Here's the remainder of my chat with the immensely talented Bill Willinham of vertigo and Fables fame. If you missed the first part, CLICK HERE.
Mark Julian: The next story arc in Fables focuses on Snow White. What can fans look forward to reading in these next few issues?
Bill Willingham: Snow White is going to go through a few bad days. If I recall correctly, I think the entire arc takes place over just a few days. It's pretty truncated in the sense of the amount of time that passes. It happens when Snow White, as seen in the Cubs in Toyland arc, is missing a couple of her children. This takes place before that final scene in Cubs in Toyland and wraps up some of it. She's just sent Bigby off to go looking for the missing cubs, while she stays home with the remaining ones just in case they are trying to reach home. That should be as much tragedy as any parent should have to go through at any given time but on top of all this, some other really, really bad thing happens and we get to see what Snow White is made of. The thing I oft tell is it's no happy thing for someone in Fables to get a story arc named after them because that means they're about to go through as many fun 'crisises' as we can dream up and we've dreamed up a few good ones for her.
MJ: You've been writing Fables for a little over 10 years now. Do you know how the story ends or maybe it doesn't with it being fairy tales and folklore?
BW: To a certain extent, the fairy tales and folklore don't end. Our versions of these characters aren't public domain but the characters that they're based on are so there's going to be lots of more stories about these characters long after I'm gone. How it ends? My perfect ending for all of Fables would be my finally wrapping of the series, writing the very last line, the very last story, realizing that I finally after how many ever years it is, tied up every dangling plot thread; I write the end to the very last script, send it off to Shelly Bond (Executive Editor at Vertigo) and then have that massive coronary right there and die at my table. That would be perfect. The main worry I have about the general mortality of us all is that I won't get my word done. I want to get stuff done. As far as the storyline of how it ends, I have a few notions here and there, we'll see.
MJ: Last question. Would you like to see Fables as a television show or movie?
BW: I could see advantages and disadvantages of each I suppose. Ultimately, Fables works best as what it is. But given that we are going to continue making Fables in comic book form and no matter what else we do, computer games, video games, novels, films, or tv series, the official version is going to be the comic book. Understanding that, I'd like to see all that stuff because it's other ways to take a look at these wonderful characters and every different medium has its own strengths and I'd like to explore all of them.
You can purchase
Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland by clicking
HERE and
Fairest,Vol 1 by clicking
HERE. Or better yet, you can go purchase both from your
Local Comic Shop. Follow Bill on Twitter
@BillWillingham.
Fables is a comic book series created by writer Bill Willingham, published by DC Comics's Vertigo imprint beginning in 2002. The series deals with various characters from fairy tales and folklore – referring to themselves as "Fables" – who have been forced out of their Homelands by "The Adversary" who has conquered the realm. The Fables have traveled to our world and formed a clandestine community in New York City known as Fabletown. Fables who are unable to blend in with human society (such as monsters and anthropomorphic animals) live at "the Farm" in upstate New York.
When you think of fables and folklore you naturally think it's kid's stuff but Fables is anything but, the series imagines your favorite fairytale heroes and villains as real individuals. They smoke, drink, lie, steal, cheat, find love and lose it in manners dripping with real-world panache that at times will have you howling with laughter or sometimes shedding a tear or two.
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