I had fallen out of touch with Fables. I read through the set of graphic novels covering the fight with the Adversary, and then wasn't paying attention as my husband got the other ones out of the library.Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

Well, i was not expecting THAT. "Fairest" is a series designed to explore the lives of the various female Fables (largely princesses & queens so far) from Willingham's larger series, "Fables". It's the second such spin-off, improving (so far) on the rather tiresome antics of Jack of Fables (whose spin-off series concluded in 2011 with the title character's death and what I now suspect was a parody of all the big "world-changing" "event" comics DC & Marvel have been shoveling down the line for th...

Why is the main character of the series about the women of Fables a dude??

I like the idea that this series spins off into standalone stories about individual fables. I'm not sure it needed to be the female fables in particular, or that having chosen that mission, it lives up to it. The first volume consists of two stories: a main arc concerning Ali Baba, Briar Rose, and the Snow Queen, and a single issue story concerning Beauty & the Beast.The odd thing is that both of these stories ostensibly about fable women start out with male POV characters. Both hinge upon decis...

What happens when you combine fairy-tale characters? With the help of a genie, Ali Baba rescues Briar Rose with a kiss, even though he'd planted a smooch on another girl just mere seconds before. Does true love actually exists?Let me start by saying that I've never read Fables. I had no clue what I was getting into. It's quite entertaining to see these flawless (talking about the Disney version) characters with faults. The illustrations are fast paced, with arguments and fights at every two page...

I fear for when I finish the Fables series. I love it that much. I am glad there are some spin-off series that I can enjoy, although I'm not too in love with Jack as a character, so I probably won't read that one until I'm desperate. However, when I looked on Bill Willingham's website, I saw that he has a reading order and I was cool to start the Fairest series even though I haven't finished Fables yet. So I read this one on Saturday.Overall, I really liked it. I'm having trouble concentrating o...

"Fairest" is a spin off of the main Fables story arc. This volume collects the first 6 issues and includes a short story "Lamia".The story starts with a tale left unfinished from the Fables arc. Briar Rose and the Snow Queen were stolen away by the Goblin Army and now Ali Baba comes to free them. It doesn't turn out the way he expected. No more spoilers. A really good Fables story and one that finished a story arc."Lamia" is a short story about Beauty and the Beast and it has some interesting tw...

IDK why I thought this might be better than Fables in it's handling of women but at least now I know not to expect much improvement from what we got there. If anything, the misogyny is just allowed to take center stage, and the quality of storytelling has gone down so much that there's nothing to distract from it.Most of the development of the "plot" centers around interpersonal relationships that haven't been established, much less >seen< by the reader (SQ loves AB so much he's become her "reas...

I've not been enjoying Fables very much recently, and I hated the spin off Jack of Fables. This first volume in a new series came as a pleasant surprise, though. It picks up a lot of threads left danging throughout the main story line and weaves them into a very nice tale of its own. While the story is supposedly about the women of Fables, the bulk of the first story is taken up by Ali Baba, prince of thieves, and his never ending quest for treasure. The treasure his find this time though consis...

This review of Fairest No 1 (Wide Awake) in the Bill Willingham Fables series would be a 2 star review except for the exceptional art work. Mine is the large size paperback copy. I can speculate that Black and White cannot serve the artists as well as a full color edition. Individual panels can be cluttered and over drawn but the best achieve an almost 3 D effect. The artists tend to the tease on the subject of nudity but the various implications, sex and violence suggest that the books are not

I left Fables a long, long time ago. It completely ran out of steam around issue 70 and was just puttering about, wading in its accolades and praise for a while before that. I did read the Great Fables Crossover, which isn't even worth mentioning and just had me shaking my head in confusion. The reason I picked up Fairest was because Lauren Buekes was writing it ( starting at issue 8 I think, and I started getting the single issues ). This volume before LB took over, Willingham wrote a few one a...

In which we catch up with not just the next story of Briar Rose but also her full origin; In which we find out what's happening to the Snow Queen; In which we meet Ali Baba; In which we are introduced to minor Bottle Imp and wisecracking Jonah Panghammer; In which we find a posse of Fairy Godmothers. In a book that is meant to focus on the fairer sex, it's a bit annoying that one of the key themes of this volume is true romantic love, despite how well it was done. Gender stereotype much?Briar Ro...

This one focuses on Ali Baba and his love for the Snow Queen and Rose Red, taking place shortly after Gepetto loses. It's done well, the artwork is at it's usual height and there are some interesting themes on love and how the Fables are impacted equally by it in comparison to "mundies". OVERALL GRADE: B to B plus. .

Sleeping Beauty, Ali Baba, & the Snow Queen are all mashed up together in this amazing tale, Wide Awake. It retells Briar Rose's origin, why the Snow Queen was on the side of the Emperor, and where this Ali Baba dude got his skills as a thief. Nothing is quite what it seems as they all get a little help with their Happily Ever Afters from an imp in a bottle.He doesn't grant wishes, but he does manage to help each of them get exactly what they don't even know they want. There's also a HUGE reveal...

If, like me, you thought these were going to be the stories of the women of Fables, you will be EXTREMELY disappointed. In fact, it turns out to be about men in the Fables universe viewing and living the women's stories. I mean, I knew, Fables wasn't much of a feminist universe, but COME ON !! Couldn't we at least avoid some of these sexist stereotypes ?The worst thing is the stories are quite cool, they just completely miss the point. Yes, it's nice to see Briar Rose again, but couldn't we have...

This was Sleeping beauty, Ice queen, Ali baba (or Aladin and Djinn) rolled into one story. I enjoyed more than I thought I would. The artwork is gorgeous (strangely erotic at times) along with the twisty storyline.

I actually think this is better than Fables.Better stories, better art.Only thing is, I am currently reading Fables as the Deluxe edition hardcovers come out, so I'm a little late on whatever "current events" that are happening in that world.This book contains some major spoilers to the Fables stories which wouldn't even count as spoilers were I read up on Fables.Too bad the powers that be didn't publish this as a Deluxe Hardcover as well.

I think these Fable stories are great. This is an offshoot of the Fable story. It happens right after Vol. 8 from what I can see. This is fairest and it's about other heroines from the story. We start off with Ali Baba finding a genie imp in a lamp. He finds Briar Rose and the Snow Queen. He wakes Sleeping Beauty with true's loves kiss. The rest of the volume deals with what is true love. Can it be just a willingness to face a horde of goblins. In any case, Ali Baba choses the snow queen over Br...

I'm sad to say that I wasn't blown away by this first volume of Fairest. I thought the art work was ok, of course every woman was drawn perfectly built and even fully clothed looked naked. Another thing I could that bugged me; every time a person was talking there was always a word HIGHLIGHTED. EVERY single time. It was VERY distracting and UNNECESSARY. It's ANNOYING isn't it? Also, I just couldn't get into the plot as much as I wanted. The only reason it's getting 3 stars is because I did like

I can't review this book by divorcing it from the context of its creation. Fairest, as solicited, is a Fables' spinoff that focuses on female characters, and yet it ended up indistinct from its flagship. The cover depicts every Fables women -- and they're gorgeous depiction courtesy of Adam Hughes -- but nearly all of them are absent. Instead, we get by-the-numbers heist plot and some sorcery fights so prevalent in Fables. Ali Baba and a djinni of sorts, both of them men, have more scenes and di...