Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

Almost everything about Bill Willingham's FABLES series has been innovative and original, so why wouldn't this spin off? The premise is a simple one. We are shown a chapter in the life of Snow White in the 19th century when she goes as an envoy to a Middle East sultan in order to make a military alliance to oppose the Adversary. Through a series of machinations by a devious official, Snow inadvertently finds herself the bride-for-a-night of the sultan. The story is straight out of the 1001 NIGHTS. The sultan, stung by the lack of faithfulness of previous wives, marries a new woman each night, only to have her killed the next morning. And like Scheherazade Snow White postpones the inevitable by telling a new story each night. For 1001 nights she tells a new story, always about one of the Fables, until she confesses that she has run out of tales. By then, however, the sultan had no intention of killing her, but was merely keeping up the routine for the sake of new stories. As she is preparing to leave she encounters the sultan's new bride, who identifies herself to Snow as Scheherazade. Snow shares with her the secret of surviving with the sultan: "He likes stories."There is enormous diversity in the stories in the collection. Some are fairly substantial, while others run to only a couple of pages. Each one has a different illustrator so that there is a lot of visual variation. My favorite is the first and longest, "The Fencing Lesson," which also provides some substantial background to Snow White's own story. (I also like the story because Snow White in the story is drawn so that she looks incredibly like a very dear friend I once had who is Korean -- yeah, Snow does look rather Asian in this story.) I won't spoil the story by providing the details, but it does nicely link up some comments in previous FABLES books about Snow White's past. And it also makes Prince Charming look like less of a cad.There are also some great stories about King Cole and Reynard. We also get a lot of background on Bigby and his father. Every page was a complete delight.This book really does stand on its own. I believe that someone who has read none of the FABLES books could read it with complete enjoyment. But no one who is a fan of those books should skip this. Along with the Sandman books, the overall FABLES has to go down as my all time favorite graphics series. They would also be the perfect entry point for anyone who wants to explore adult comics for the first time.

It has been a long time since I read a comic, but the idea of a stories based on the tales told and heard as a child was all to alluring and I was drawn in... and must say I am very happy I took the chance.The story writing is superb, Bill Willingham is a master of story telling. In taking many of the fairy tales we have become all to familar with and weaving and blending them together a new and sensational era of myth, magic and wonderment has been created. Bill's modern fairy tale is where we discover hidden connections to so many nursery rhymes and fables that once we read his work we can only feel foolish we did not see it earlier.The story writing truly is wonderful the usage of different artist for different stories becomes a showcase of some of the comic worlds best talents, and mirror the concept in Fables of different story lines coming together to tell a greater adventure. The collection of stories set in 1001 night are know well enough to create a feeling, that as you read you feel, you are discovering a hidden past of all to common nursery rhyme legends and fairy tales. Bill's writing talent is so well ground that you think grandma had been leaving something out all these years. A couple of examples -Snow White tells a story about herself and the dwarves, who we mistook and think of funny loving helpful disney folk, only to discover that they are a pretty twisted lot and that Snow White cottage days were not just about cleaning and whistling or that our kind and loving Hansel and Grettel were two malicious brats and not the poor innocent victims of fairy tale legends. All and all Fables is exceptional and the the art work stunning a must read and reccomend.

The only reason this doesn't get a full 5 stars is that it cannot be read as a standalone collection of stories, as i thought. You cannot use this volume as an entry point to Fables. Essentially, it's a series of flashbacks regarding the origins of some characters from the Fables series, masked as 1001 arabian nights "frame stories" told by Snow White during her imprisonment in arabian territory.So, as any prequel, it should be read after 2-3 TPB volumes of Fables otherwise it's just like watching the flashback parts from Lost episodes without the events happening on the island.On the bright side, it has some of the greatest art in comics i've seen and the variation makes it even greater. This is the kind of comics that i find perfectly crafted: a single writer for story consistency and a variation of illustrators to provide different perspectives on the same characters.It also got some awards so it's a warm recommendation but as i said, only after getting acquainted with the characters whose origins and dark secrets are presented here.Warning: don't buy this for your kids even if it looks shiny and contains pictures of Snow White, Prince Charming and goblins. Fables is a series for mature readers, with mature (even sexually oriented) themes dressed in a fairytale form and it achieves that without falling into parody or mockery (which makes it great). It walks the same path as the works of Neil Gaiman or Roger Zelazny with a stronger mainstream appeal (meaning that you don't have to read volumes of mythology and classic literature or to buy companion books in order to understand all the references).

Being a spin-off from the main fables series, this is a book that could easily be overlooked, especially considering the time and expense required just to digest the entirety of the main series. If you did overlook it, you wouldn't miss anything essential, but it does shed a bit of extra light on the long backstory of several of the main series most prominent characters and a few of it's lesser lights too.

A prequel to the popular comic series fables, which tells of characters from famous fairy stories seeking refuge in our world when theirs are overrun by an evil empire. They set up a community in new york called fabletown, and the admin of the place is run by snow white.The series is set in the present day, but fabletown was formed centuries before. This is a story from their early days, when snow went to visit some arabian lands to ask for military aid. Condemned to death by the sultan, she survives by telling him a new story every night. Yes, just like you know who.The stories she tells are backstory for the regular characters in the fables series. A lot of interesting information is revealed on the way, particularly in the unbearably sad life story of flycatcher.A mixture of text and picture stories, the latter done with some beautiful art, this is like a proper book of fairy tales. It's a work to treasure.

I would recommend this to anybody who has read or is reading the fables. it gives you some good stories that arent in the series with lots of different artists contributing there style to it.

A great prequel casting light on how Fables town came to be.

Dieser Fables Sonderband beinhaltet verschiedene kürzere Geschichten in einer Geschichte. Dabei handelt es sich sowohl um Backstories von einigen Hauptcharaktären im Fables Universum als auch um normale Märchen. Dass dieser Band einige offene Fragen klärt und uns mehr verrät über die Charaktere ist sehr sehr schön. Mir ist jedoch aufgefallen, dass man diesen Comic nicht so gut ohne den Kontext der Hauptreihe versteht an manchen Stellen. Und wie es bei manchen Fables Bänden so üblich ist, sind in diesem Comic verschiedene Zeichner vertreten, welche die einzelnen Stories illustriert haben.Der Comic ist auf jeden Fall sein Geld wert und ist als kleine Ergänzung der Hauptreihe zu sehen.