Fables

Fables and folklore, myths and legends have always been part and parcel of humanity. Throughout the ages, these stories have been passed down from generation to generation. Oftentimes, these stories have been trivialized over the years, the blood and harshness and brutality washed away and sanitized until they are regarded as harmless and children’s literature and children’s fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Everyone knows the stories. About Snow White and her wicked stepmother. Of Sleeping Beauty and her cursed enchantment. Of the mischevious Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The cunning Hansel and Gretel and the Gingerbread House. The Three Little Pigs and their Houses of Straw, Sticks, and Bricks. Of the kind Beauty and the hideous Beast. And of course, Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Everyone knows them. But no one believes in them. Not anymore at least. They’re nothing but fables, folklore, myths, and legends. They’re just stories told to amuse children.

Of course, every story has a grain of truth to it. Every myth was based on fact. And Fables ... Fables live. For many centuries, the Fables existed peacefully in another dimension known as The Homelands. Then came the Dark Times. A powerful enemy emerged, a villain who was much smarter, more mighty, and craftier than any whom the Fables had to fight before. This mysterious Adversary began amassing a vast army and uniting many of the disenfranchised villains under his banner as his forces began rampaging and pillaging and conquering the vast Homelands. Many of the Fables allied themselves together to fight this tide, but to no avail, and one by one their kingdoms began to fall. Eventually, this ragtag bunch of refugees were forced to flee from the Homelands entirely and came to the Mundane World where they have managed to quietly integrate themselves by concealing their true natures and their supernatural abilities and powers.

Many of them moved to the Americas prior to the formation of the United States and have managed to keep their existence hidden to the modern day. Like many foreign immigrants, they settled together in one neighborhood and formed their own community, the clandestine Fabletown, in the heart of New York City, but that also maintained a small private retreat in upstate New York, the “Farm”, home for those Fables unable to pass for human. They maintain their own functioning government, police their own members, and punish those who break the laws of Fabletown, which primarily involve maintaining their secrecy.

For centuries, they have maintained their secret for fear of alerting the Adversary to their survival and existence but many of the Fables remember their lives before their exile. And continue to long for their cherished Homelands. In recent years they learned that the Adversary was not content to rest on his laurels. Having conquered the European Homelands, he now sought to expand his Empire, turning his attention to the Arabian Homelands, and Fabletown found that the Adversary has been far more aware of them than they believed. A war was brewing. The mundane world was now a target for the Adversary, unless the Fables could defeat this implacable enemy...

Created and written by Bill Willingham (who was also responsible for creating the Elementals), and published by Vertigo. Many of the characters are reimagined from their original literary form and are considered public domain. The series began in 2002 and is still ongoing; it's been popular enough to spawn a spin-off series "Jack of Fables" focusing on the roguish Jack Horner.

 -- Above introduction by Michael Higuchi

Back to US Independents Page

Home

All images and characters depicted on this site are copyright their respective holders, and are used for informational purposes only. No infringement is intended and copyrights remain at source.