3. Fables - Bill Willingham
Debuting in 2002 on DC Comic's more adult aimed Verigo imprint, Fables has garnered universal critical acclaim, has spawned over 130 issues, 7 spin-off comics & novels, and even convention, held in 2013. Similar to American Gods in its retooling of legendary figures in folklore, Fables instead focuses on the characters from various fairy tale stories, all of whom have been forced out from their homelands by an unknown nemesis, simply known as the Adversary. The human members of those forced out, or those that can shape shift or assimilate a human form, have fled to New York City, and set up their own secret community named Fabletown. The characters unable to fit into everyday society, either creatures or anthropomorphic animals, are sent to horrific encampment named The Farm. The comics play with many genres throughout its many issues, with an overarching mystery storyline looming over the characters at all times. The characterisation of each fairy tale character is both well written and inventive, in that writer Willingham finds new and exciting ways to approach characters that every reader would be familiar with, and that are in the public domain, thus free to tamper with as he pleases. Main characters include Bigby, a reformed big bad wolf whom now works as disgruntled sheriff of Fabletown, Prince Charming, now a lying sexual deviant and penniless womaniser & Beauty and Beast, whom work menial jobs out of sight from the public due to Beast's uncontrollable transformations based on Beauty's mood towards him. In taking these icons and reinterpreting them as edgy three dimensional citizens, Willingham created a distinctive narrative that even the most casual of readers could follow. On TV the same principle would be exacted, in that audiences would be seeing commonly known characters but following an intriguing story full of mystery, shocking twists and multiple layers of social commentary.
Is It Happening? At differing times, both NBC and ABC had been developing adaptations of Fables, but both ended up passing on the series. Hopeful fans seem to have had their hopes of seeing Fables on the small screen dashed by two very similar shows that seems to have cherry picked elements from the comics. NBC's Grimm is a police procedural set in a world where fairytale characters are real, and ABC's Once Upon a Time features fairytale characters exiled into the real world.