272. The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham

The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges. Illustrated byMark Buckingham, Tony Akins, et al (Canada) - (US)
Fables, Vol. 13
Jack of Fables, Vol. 6.5

Pages: 224
Ages: 18+
Finished: Dec. 5, 2010
First Published: Feb. 9, 2010
Publisher: Vertigo
Genre: Graphic Novel, Fantasy, Fairy Tales
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

"When things look darkest, Blue will return to the sound of a thousand mighty trumpets!"

Acquired: Borrowed a copy through Inter-Library Loan.

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

First thing I couldn't help but notice was that a-zon dot com has an average rating of three for this and that means there must be quite a few unhappy reviews out there. I won't read any until I'm done my own review, but what can I say. I love Fables! I guess I'm a pushover and not that hard to please because I thought this issue was great; the only storyline I don't like is the one of Rose Red. Otherwise, this volume felt special and the balloons on the cover really worked with the celebration it felt like with the combination of Fables and Jack of Fables together in one volume. This book contains 9 issues: 3 each of Fables, Jack of Fables, and a mini-series titled The Literals.

So here we have the "bad guy" from Jack of Fables reaching his ultimate point and the entire book focuses on the fight of the Fables and the Literals joining together to hopefully defeat him. We are briefly reminded of the Dark Man occupying the ruins of Fableland at the very beginning but otherwise that storyline is set aside for the one involving The Literals. It was pretty much a "day in the life of" for the Fables and when vol. 14 continues the plot will pick up where it left off. This is a whole different story for Jack of Fables though. The story that has been working up in the previous 6 volumes is culminated here, so it is essential that Jack of Fables readers read this volume whether they regularly read the original Fables books or not. Without giving any plot away, I'm excited about the direction the new Jack of Fables will take. The new Jack is a very promising character, the story could go in any direction, but enough old characters have been left in play that we'll still see familiar faces.

All in all, I loved the story. The writer's block was creepy and brilliant at the same time. There are a lot of mini storylines to follow and while I liked some (the addition of the Genres as characters) more than others (the depressed, I'm-not-worth-dirt Rose Red), I found it all very entertaining with a great climax to Jack of Fables, and another major battle in the life of the Fables. I'm ready to proceed with both titles now and I just have to catch up with that novel "Peter and Max".