Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book One [Hardcover]

Bill Willingham (Author), Mark Buckingham (Illustrator), Lan Medina (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 2009

When a savage creature known only as the Adversary conquered the fabled lands of legends and fairy tales, all of the infamous inhabitants of folklore were forced into exile.

Disguised among the normal citizens of modern-day New York, these magical characters created their own secret society-within an exclusive luxury apartment building on Manhattan's Upper West Side-called Fabletown. But when Snow White's party-girl sister, Rose Red, is apparently murdered, it is up to Bigby, Fabletown's sheriff, and a reformed and pardoned Big Bad Wolf, to determine if the culprit is Bluebeard, Rose's ex-lover and notorious wife killer, or Jack, her current live-in boyfriend and former beanstalk-climber.

This Deluxe Edition collects the first two trade paperbacks of the series, issues 1-10, and Bill Willingham's prose story from Vol. 1, as well as character sketches.

AWARDS:
YALSA: 2004 annual recommended list of Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
·Willingham, Bill. Animal Farm (Fables series). DC Comics: Vertigo.
·Willingham, Bill. Legends in Exile (Fables series). DC Comics: Vertigo.
YALSA: 2007 Great Graphic Novels for Teens
·Willingham, Bill, Todd Klein, and others. Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall. 2006. DC Comics/ Vertigo
As of 2008, Fables has won twelve Eisner Awards.
·Best New Series in 2003
·Best Serialized Story in 2003, 2005 and 2006 (Legends In Exile, March of the Wooden Soldiers and Homelands)
·Best Anthology in 2007 (Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall)
·Best Short Story in 2007 (A Frog’s Eye View, by Bill Willingham and James Jean, in Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall)
Hugo Award Nomination 2009:
·Fables: War and Pieces was nominated for the first Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Vertigo; Deluxe edition (October 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140122427X
• ISBN-13: 978-1401224271
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.7 x 11.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #82 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Graphic Novels > Fantasy

More About the Author

Bill Willingham never fought a desperate and losing battle in a good cause, never contributed to society in a meaningful way, and hasn't lived a life of adventure, but he's had a few moments of near adventure. At some point in his life Bill learned how to get paid for telling scurrilous lies to good people, and he's been doing it ever since. He lives in the wild and frosty woods of Minnesota.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Another crappy glued binding, December 25, 2009

By 

Art - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book One (Hardcover)

Just a warning that for DC/Vertigo, "Deluxe" apparently doesn't actually mean "Deluxe" enough to warrant a proper sewn binding. Instead, as per the usual practice in the comic book industry, this is just a paperback glued into a cardboard cover. The pages are glued in and the book does not open as wide as a proper hardcover, so in some cases you lose some of the art in the gutter between the pages.

While Marvel has, seemingly, come to their senses, and is producing at least some of their hardcovers with sewn bindings these days, DC can't be bothered. Even for a deluxe edition like this, which will probably be a double-dip (at least) for many potential purchasers, they can't bother to spend the extra pennies to bind it like a real book. Sorry, fans. DC apparently thinks we'll buy anything and they're probably right.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure fun, October 8, 2009

By 

Trevor Burnham (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book One (Hardcover)

Prince Charming is a womanizer. Goldilocks is a communist. The Big Bad Wolf is a hard-boiled detective. And they're all living in present-day New York.

The premise may be ridiculous, but the execution is so masterful that it's reminiscent of nothing less than Neil Gaiman's Sandman. It's an engrossing new mythology, full of humor but tinged with darkness. Forget Disney's "Enchanted"--this graphic novel is very much for adults, the story of a struggling underground community of exiles. The art is excellent, the characters are memorable (of course, we already know most of them in some form or another) and the writing is top-notch.

This volume was my introduction to Fables, so I can't compare it to other editions. (This hardcover is equivalent to the first two softcover volumes.) If you already have the comics in some other form, then there's little reason to upgrade to this "Deluxe Edition," which has few extras. But the production quality of this slim, glossy hardcover is very good. It was clearly made to last. I look forward to passing this down to my children some day--when they're old enough.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Review of quality of the printing, September 8, 2011

By 

Drake (Utah, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book One (Hardcover)

After borrowing the series from a friend who had the paperback versions I thought this might be a nice way to add the story to my collection without having to deal with all the paperback volumes. The quality of the print seems to lack in color and has been cropped to remove the amazing borders from the original paperbacks (one of my favorite details). You get the equivalent of two paperbacks in this book so there isn't much savings. I think you get more value from the original paperback volumes.