And Then I Read: FABLES ENCYCLOPEDIA

Image © Bill Willingham and DC Comics, Inc.

I have, thus far, lettered nearly every bit of comics published in the world of FABLES, so it’s an unusual thing for me to be able to simply pick up a FABLES book and read it for pleasure. It happened with the Bill Willingham novel “Peter and Max,” and now again with this volume. The writer of the main encyclopedic text is Jess Nevins, who did such an excellent job of researching and writing about Alan Moore’s LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN online and in several tomes from MonkeyBrain Books. He does a fine job here, though is best at unearthing and crediting early versions of familiar fairy tale characters. References to appearances in the comic itself were mostly familiar to me, though I’d forgotten some. Even more fun to read for me were the sidebar comments by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham on the characters, how they came to be, why they are as they are, and where they might be headed. This triple-play of authorship really makes the book a fun read, not dry at all. The wit and wisdom of Bill and Bucky had me laughing a lot and eagerly turning the pages. The scholarship of Jess taught me a lot.

Highly recommended for all FABLES fans.