rascal_father
19-07-2005, 09:00 AM
http://www.newsarama.com/SDCC05/DC/Vertigo/JACK_Cv1.jpg
Announced this weekend, Bill Willingham’s Fables will see expansion from one to two ongoing series, with a long-promised OGN finally seeing the light of day. We caught up with Willingham for a few quick words on both Jack of Fables and 1,001 Nights of Snowfall.
First off, to clarify, 1,001 Nights of Snowfall isn’t a collection of anything readers have seen before. “It’s an original graphic novel and it’s going to be published on hardback and I think coming in at about 144 pages,” Willingham said. “So it is similar in size and look to the Sandman Endless Nights graphic novel. It’s title is 1001 Nights of Snowfall.”
As mentioned earlier, the book has been known to be in the works, but, as Willingham explained, there have been some…complications. “It’s been in the plans for quite some time, but those really snitty DC people insisted that they couldn’t publish the thing until I finished writing it, and that kind of backwards thinking…I just don’t know,” the writer joked. “So, I did finish writing it. I couldn’t go through another San Diego show feeling the guilt from not finishing it, so I did finish it and now because of that they are willing to talk about it more like this is actually going to happen.”
As the title suggests, the book is a collection of stories, akin somewhat to 1001 Arabian Nights, the legendary collection of stories Scheherazade told the Sultan to prevent him from beheading her. This time, it’s Snow telling the stories after she was sent to the land of the Arabian Fables. “In a similar sort of parallel sort of thing we have Snow telling stories, Snow White, then the stories that she tells are the comic book illustrated stories that appear in this volume,” Willingham said. “Each illustrated by a different artist.
“They’re all going to be stories about characters that we know and love or at least know in the Fables series, stories about them back in the homelands. For example, we will see what it is about Snow White and the 7 Dwarves and why she doesn’t like any mention of them. We will see what happened to Bigby’s Dad and Mom and all that. We’ll see what did happen to Flycatcher’s wife and family in the homelands before he escaped and stuff like that. So these will be stories about background of all sorts of characters, little stories about how they went through whatever they went through before we see them in modern days.”
As for the collection of artists…Willingham had to admit that is a good question.
“I’ll probably be able to give you a better answer after San Diego, as part of this trip is to lock down some people that told me they were willing to do it, but were insistent on getting as script. I don’t know where they get these ideas. At least I can say that Charles Vess is locked in illustrating the first story, James Jean is going to do his first interior Fables work illustrating one, Mark Buckingham of course will be doing one, and Mark Wheatly is locked in. John Bolton also looks good to be included as well, and there are more to come.”
Moving from the OGN to the new series, Jack of Fables picks up after Jack went Hollywood in the recent two-part story. “Jack made three big, blockbuster movies ala Lord of the Rings for he specific purpose of making himself the most well known popular Fable, and therefore by the current theory the more popular you are with the Mundy’s the more power you have personally, the less vulnerable you are, the more able you are to recover from damage, that type of thing. Of course it all falls apart and the last we saw is that Jack has a suitcase full of what little money the Fable Town folk would let him take with his thumb out and of course the last line in that is true to his word Jack was never seen in Fable Town again. So the Jack of Fables series takes off literally one second after that scene, Jack on the road with his thumb out and we see what happens with him form then on, what crazy thing happens with the very first vehicle that pulls over to give him a ride.”
For Willingham, who will be joined on the series by co-writer Matthew Sturgis and artist Tony Akins, the idea of basing a whole series on Jack was too compelling to put on the shelf. “He’s a womanizer but not as good at it as Prince Charming was,” Willingham said. “He’s always up to schemes and things but wasn’t as good at it as someone like Bluebeard who could finance his evil operations and only some which are coming to light which also unlike Bluebeard, Jack’s schemes tended to get found out. He’s a kind of a leading man but not really as much of a leading man as some of the other characters that sort of thing. He has bits of nobility here and there which other characters do. So he was definitely the almost second best at everything type of character. And he’s been every Jack in fairy tales and folklore that are full of Jacks that kind of tricks the characters.
“Fallen Boy Scout sometimes and unsuccessful conmen at other times and it’s just exactly the type of character that you’d want to follow around on his travels. Too much of a do gooder would get old after a while and a completely evil person would get old after a while, but maybe the kinda guy that Howard Chaykin once described as his typical leading man, a Boy Scout easily seduced and although I wouldn’t put Jack in that category, I don’t think he was ever a Boy Scout and never had any inclinations. He’s not a good guy, he’s not a bad guy, he’s always self serving and every once in a while surprises even himself and certainly us with a little bit of dusty nobility.”
And who’s this guy sharing the writing credits? “I knew Matthew back in Austin, Texas,” Willingham said. “He’s a wonderful writer, and as a matter of fact, I avoided meeting him for a long time. He used to come into the same comic shop that I would go to, and one of the employees there kept talking about this great writer Matthew Sturgis and all this. The kind of folks that you meet in comic shops, they are full of people that want to break into the business that type of thing. So I avoided meeting him for a long time until I finally got a look at something that he had written and it was just terrific. So there are these categories that I run into now and then…wonderful writers that people don’t know about and he is one of them.
“So when Shelly Bond called me and said we really should spin Jack off in his own series, he’s off on the road alone and I said I probably couldn’t do him on my own. Another monthly fables series would just spread things a little too thin but If we had someone else’s insight into to it to keep that fresh and different enough from Fables to sort of be it’s own series, then I might be interested in that. She and I had been talking off and on about getting Matthew some more work, he had written a Fables inventory story that never got used because we never had to, and it was a Jack story so we realized that that inventory that we are never going t o use is know defunct because Jack is now no longer part of the regular Fables cast, that could be a Jack of Fables inventory story, and that of course immediately swelled into why not co-write the series with Matt which I thought was a wonderful idea. This should be a fun time and a good book.”
Announced this weekend, Bill Willingham’s Fables will see expansion from one to two ongoing series, with a long-promised OGN finally seeing the light of day. We caught up with Willingham for a few quick words on both Jack of Fables and 1,001 Nights of Snowfall.
First off, to clarify, 1,001 Nights of Snowfall isn’t a collection of anything readers have seen before. “It’s an original graphic novel and it’s going to be published on hardback and I think coming in at about 144 pages,” Willingham said. “So it is similar in size and look to the Sandman Endless Nights graphic novel. It’s title is 1001 Nights of Snowfall.”
As mentioned earlier, the book has been known to be in the works, but, as Willingham explained, there have been some…complications. “It’s been in the plans for quite some time, but those really snitty DC people insisted that they couldn’t publish the thing until I finished writing it, and that kind of backwards thinking…I just don’t know,” the writer joked. “So, I did finish writing it. I couldn’t go through another San Diego show feeling the guilt from not finishing it, so I did finish it and now because of that they are willing to talk about it more like this is actually going to happen.”
As the title suggests, the book is a collection of stories, akin somewhat to 1001 Arabian Nights, the legendary collection of stories Scheherazade told the Sultan to prevent him from beheading her. This time, it’s Snow telling the stories after she was sent to the land of the Arabian Fables. “In a similar sort of parallel sort of thing we have Snow telling stories, Snow White, then the stories that she tells are the comic book illustrated stories that appear in this volume,” Willingham said. “Each illustrated by a different artist.
“They’re all going to be stories about characters that we know and love or at least know in the Fables series, stories about them back in the homelands. For example, we will see what it is about Snow White and the 7 Dwarves and why she doesn’t like any mention of them. We will see what happened to Bigby’s Dad and Mom and all that. We’ll see what did happen to Flycatcher’s wife and family in the homelands before he escaped and stuff like that. So these will be stories about background of all sorts of characters, little stories about how they went through whatever they went through before we see them in modern days.”
As for the collection of artists…Willingham had to admit that is a good question.
“I’ll probably be able to give you a better answer after San Diego, as part of this trip is to lock down some people that told me they were willing to do it, but were insistent on getting as script. I don’t know where they get these ideas. At least I can say that Charles Vess is locked in illustrating the first story, James Jean is going to do his first interior Fables work illustrating one, Mark Buckingham of course will be doing one, and Mark Wheatly is locked in. John Bolton also looks good to be included as well, and there are more to come.”
Moving from the OGN to the new series, Jack of Fables picks up after Jack went Hollywood in the recent two-part story. “Jack made three big, blockbuster movies ala Lord of the Rings for he specific purpose of making himself the most well known popular Fable, and therefore by the current theory the more popular you are with the Mundy’s the more power you have personally, the less vulnerable you are, the more able you are to recover from damage, that type of thing. Of course it all falls apart and the last we saw is that Jack has a suitcase full of what little money the Fable Town folk would let him take with his thumb out and of course the last line in that is true to his word Jack was never seen in Fable Town again. So the Jack of Fables series takes off literally one second after that scene, Jack on the road with his thumb out and we see what happens with him form then on, what crazy thing happens with the very first vehicle that pulls over to give him a ride.”
For Willingham, who will be joined on the series by co-writer Matthew Sturgis and artist Tony Akins, the idea of basing a whole series on Jack was too compelling to put on the shelf. “He’s a womanizer but not as good at it as Prince Charming was,” Willingham said. “He’s always up to schemes and things but wasn’t as good at it as someone like Bluebeard who could finance his evil operations and only some which are coming to light which also unlike Bluebeard, Jack’s schemes tended to get found out. He’s a kind of a leading man but not really as much of a leading man as some of the other characters that sort of thing. He has bits of nobility here and there which other characters do. So he was definitely the almost second best at everything type of character. And he’s been every Jack in fairy tales and folklore that are full of Jacks that kind of tricks the characters.
“Fallen Boy Scout sometimes and unsuccessful conmen at other times and it’s just exactly the type of character that you’d want to follow around on his travels. Too much of a do gooder would get old after a while and a completely evil person would get old after a while, but maybe the kinda guy that Howard Chaykin once described as his typical leading man, a Boy Scout easily seduced and although I wouldn’t put Jack in that category, I don’t think he was ever a Boy Scout and never had any inclinations. He’s not a good guy, he’s not a bad guy, he’s always self serving and every once in a while surprises even himself and certainly us with a little bit of dusty nobility.”
And who’s this guy sharing the writing credits? “I knew Matthew back in Austin, Texas,” Willingham said. “He’s a wonderful writer, and as a matter of fact, I avoided meeting him for a long time. He used to come into the same comic shop that I would go to, and one of the employees there kept talking about this great writer Matthew Sturgis and all this. The kind of folks that you meet in comic shops, they are full of people that want to break into the business that type of thing. So I avoided meeting him for a long time until I finally got a look at something that he had written and it was just terrific. So there are these categories that I run into now and then…wonderful writers that people don’t know about and he is one of them.
“So when Shelly Bond called me and said we really should spin Jack off in his own series, he’s off on the road alone and I said I probably couldn’t do him on my own. Another monthly fables series would just spread things a little too thin but If we had someone else’s insight into to it to keep that fresh and different enough from Fables to sort of be it’s own series, then I might be interested in that. She and I had been talking off and on about getting Matthew some more work, he had written a Fables inventory story that never got used because we never had to, and it was a Jack story so we realized that that inventory that we are never going t o use is know defunct because Jack is now no longer part of the regular Fables cast, that could be a Jack of Fables inventory story, and that of course immediately swelled into why not co-write the series with Matt which I thought was a wonderful idea. This should be a fun time and a good book.”