic than New York or San Diego Comic-Con. Lines to the merch table wound around the building, with steady sales for Image graphic novels, t-shirts, and Walking Dead merch ringing up all day.

After Image publisher Eric Stephenson’s keynote, where he brought out all the guests and did a quick run-through of all of the new titles, there was a closed-door, retailers-only session which gave comic shop owners an opportunity to talk shop, vent, offer suggestions and get intimate access to the gathered talent. This, plus access to the show-exclusive variants can make the trip worthwhile for retailers, and offers an added bonus for Image: an opportunity to build buzz for Image’s new titles to the people who’ll be on the front lines at comic shops selling readers on the next big thing they should be adding to their pull list.

Sales Rise: Creator-Owned Comics Pay Off

Creator-owned comics has been the guiding principle of Image Comics since its inception in 1992 when seven Marvel Comics superstars decided to strike out on their own. After a few ups and downs over the years, Image Comics has found its groove with a mix of gritty action, sci-fi, and horror graphic novels for grown-ups, and by attracting an ever-growing list of A-list talent who are opting to leave the land of X-Men and Batman to write/create all-new stories with characters they create, own, and control.

Apparently, this strategy is paying off for Image. Publisher Eric Stephenson set the stage for his year’s Image Expo by describing 2013 as “our best year in over a decade,” both in terms of sales and critical acclaim. Image launched 15 new titles by 24 new creators, and enjoyed 20% year-over-year sales increase. “We had the #1 comic of the year, The Walking Dead, for the second year in a row, and seven out of ten titles on many best comics of 2013 lists,” he continued. “We’re not about making cash grabs or rebooting series in a desperate attempt to recapture past glories. Image Comics is continuing to grow. That this company continues to thrive is a testament to its founders.”

In recent years, Image has been placing bigger bets on digital publishing as a way to “widen and diversify the audience that comes into comics stores,” Stephenson said. Image now offers its titles in over 40 countries via Google Play, Apple iTunes/iBooks, and Digital Rights Managed-free (DRM) download via their Image Digital Comics Store. One new title, Tech Jacket (a series originally created by Robert Kirkman), is being revived as a digital-only release with a new creative team, Glory writer Joe Keatinge and artist Khary Randolph. The entire three issue mini-series is available now on Image’s Digital Comics store. Offering single issues as digital-only and as a compiled graphic novel later is one example of how Image is exploring different digital publishing strategies in a rapidly changing market. “This is what it takes to transform this into a more sustainable industry,” Stephenson said.

 

The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Coming in Summer 2014

Ed Brubaker Inks 5 Year Deal

At Image Expo 2013, the big story was Image’s venture into DRM-free digital publishing. At the January 2014 event, Image announced another new approach to doing business by signing a five year deal with Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the team behind Fatale (which is wrapping up with issue #24). Brubaker announced their next series, The Fade Out, a suspense story set in 1940′s Hollywood, and that Criminal and Sleeper, their two series published under Marvel’s ICON imprint would be moving to Image.

So given that Brubaker has several creator-owned titles to his name, including Fatale and Velvet with Image, what makes this new deal with Image so notable? “With this deal, we don’t have to pitch Image for the projects we want to do. We can just do them,” said Brubaker. “This allows us to explore other possibilities. We want to push the limits, to really do whatever we want to do.”

So what kind of things are now possible over the course of this 5-year deal? Brubaker seemed almost giddy with the options available to him. “For example, there are projects like [Chris Ware’s] Building Stories – where the creators could present their stories in unusual formats and page sizes, or package them in different ways,” he said. As a writer and screenwriter who has made a name for himself with gritty, action-packed stories, Brubaker is also eager to explore other genres.

Brubaker’s partnership with Phillips is one that has endured for over 10 years, and one that has built up a sizeable readership. It’s this track record that has allowed Image to place a long-term bet on this creative team’s output, wherever their imaginations want to take them.

In the more immediate future, Brubaker and Phillips’ next series will be making its debut in Fall 2014. “The Fade Out is a project I’ve been thinking about for a while. My uncle John Paxton was a screenwriter in Hollywood – he worked on The Wild One and he was friends with other screenwriters like Dalton Trumbo (Spartacus), so I grew up hearing his stories. So while The Fade Out isn’t about anything that actually happened, it’s inspired by him and that era.”

Bill Willingham Tries Image .

Bill Willingham, creator of the Eisner Award-winning series Fables from DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint made a splash by announcing that his next series would be published under the Image banner. Restoration will feature Willingham teaming up with British artist Barry Kitson (Fantastic Four and Iron Man) to tell a tale of a fateful day when gods return to Earth to rule over modern day humanity. The gods of various pantheons, from Greece, India and beyond, have had their powers and presence locked away for millennia. Now they’re back, and they’re divving up the modern world into dominions that they’ll control as they see fit, and humans? Well, they’re just there to be servants or cattle.

 

Pencils from Restoration by Bill Willingham and Barry Kitson. Coming from Image Comics

Willingham’s decision to bring his next project to Image wasn’t made overnight – it was set in motion over two years ago, when he re-connected with Ed Brubaker, who raved about the work he’s been able to do with Image. “He told me, ‘They won’t interfere, they won’t mess with your story. You have to work together.’ But like so many things, it got back-burnered for a while,” he explained.

Willingham then met with Kitson at New York Comic-Con later that same year and, after writing a pitch, said “let’s do this!”’ Willingham explained, “because I was involved with Vertigo, I offered it to them first. They have creator-owned deals, but they don’t have creator-controlled deals. At that point, I remembered my conversation with Eric (Stephenson), and we started working on this.”

“Image has set up a situation where it’s like self-publishing,” Willingham said, “but with a group of people who are doing the stuff you hate about self-publishing, but all the good stuff is still in your hands. And that’s what I like about them.”

Scott Synder and Grant Morrison

Another surprise guest for Image Expo also came from the land of Batman. Scott Synder, best known for his work on Batman, Superman Unchained for DC talked about Wytches, a new series he’s working on with Jock (Batman, Wolverine) that veers far from the land of capes and cowls into much darker territory.

“One of my loves is to take mythological creatures and try to make them my own,” said Synder. “I did that with American Vampire, and now I want to try one that I haven’t explored before: witches.” But forget what you know about the women with the bubbling cauldrons and flying brooms. In this series, Snyder says, “those aren’t witches. They’re just the people who worship the witches.” Instead, the real witches are something more primal, much darker, and more unknowable.

Meanwhile, artist Charles Burnham is teaming with his Batman Incorporated collaborator, Grant Morrison on Nameless, a series they describe as “the ultimate horror comic.” “Grant has never done a straight-up, ball-to-the-wall horror book,” Burnham says with glee, “I think it’s going to be awesome and terrible.”

Brandon Graham’s 8House

8House, an ambitious new collaboration between artist/author Brandon Graham (King City, Prophet), Marian Churchland (Beast), Xurxo Penalta, Emma Rios (Pretty Deadly), and Hwei Lim. The series is set in a universe where monsters and humans co-exist and sometimes switch bodies, battles happen via astral projection, and royal intrigue and betrayal are the just one of many dramas unfolding in a world that’s both familiar and fantastical.

Graham set out to create a universe where other creators could use it as an “open source” / public domain who will “work off each other’s work.” So far, there are three miniseries/arcs planned, with the first, 8House: Kiem penned by Graham and illustrated by Penalta. ” After a certain point, this story won’t need me. It’ll have a life of its own.”

8House is notable for involving several new talents, and offering an imaginative approach to sci-fi/fantasy. “I’m into getting new artists involved with this,”Graham said. “One thing I think comics are lacking right now is the diversity of voices. I’d like to see more different types of creators who come from different backgrounds out there. I want to get into people’s brains who aren’t like me.”

 

Nameless by Grant Morrison and Charles Burnham. Coming from Image Comics.

Lots More Coming in 2014

Other notable titles announced at Image Expo ran the spectrum between superhero adventures, spy thrillers, horror, action and sci-fi, including. There’s a lot to look forward to 2014 from Image Comics.

The Wicked and the Divine, a new series about reincarnated gods who become human every 90 years and capture the imagination of humans like rock stars, by Young Avengers creators Kieron Gillen and James McKelvie.

Bitch Planet, a sci-fi/women in prison exploitation mash-up by Kelly Sue DeConnick (Captain Marvel, Pretty Deadly) and Valentine De Landro

C.O.W.L., by Kyle Higgins (Nightwing), Alec Siegel, and Rod Reis, a new series about a labor union of superheroes that try to keep the peace in 1960′s Chicago

Casanova Volume 4: Acedia by Matt Fraction, Michael Chabon, Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba – While not a new title per se, it is notable that Pulitzer Prize winning author Chabon(The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) is teaming up with the Eisner Award winning art team of Ba and Moon to explore new stories set in the world of Casanova.

Nailbiter by Joshua Williamson and Mike Henderson – just a simple story about a town that breeds serial killers, and what happens when someone you care about is a cold-blooded murderer.

Airboy by James Robinson (Starman) and Greg Hinkle, a not-quite autobiographical tale about two comics creators who want to revive a 1940′s superhero character that has fallen into obscurity.

Shutter by Joe Keatinge and newcomer Leila del Duca – a 21st Century adventurer, a la Indiana Jones and Laura Croft

The Un-Comic-Con

Doing things differently is part of the Image Comics way of doing business, and Image Expo is just another way that they’re trying to forge a new way of doing business in a segment that’s still dominated by superhero fare from the Big Two, DC and Marvel. Given that the last Image Expo was held just a little over six months prior to this January show, does that mean that this will now be a twice a year affair? When pressed, Image Comics marketing honcho Ron Richard had this to say: “If we have something big to announce in the summer, maybe we will.”

Legenderry: A Steampunk Adventure Reviews

Bill and I want to thank everyone for picking up and reading Legenderry: A Steampunk Adventure #1. We also want to thank the people who took the time to review the series, so we’d like to share some snippits from those reviews below:

Comic Book Resources – 3.5/5

“Bill Willingham and Sergio Fernandez Davila are being leisurely, enjoying their premise, and it’s clear that the sell for this series will be the fun of watching so many different characters interact in a brand-new setting. It’s attractive not because of what happens, but with who and where.”

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Bag & Bored

“I have a soft spot for almost everything in this book; SteamPunk, Bill’s writing, legends, the fictional characters he has chosen. If you share in an affinity for any of the above you will like it too. Even if only to give SteamPunk a chance with a good writer at the helm you should read this book.”

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Comics The Gathering

“Willingham and Davila provide some really interesting work here that should delight fans of the property on many levels. The steampunk environments mixed with the different heroes equates to some really fun comic books. The art is also lush and well depicted throughout the 24 pages.”

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Comic Vine – 4/5

“Taking all these characters and placing them in a different time period is a great way for a new introduction to all of them in a new shared universe. Sergio Davila’s art fits the time period and captures the action nicely.”

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IGN – 7.9/10

“Willingham’s throwback approach to dialogue suits the story well, giving it a flavor unlike most other superhero or pulp books on the stands. The cleverness and sense of fun are enough to offset any lack of scope to the story.”

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Unleash the Fanboy – 3.5/5

“Legenderry: A Steampunk Adventure #1 is without a doubt a solid start to something that feels epic but also familiar.”

Fables Vol. 19: Snow White Reviews

Thank you very much to everyone who took the time to read Fables Vol. 19. For those of you who read it and put up reviews, here are a couple snippits from those:

Geeks Of Doom

“Fables #19 is a great volume to check out and is actually a great jumping on point for newcomers who like stories that are both mature and magical.”

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Andy Shuping

RATING – 5/5

“Fables, in my opinion, is the most unique continuing series on the market right now. Bill Willingham has taken familiar characters, like Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf, and given them new life and new purpose.”

“Bill has created a character in Snow [White] that makes me wish she was real, for her strength, her fortitude, her love of those around her, and the strength that imbues her neighbors with.”

“The artwork for this series is as usual, fantastic. The characters live and breathe on the page and there is such depth to the world around them that I always have to go back through and relook at the issue just to see what I might have missed.”

“I highly, highly recommend this collection. Bill Willingham has created a fantastic universe and continues to surprise me with the direction he’s able to take the series.”