171. Jack of Fables: Americana

Jack of Fables: Americana by Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges. Art by Russ Braun & Tony Atkins (Canada) - (USA)
Jack of Fables, Volume 4

Pages: 128
Ages: 18+
Finished: Aug. 22, 2010
First Published: Dec. 16, 2008
Publisher: Vertigo
Genre: Graphic novel, fantasy, fairy tales
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Somewhere along interstate 10, in New Mexico.

Acquired: Received a copy through Inter Library Loan. This one actually came from "the city" we used to travel to from our small town when I was a kid, Guelph, ON.

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

The first four chapters, which covers the majority of the book, concern the title story arc, "Americana". Jack and Gary now have Humpty and Raven accompanying them on their travels and Humpty has just told them about "Americana" another land of Fables where all the American Fables live. There is a secret horde of gold there and Humpty has a map to the treasure and knows how to get there. Jack's greed readily accepts the journey and off they go to make there fortune. Little do they know that Hilary Page has been studying her maps and finally found the way to Americana herself. Bringing Paul Bunyan and Babe, residents of this land, along with her she secretly takes off from Golden Boughs but it doesn't take long for the two groups to meet up with each other. Using a little blackmail, they are stuck together as a group.

This was just a real fun issue with some new Fables to meet, most just briefly. Most of the story is to simply enjoy the bickering dynamics between the group of characters and we get to know Humpty and Raven a lot better. I like Raven, on the surface he isn't really much better than Jack, but he has his spirit bird who goads him into doing the right things and he does actually have a sense of decency that Jack lacks. There is a story arc that does move the overall plot along, though, that starts when the gang drop by a town inhabited by zombies. The guy in charge here has ulterior motives, causes problems and will be integral to the continuing story line.

The final chapter of the volume is a postscript story that goes back to the days of the Golden Bough before Jack arrived and Gary tried to organize a performance of Hamlet, with himself as the star. This is a fun interlude that stars previously shown but never featured Alice along with Wicked John and it also shows us a completely different side of Gary we've never seen before. All in all a humorous issue that is mainly for entertainment value but does have a small overall story arc that introduces a new bad guy to the series.