I don’t know if it would be more conservative to argue that society wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) be accepting of differences, especially when they’re miraculous, or if it would be rebuttal to liberalism to argue that the Fables could successfully be assimilated, but Willingham and his collaborators don’t really seem to be making that case in either direction. The assumption seems to be that the rest of the world would be considerably hostile to the Fables, and that mainstreaming might be difficult, but we don’t actually see a lot of evidence of this. The initial stories give us a sense of how at least two Fables interact with the modern world, Prince Charming by conning the women he lives off of, Rose Red by living the life of an indolent, spoiled party girl. Like Willingham asserts, this is a reasonable assumption - throughout the '90s, Vertigo established itself as a home for groundbreaking, provocative work, regularly publishing seminal series like ' The Sandman' and ' Y: The Last Man' - books that changed the landscape of comics with deft storytelling and layered themes but refused to shy away from frank depictions of sex and violence.As preparation for the new television season (in particular, Once Upon A Time), I recently read the first two story arc of Bill Willingham’s Fables, “Legends in Exile” and “Animal Farm.” Willingham’s story of fairy-tale characters living their eternal lives in the modern world an interesting example of at least somewhat conservative storytelling, but it’s not as compelling a thought experiment as it could be, mostly because of what feel like weaknesses in the world-building. 'The reason Vertigo didn't want to do this, and I think it's a legitimate reason, was: If we had one all-ages series, those same kids will grab other Vertigo books and then be shocked and surprised by the maturity of their content.' 'When we talk about regrets or things that we would've done differently - without changing much of the story, I would've stuck to my guns that Vertigo should have published it as an all-ages series,' says Willingham.

It often indicates a user profile.Ĭamelot even makes an appearance in 'Fables' - although things aren't great there.īut early on, there was some indecision about just how 'adult' 'Fables' would be. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

Bill willingham