Comic Info
Comic Name: Jack of Fables
Publisher: DC Comics/Vertigo
Writer: Bill Willingham/Matthew Sturges
Artist: Tony Akins
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2007
Jack of Fables #3
Reprints Jack of Fables #1-5 (September 2006-January 2007). Jack Horner is in trouble again. His string of successful movies threatened to expose the existence of Fables and has him banished from returning to Fabletown. Now out of money and on the road, Jack becomes the target of Mr. Revise of the Golden Boughs Retirement Home. Jack learns that Revise and the Page sisters Priscilla, Robin, and Hillary capture Fables and try to eliminate their existence from the world by destroying their stories. Jack is the biggest Fable out there, and Revise has made it his mission to destroy him. Captured and interned at Golden Boughs, Jack discovers Goldilocks alive and with her is planning the biggest breakout ever.
Written by Fables creator Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges, Jack of Fables Volume 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape spins off the popular Fables series. This first collection introduces most of the major new players and gives the series its primary direction (with the Revise character). It was relatively well received, but not as well as the Fables series. Issues in this volume were also collected as part of Jack of Fables: The Deluxe Edition—Book 1.
I like Jack of Fables, but it just isn’t as good as Fables. The first collection proclaims that “No One Deserves His Own Collection More” and has Jack wearing a shirt saying “Ensemble Books Are for Losers”, but I have to say that the “ensemble” aspect of Fables is what is fun about Fables. Here there is some fun with the Golden Boughs, but I love the real mass of characters to draw from in Fables.
Jack of Fables #5
Jack is fun, and Golden Boughs does add some good characters, but it also doesn’t make much sense. Revise’s goal is to eliminate Fables by eliminating their stories. He has characters like Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Paul Bunyan, and Humpty Dumpty…characters that could never be completely eliminated because they are always coming up in stories, film, and art. Jack himself in the world of Hollywood is the star of multiple box office breaking pictures…would a movie like E.T. or Titanic ever be completely forgotten?
The best example of Revise’s plan and the one that makes sense is Sam who is based on Little Black Sambo. Little Black Sambo’s story has pretty much been eliminated in modern culture because it is rather racist, but when I was little we had it in an old collection and it was a favorite. It was fun to see “Sam” here with aspects of his story showing up in the tale like the guardian tigers being turned to butter when he outruns them.
Jack of Fables 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape is a fun collection, and worth it for fans of the Fables series. Obviously now, Jack isn’t the only Fable worthy of a collection with spin offs including Cinderella and The Fairest. Jack of Fables Volume 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape is followed by Jack of Fables Volume 2: Jack of Hearts.
Related Links:
Jack of Fables Volume 2: Jack of Hearts
Jack of Fables Volume 3: The Bad Prince
Jack of Fables Volume 4: Americana
Jack of Fables Volume 5: Turning Pages
Jack of Fables Volume 6: The Big Book of War
Jack of Fables Volume 7: The New Adventures of Jack and Jack
