I'm Back! So I had to go read the Fables spinoff Jack of Fables to figure out just what the heck is going on. Turns out the last Fables book had way more to do with this series than the one it was supposed to be a part of. This series covers the assorted misadventures of Jack, the one from all of the stories. He's an arrogant ass, who's just charming enough that you kind of like him.
Also, before we get to far into this, I just want to point out that I already wrote a book about Jack of beanstalk fame being a totally douche, and Mr. Bill "I've got 14 Eisner Awards" Willingham totally ripped of the children's book I wrote in 1997, when I was in 7th grade! It was for Language arts class and it was the trial of Jack after he ransacked the Giants castle, stole all his cool stuff, then straight up tried to murder the guy. It was inspired by the tone of the Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and it was awesome. The teacher read it in front of the whole class 'cuz it was so good and my mom helped me with the illustrations because she's awesome. (Hi Mom! I got your message and I'll totally call you back tomorrow!) Also, spoiler alert, I wasn't the coolest kid growing up. But I actually dug up that story recently, and it's still pretty darn good for a 13 year old. So there.
Anyway, After Bill drove to my tiny hometown in the midwest, broke into my room, and stole my book, he fleshed things out and created a Jack character of limitless ego and a complete inability to take responsibility for anything. He's kind of like Ash from the Evil Dead movies, specifically Army of Darkness. So, naturally, when your main character is all arrogance and bravado, it makes sense to put him into a world decidedly less serious than the main Fables story line. It also helps to remove a character who can only be the star from an ensemble drama. In the first volume, Jack is arrested and taken to a prison for fables who have risked exposure. This is where we get into the meta storytelling. The prison warden is run by Mr. Revise. He is the embodiment of Revision, and is always striving to bring order to the world. His goal is to keep the Fables locked up until their are forgotten by the mundys (that's you and me) and the world can be ruled by order and science. He is aided by three smoking hot librarians called the Page Sisters (I'm not totally sure why they would go out of their way to draw attention to how hot the librarians are. I mean what do the nerds who read this stuff care about....oh, I see what you did there. Well, played). Anyway, Jack, being a legendary fable and a legend in his own mind, devises an escape plan and organizes a jail break. It mostly works. Even Little Black Sambo escapes, and he'd been the wardens greatest success. (they just call him Sam in the book though. What with his name being a racial slur and all)
In Book 2, Jack almost takes over Las Vegas, until a nasty run in with Lady Luck, literally. Turns out she eats brains. This story has one of the few moments when we actually get to Jack Speechless and vulnerable. Someone he (sort of) cares about is brutally killed, and our non-stop rougue is speechless and still for almost two full pages. It's a great use of the visual part of this medium, and it even seems quieter when you read it. This plot is also juxtaposed with the story of how Jack seduced the Snow Queen, got her powers, and became Jack Frost. This doesn't end so bad. I mean, he only causes the Snow Queen to turn evil and become a major leader for the Adversaries armies, who find the her world after Jack sells them all out. Nice Guy.
In the third book, things start to get weird. Jack meet his 'evil' doppelganger Wicked John, and we start to learn that there are other, very powerful beings like Mr. Revise. For instance, Jack's sidekick Gary is the Pathetic Fallacy. Nothing like a reference to a term coined by a 19th century critic to give your little comic book nerd cred. For those of you who don't want to wikipedia Pathetic Fallacy, it's basically the same thing as Anthropomorphism. Of course, when you see Gary, you realize that Pathetic Fallacy seems to fit him better. We also get to meet the guy who created all of the Fables, and hear the story of how Jack became Jack O'Lantern. And Merlin shows up at one point, stabs Jack with Excalibur, and then dies. Like I said, these books are weird.
While I much prefer the main Fables storyline, I do like these books as a sort of palette cleanser from all of the seriousness. This series feels like Bill Willingham needed a place to store all of the silly ideas that wouldn't fit in the main plot. When the silliness is contained in it's own place, and not trying to be a crossover story, it's pretty charming.
7/10
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