Change of direction and the value of the protracted Second Act (PART ONE)

Faced with decades of history of creator-owned genre ongoing series, it's easy to highlight some of the established trends. Following the brief turn in the 1980s where the creator owned titles continued past their originators, making for seldom sequels of Dean Motter's original "Mister X" run, the non-Mike Grell "Sable" follow-up, and perhaps most famously, additional "American Flagg" material with no participation of Howard Chaykin (all of which probably had to do with the contracts drafted with publishers), the advent of self-publishing lead to a different set-up in the next decade. And while some of the 1990s creators opted for a long but ultimately finite story, like Jeff Smith with "Bone", most of the creators were still forced to confirm to the realities of the market and strike a deal with the existing publisher. And while some of the creators were adamant that the publisher respects the envisioned ending of their work, such as Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's "Preacher", this has still lead to some of their peers deciding to retain a presence in the market with more than the collections of the already published work.

Continuing with the Vertigo example, the publisher's move into 2000s book reflects this philosophy. On the one hand, DC's creator friendly imprint provided for the acclaimed "Y the Last Man", a finite story that would stay in print thanks to the good will of the fans and kind reviews, it's another title that has fully exploited its popularity in precisely the manner which pertains to this post. Bill Willingham's "the Fables", an eminently likable title that still exhibits all of the weaknesses of the major publisher's flagship title, has from the start mapped out a sprawling story geared with a seemingly clear endpoint. It's doubtful that its creator, who himself debuted in the pages of a 1980ies independent title, had a clear idea that it's appeal was going to win over so many fans and cement itself as the imprint's premiere title. Yet, with the advent of a spin-off ongoing, it was clear that the publisher was eager to change its plans to support the demand for more stories in the same general vein.

Yet, coming into 2010s, rare are the fans who wholeheartedly endorse the creative team's decision to continue past of the obvious endpoint of the story. By continuing the subplots, Willingham was certainly able to tide over the fans and have the new direction feel like an organic continuation, but it's difficult not to think that something was lost in the translation. Of course, this turn of events is nothing new when it comes to serial published genre work. Looking over at Dark Horse, it's easy to see Mike Mignola coming to a natural, if unwieldy endpoint for Hellboy in "the Conquerer Worm" mini-series. Faced with a market that was still positively responding to his creation, and the advent of the movie adaptation on the way, the writer/artist was determined to find a way of launching a less ambitious yet quality genre spin-off, while he reworks his signature creation into another direction. Interestingly, due to the strength of the talent involved with "B.P.R.D.", the title formed a separate identity while retaining enough of old Hellboy charm, but "Hellboy" the series continued in a very uncertain direction.

A couple of short, distinctively patchy mini-series followed, testing the resolve of the fans, before Mignola settled for handing over the artistic duties, a major part of the series' charm, to another artist. Following the terminated collaboration with Lee Bermejo, Mignola gave the script to Duncan Fegredo, a considerably accomplished artist in his own right, which finally provided for the continuation of a much teased and very controversial second phase in the life of Hellboy.

Continuing in the direction of the acclaimed short-stories featuring the character leaning in a more mythological direction has meant for some puzzling and very disconcerting events. A vocal majority of Mignola's fans defended the new direction, but it's clear that it's at odds with the initial pulp-inspired roots of the character. Just like "Fables", "Hellboy" had taken a significant overhaul when it comes to it's initial story structure to assure it's continued existance in the second decade of its publishing. Right now, as it enters its third decade in the American direct market, from editorial standpoint the title's never been stronger, but it comes at the expanse of "B.P.R.D." undergoing a major change in the direction, and the main title entering it's third, and supposedly final transformation.

Both the Vertigo and Dark Horse flagships, with their numerous spin-offs, changes in direction, and growing lists of contributors have long since abandoned their initial set-up, but the real question is have they lost some of their appeal with all the reshuffling?

To fully comprehend the answer, one must ironically look back at their superhero predecessors, which is pertinent considering that both Willingham and Mignola made their names in the industry by working on superhero titles.

Jack of Fables 41-45 "Kings of earth and sky"

That "the Fables"' first spin-off was a controversial project was clear from the start. Putting the unlikable rogue Jack of tales in the lead role was always an ambitious choice, but the truly polarizing aspect of the Vertigo title's second ongoing series was always it's ambiguous co-writing credit. Yet, Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges' "Jack of Fables" has preserved for years as the supporting title, with sales closely following the parent book. This has given it's creators a chance to freely enjoy their trademark multi layered self-aware storytelling that never tips it's hand to the readers.

Unlike "Fables", it's perennial troubled spin-off has always toyed with the metafictional aspects that fully acknowledge the difficulty of the ideas involved. It was always a title that spun some rather far fetched pulp inspired yarns, yet remained tongue in cheek the whole time, while teasing some rather improbable and unnerving events. Right alongside the black humorous bulk of the narrative involving Jack facing the basic tools of writing fiction, another subplot kept getting alluded to. And in "the Great Fables crossover", that was to wrap up the three years in the making saga, and have the character come full circle with Fables that he has come to stray from, it finally debuted.

Following on the heels of the parent series' new status quo, the mini event saw a new hero take center stage, and hinted at the changes to come for Jack's own series, all in a manner that was as literal as possible. yet, Jack's teenage son still seemed like merely one of the many new characters involved with the proceedings, while admittedly most of the others being even more obnoxious with their roles and titles. Still, following an unfortunately placed fill-in story, the co-writers stayed true to their promise, and started radically altering the series' premise.

The first arc of the new status quo still had to wrap up the loose ends of "Jack of Fables"' previous three years of stories, which in effect meant double billing the page count to host both the logical conclusion of Jack's adventures, and the introduction of his son's first adventure on his own. The shift in direction seemed sudden, but like always with the title, felt planned well in advance. In the new section, the reader was treated with an innocent fantasy episode played ironically typically, but there was still an expectation that the two narratives will collide in the last chapter. Interestingly, Willingham and Sturges had decided to play coy, and have Jack's tale end completely separately, while only soliciting his son's further pulpy adventures as a follow up. The reader, long treated to a purposefully murky storytelling and outright lies by the narrator as part of the standard comedy routine, expected everything but that, particularly considering the "Fables"' history, and the Vertigo's general trend of grown up fantasy storytelling.

And, of course, this is precisely where the co-writers decided to go next with the series. By transporting their hero to yet another new world, they opted for a full on epic fantasy science fiction mash up, with the previous protagonist mentioned only in passing. Thus, they got to graduate his long prepared successor to the title role, and even more importantly style the complete storyline after him. Even the opening text along with the hints at the end of each issue, long infamous for their sarcasm and general uselessness, thus turn into tried and ready hyperbole, hinting at the further adventures of the tragically noble hero.

The self sacrificing lead character is once again shown to be a complete departure from his egoistic father, which is exactly the point. Willingham and Sturges were well aware of how loathsome the never changing scoundrel Jack of tales has become, so following the crossover, they slyly set out to replace him with a much more likable new face. This meant making him the most naive and good-hearted of the protagonists, constantly trying to help those in need, while thankfully finding suitably grand quests lined up in wait for him. In "Kings of earth and sky", young Jack Frost has to try and liberate a whole kingdom from the giant ruler of the planet, while being constantly beset by the people he's trying to save.

On the face of it, it doesn't get more heroic than that, and also more bland. The co-writers have once again purposefully set out their new protagonist on a very generic quest, subtly following the tales that inspired his predecessor, and spiced it with typical subplots. The constant twists come at every turn, as Jack learns not to trust people unequivocally, while risking losing his only friend and mentor, the magical owl MacDuff. Seemingly, the reader is witnessing a slow coming of age story of a young man that could one day become a ruler of a magical kingdom, if he's not beset by sudden death. It's just that such stereotypical storytelling completely opposes the core concept of "Fables", and the entirety of the sinisterly clever "Jack of Fables" run.

The constant presence of Babe the blue ox's page (undergoing a particularly interesting blandification paralleling the main plot) reminds us that there is no chance that such a status quo will remain much longer beyond this introductory arc, meant to stun the readers into once again doubting the whole point of the series. Even the ending blurb hints at the return of Frost's father, by featuring a seemingly generic title of the next arc, that still reveals a clear link to the previous storyline. Willingham and Sturges are once again prepared to shock the readers, but the real question turns out to be how the ambitious idea is mean to work out.

Taking a lot of the readers' loyalty for granted, "the Kings of earth and sky" still doesn't stumbles in delivering it's promises. The execution is flawed on several levels, most apparently on the artistic front. Simply put, Tony Akins the series' regular penciller is called upon do deliver so much detail that he splits the artistic duties of the middle two issues of the arc with Jim ("Crossing midnight") Fern. This problem was sidestepped by having Russ Braun work on the whole of previous storyline, but in "the Kings of earth and sky", there's hardly a unity of style between the two different pencillers. Fern tries his best to continue Akins' initial ten odd pages each issue, but his figurework is completely at odds with the series' standard cartoony work. The jarring shift is very noticable in that the more realistic pages bring forth a completely different look to the "Jack Carter, warlord of Mars"-inspired storyline, immediately clashing with the pages surrounding them.

Thus, Akins' trying to incorporate layouts that echo Mark Buckingham's work on the main "Fables" series simply stop exhibiting the requisite dynamic in the fill in artist's pages, who more or less tells the story without any irony. This leads to Jack Frost's overblown heroics and his female friend's skimpy dressings turn from satire that was called for back into standard adventure story illustrations they were inspired by, before returning back to the norm with the start of every new issue. The colors maintain what little coherence remain, but the rest of the problems lie firmly with the writers.

While they are certainly to be complimented for presenting a well paced page turner, after so many "Jack of Fables" arcs that felt strained and overwritten, the most successful part of the storyline really belongs to their inspirations. And while they certainly find a way to channel the Michael ("Elric", "Jack Cornelius") Moorcock like pulp narratives steeped in the lurid haze of counter culture, Willingham and Sturges end up going too far in a single direction, risking the subversion of their own creative voices for the purposes of pastiche. And this is precisely what happens, as the series' traditional playful postmodernism becomes a distant subtext, easily overcame by ray guns firing through the sweaty psychedelic background.

Moorcock himself was always keen to stretch the form of the pulpy science fiction, but in sticking so close to his template, the co-writers gambled to entertain only the segment of readers familiar with his work, or otherwise generally susceptible to his hugely influential "Saga of the eternal warrior". What's missing is the concrete link to the series the readers have been following up till the beginning of this storyline, a knowing technique employed with potentially troublesome results.

It takes a lot of belief in the "Fables" brand as a whole to see "the Kings of earth and sky" for what it truly is, a middle chapter in the delightfully false new status quo that almost certainly won't last a year, before being tied together with the stylings that preceded it. It's just that read as a story in it's own right it might send a mixed signals message to its readers, who might not be so fond of the radical shift that "Jack of Fables" has undergone.

As an experiment in the continuing storytelling, the current direction of the series is in line with the title's constant ethos of subverting the readers' expectations of what they can expect from a spin off. Yet, as a story on it's own, it's completely dependent on future arcs to determine how the whole of this particular phase of the title measures up. This is certainly a bold decision, made by creators unafraid to follow their own creative impulses, instead of settling in the relative conformity of the tried and true status quo.

A whole new world

An interesting thing happened while I was searching through the reviews of the some of the 'Jack of Fables' story lines. The engine gave me a slew of results concerning the spin-off of one of the industry's best selling non-superhero works, and unsurprisingly, very little of the links had to do with any kind of established critical venue, or indeed some of the more commercial sites considering the medium. For whatever reason, a large portion of comics fans seem intent to focus on continually analysing their love/hate relationship with Marvel and DC's superhero titles, but this was to be expected. What genuinely surprised me was that I found a bevy of commentary from the completely new source - that of the new readers that have managed to elude the market for so long.

This is no small thing, especially considering the overall quality analysis that covered all the fundamentals of the book's writing. The newcomers mostly shied away from a detailed comparative analysis of Tony Akins' art style, but they provided a very nuanced and informed perspective of the complex plot heavy series. Covering the book's general direction, and discussing the comedy angle, the readers patiently shared their thoughts regarding the controversial protagonist, and going to great lengths of contrasting the book to the main Fables title. Picking up on all the layered nuances, the new readers, presumably without access to the comics criticism, still provided an informed look at 'Jack of Fables'' back story, with the eye of gouging the creative team's future direction. All this, without a concrete platform to launch their opinion, the sheer enthusiasm for the story making them post semi-anonymous on the pages listing dozens of reviews, usually with the eye of selling their trade paperback back stock. It can't be overstated how rare this is in today's comics climate, and it's interesting to try to understand the reason.

It should be noted that these seem to be primarily readers who found the trade paperbacks through the means of book stores and libraries, seemingly avoiding the contact with the month to month Direct Market serialization. As such, it's unclear whether they discovered 'the Fables' brand slowly through the spotlight that the superhero movies, or through the more direct fantasy connection that the Neil Gaiman adaptations presumably brought to the Vertigo line. These new readers seem content to follow this manga-like distribution model, tracking down new volumes of the series they already like. Which brings us to the chief point, why is it that Fables seems currently the imprint's only title capable of drawing in the wider audiences, in a way reminiscent of the line's smash hit, 'the Sandman'.

It's deceptively simple to claim simple accessibility as the answer, as it seems notoriously hard to replicate the success, at least judging from the publishing history. For some reason, comics have a tendency on focusing on the obscure, fighting the uphill battle of reviving long dormant genre properties. Is it any wonder that 'Sandman mystery theatre' failed to engage the audiences of it's parent title, with it's noir-ish interpretation of a Golden Age mystery man's period piece adventures? Matt Wagner, the series' principal writer is currently facing similar problems with 'Madam Xanadu', and it's doubtful that the title will mimic the seven year life span of the Sandman spin off, launched at the height of the 90-ies comics boom.

Nowadays, there is nothing wrong with launching a series geared toward existing audience, providing that it includes the new readers. When starting a genre title that is not a spin-off though, the publishers should try to present a mainstream offering that uses the creators' craft and talent to tell a story first and foremost. That is, if they seriously attempt to attract the customers outside of their traditional, aging base. Focusing on the revamps of decades old superhero character minutiae doesn't seem to appeal to a modern, literate audience that wants to start at a ground level, with a clearly labeled first volume of a title that attracts them conceptually. Publishing a series with a concrete goal of tying up continuity trivia and half-heartedly revamping the ideas behind the original superhero team, that was the "Justice Society of America" before Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges took over the writing reins doesn't get the new readers to post their reviews on online bookstore websites.

Instead, their "Fables" audience evidently doesn't want to crossover, leaving the publisher to hopefully try again to engage their attention, before they get too disillusioned with the self-referential nature of their new hobby.

Mister Dark?

Vertigo’s “Fables” comic is not a series known for metafictional storytelling. It’s claim to post-modernism lies in it’s basis, a then-familiar Vertigo cliché, of recasting yesterday’s myths, this time around children’s fairytales, into the modern world, fully inspired by Neil Gaiman’s seminal “Sandman”. Since then on, it’s built up a continuity and settings it’s own that, though populated with fairytale characters famous or less so, has continued on as a basicly large and ambitious epic fantasy series.

It’s a wonder then how little mention was made of the writer Bill Willingham’s wink and a nod to Fables’ influential “predecessor”, Vertigo’s “Sandman”. “Sandman” started off with it’s God-like main character freeing himself from the prison he’s spent a long time in and going on a quest to gather his items of power. Having completed it’s initial arc, the series’ writer Neil Gaiman, opted to continue in a different direction, focusing on the profound questions of life, while continuing in less common story structure for what was still on the outside a fantasy series.

What has happened in “Fables” then, was that it’s creator, Bill Willinghem decided to have a massively powerful being awakened from it’s year-long confine and dealing with the beings that have usurped his power since. The similiarity to Gaiman’s series extended to the imitation of his main character’s look and the way of speech. But, just thinking on the subject for a bit more, makes the more interesting connection apparent.

Vertigo has released several volumes of it's critically acclaimed series, Fables. You could use payday loans to collect them all.

“Fables” is without a question, Vertigo’s best-selling series, that even spawned a relatively successful on it’s own, in “the Jack of Fables” ongoing series. One could even go so far as to say that it is Vertigo’s most succesful series since “Sandman”, and it’s myriad spin-offs (the most notable of which being Mike Carey’s excellent “Lucifer”, a noteworthy comic and, interestingly, a direct structural parallel to Gaiman’s series). And yet, it was “Sandman” that popularized the trend of updating parts of folklore in today’s setting, as evident by many of Vertigo’s offerings since it debuted.

Willingham is not only aware of this, but he is commenting on it as directly as he can, using his own stand-in, in “Mister Dark”, a character that acknowledges to having many other names before. This was, of course, another trait that Gaiman’s “Sandman” exibited, along with the obvious ability to afflict the dreaming, which is how his opposite number in “Fables” seems able to influence the children of the world. He was also possessing of a magical weave whose threads Fables stole and remade into a magical cloak, that has help them conquer insurmountable odds and triumph. It should go without mention that the storyline that effectively ended “the Sandman” made many comparisions to storytelling comparing it to weaving a cloth. Using the chivalry code Willingham’s fantasy series has followed from the start, it only made sense to have the evil king return and claim back his spoils. Along the way he is, of course, building his castle, with his fate seemingly tied in with the workings of the three witches.

It’s very amusing to watch this new turn in Willingham’s “Fables”, and another sure sign that the series is in every way as vital as before, having entered it’s second major storyline with #76. Now, it would be excellent if Neil Gaiman saw this “challenge” as an opportunity to find a way to reach compromise with Vertigo, so that the proposed prequel to “Sandman” could see the light of day. That would be great way for Gaiman and Vertigo to continue their collaboration, but most of all, it would be a delight to fans, and I’m sure that most of the “Fables” aficianados“ hold a soft spot for “Sandman” in their hearts. It must be that Bill Willingham shares that belief, or else we wouldn’t see as much of “Mister Dark”, and with such a charm.