Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, by Bill Willingham and various artists, published by Vertigo/ DC Comics

This is a 144 page hardcover spinning out of the now-finished popular series. It’s funny: the initial conceit (fairytale characters trapped in the real world) began to wear very thin in pages of the regular title but here it just leaps off the page. The story structure in the hardcover is simple: Snow White, during a visit to the Arabian Fables world, is captured and forced by the Sultan of that place to tell him a different tale each night, in a bid to stave off her execution. So it’s basically Willingham’s take on Arabian Nights but it works extremely well. He’s assisted by an impressive range of artists here, including Fables cover artist James Jean, who acquits himself admirably here, Mark Buckingham, who shows a deftness for painting, Charles Vess and Michael Kaluta, who jointly illustrate the text portions of the book and whose styles marry effortlessly and elegantly, and Brian Bolland, whose two-pager is brief but still fun. In Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, Willingham has put together an entertaining yarn for adults that holds the reader’s attention throughout. At £10.99 or $12.99 for you colonials, it’s a hardcover that warrants the format, for a change…

Joel Meadows

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