Fables

This was the first arc of Fables I'd ever read, though I had heard of it before, and read some of Jack of Fables and one-shots whenever someone in the club brought it in, but I have to say it was a really enjoyable read.

I was familiar with the basic concept of fairy tale characters living in an underground community, but was amazed at how many genres Willingham touched upon, especially in this first arc. We get action, adventure, mystery, romance, fantasy (of course), and probably others as the series progresses. I think an obvious comparison is to the world of Harry Potter and the whole underground magic community, hidden in plain sight of muggles, or with the case of Fables mundies. But it's amazing how much of the world of Fabletown is set up in these 5 short issues.

The first story arc with the murder mystery of Rose Red, reminds me a lot both visually and a little bit storywise with Watchmen. We get tinted panels for the flashback sequences (somtimes red to emphasize the supposed violence), and the story does come full circle, at least with the Prince Charming plot.
And since we're always looking for anything different the artist does, I noticed and liked how he used different panel frames for flashback sequences, portrait like, usually for remembering what life was like before the Fable characters were forced out.

Characterwise, I liked how Willingham humanizes these familiar fairy tale characters for a modern audience, like making the Big Bad Wolf a gritty detective, etc. It makes for a great contrast between the real and the fantastical, which is the basic theme of an upcoming Disney live action/animated movie called "Enchanted" which is basically like Fables except for a PG audience.

It's really hard to do a good mystery story, especially in comics, but I think this arc really pulled it off. I liked the "parlor scene" which basically shows the readers panel by panel that the clues were all there, and even we could have figured it out if we used the right deduction. Very Sherlock Homlsy of them.