Fractured Fables

I read the first in the Fables series a couple of months ago, on the recommendation of some members of an on-line discussion group for librarians who love graphic novels. And I thought it was great fun. It's a comic book (now collected in to paperbacks) about fractured fairytales - a theme I love. Fables gives us our fairytales that we know and love so well, and has brought them to our world when an army of goblins under the control of the mysterious Authority has ransacked their lands. Fables tells us how they've been getting along after the "happily ever after".

So I shelved it mentally with all of my other favorites in this area - the Gregory Maguire books, Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crime books, Jon Scieszka's True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and perhaps the original- Rocky and Bullwinkle's Fractured Fairytales. I was interested enough to buy the third in the series, but I passed over the second, due to the reviews. But now I'm hooked. Bill Willingham keeps peeling back layer and layer to these stories. Just when you think you know all about Snow White and Prince Charming he changes thing up. You say okay, I can deal with that and then he does it again. I'm all out of order in the series, but I'm trying to catch up - I've got the second book on request at the library and I've already read a backstory that is making me totally rethink what all happened in the third book, and I sense that I'm going to have to plunk down the cash for the rest of the series since the library only has 1, 2, and the below pictured backstory volume, 1001 Nights of Snowfall, which uses a variety of artists - some absolutely amazing.
One last note, like the original fairy tales - these aren't necessarily appropriate for children, so don't plan on buying the set for any kiddies in your orbit.