The characters in all the fairy-tales lived in universes parallel to our own, but have been chased out of their home worlds by a mysterious army lead by a shadowy emperor dubbed the ‘adversary’. Using a network of gateways, they find their way into our modern world, and are all living either in an apartment complex in New York City, dubbed Fabletown, or on a farm upstate. They have their own shadow government, led by the mayor King Cole, assisted ably by his deputy mayor Snow White.
Magic, legends, fairy-tales, horrors, and everything in between feature in this epic series, which encompasses everything from murder mysteries, to political thrillers to action and war stories. You will fall in love all over again with the Big Bad Wolf (known in this world as Bigby), Jack of the beanstalk, Prince Charming, Sindbad and several other characters from everyone’s childhood.
The broad story follows the residents of Fabletown as the first repel an attack by the adversary’s forces, following which, they take their war to the adversary himself, using modern weaponry combined with ancient magic. But once they free the homelands, they find that there are worse things which were held in check by the adversary, things which are now unleashed across both fabletown and the homelands.
The story-writing is among the best ever, and the artwork, done by several artists through the life of the series, is excellent. There are several spin-off series, focusing on adventures of Cinderella, Jack and Bigby Wolf, each of which is worth reading.
Be warned, when you start this series, be prepared to stop all other activities in life. You will NOT be able to stop reading until you are done with all 150+ issues, spread across 22 trade paperbacks. The story and the artwork will completely suck you in, and you will find it hard to take breaks to eat, sleep, or even breathe! With that disclaimer, this comic series is, and I cannot stress this enough, AN ABSOLUTE MUST READ!