Tie Your Mother Goose Down

I was always under the impression that Snow White of the Seven Dwarfs fairy tale was a different creature altogether than the other Grimm story about Snow White and her sister Rose Red. But Bill Willingham's acclaimed comic Fables seems to meld both Snows into the same character with no explanation, unless perhaps her existence is a reflection on how the mundane world (people like you and me) perceive her, as being both one and the same.

And that kind of twist is a minor aspect of what makes Fables so gosh darn, dare I say it, enchanting. Two centuries ago, when a mysterious and powerful adversary invaded and conquered the land of Oz, then Narnia, then the rest of the fairy tale world, what was left of the surviving "fables" escaped with their lives to hide in the New World -- and New Amsterdam to be exact -- where our own creations walk among us in disguise along the city streets, with the more human (Snow White, Prince Charming, Cinderella) residing in Manhattan and mingling with the "mundys" while the less human (dragons, giants, the Three Little Pigs) hide themselves away on an expansive farm in upstate New York. And although everyone dreams of one day returning to their homelands, they have made do for over two hundred years in their own secret self-governed world of "Fabletown", brought on by an amnesty enforced by Mayor King Cole where crime's committed in the homelands were expunged from their records. This allows all fable enemies to live peaceably with each other until the hopeful end of their temporary exile. Of course, that's all easier said than done.

Although Old King Cole is the official figurehead mayor of this secret society, it's the austere and no-nonsense Snow White as assistant mayor who really makes sure the Thomas-The-Tank-Engines run on time. Embittered from her divorce with Prince Charming and estranged from her sister Rose Red for having an affair with him, her heart softens when she learns in the first volume Fables In Exile that her sister may have been murdered. This modern day fairy tale turns noirish whodoneit with the help of the Big Bad Wolf who, unwanted amongst the animals at the farm due to past grudges, bought an expensive witch's charm to disguise himself as a human to live in the city as Fabletown's sheriff, Detective Bigby Wolf. Although it is also possible that Bigby didn't put up much of a fight to live among the filthy humans, as his secret love for the plucky Snow White is the very reason why he followed her scent back to the New World after the homelands fell.

The second collection Animal Farm is quite the chilling thriller, taking place in the upstate farm of inhuman fables hiding out from the real world. But a lot has been going on up there since Snow White paid her last visit. Tired of living on the farm, unable to be anything other than freaks in human society, the Three Little Pigs have instigated a revolutionary uprising of Orwellian proportions (and allegories), modifying weapons for the likes of everyone from Humpty Dumpty to Chicken Little to hold and operate. Several characters from Kipling's The Jungle Book make appearances, including King Louie of the Bander Log tribe and Shere Khan the tiger, who has a taste for Snow. Among the more hardcore revolutionaries is cold killer Goldilocks, a militant non-human fables activist who still sleeps with The Three Bears's son, and not just because his bed "is just right", either.

I have heard so much about this series, and I am terribly glad that I just started picking it up. Whether or not the same Snow White whose sister is Rose Red really did live with seven dwarfs for awhile (she flat out refuses anyone to mention the dwarfs in her presence!) will have to wait until I get there in the story. If anybody needs me, I'll be in fairy tale land.