Fables #123 – Review

By: Bill Willingham (story), Gene Ha (art), Art Lyon (colors)

The Story: The first and last time a lord of monsters took advice from a dainty turtle.

The Review: As I’ve mentioned, I try not to let my fictional preferences show around these parts, but I think it’s pretty obvious that I’m something of a fantasy nut.  Maybe not so much in the dragons ‘n’ sorcerers sort of way, but I do love tales of the hidden and unknown, the idea that there’s a whole world in our world that we don’t know about, that sometimes superstitions and stories are hinting vaguely at something much bigger and real.

So between the Japanese folklore in Fairest and the intersection of myth and fairy tales here, you can safely conclude that the Fables series have been rocking my boat this month.  These kinds of stories really get at the heart of why we started telling stories in the first place: to pin down the unknowable, to try to make sense of a world where good people die young and crooks get away scot-free and folks who take more than one sample at Costco don’t get severely beaten.