I don't remember when exactly I read the first volume of Fables, but I expect it was some time around 2005-2006. I've stuck with the series ever since, even as my peak period of comics reading (2005-2010) waned. The final issue #150, which doubles as the final trade paperback (albeit with different binding than all the others, which is mildly annoying to people like me who prefer consistency on the shelves) came out today, bringing the series as a whole to a close.
The latter half of the series, after the main confrontation between Fabletown and Geppetto's Empire, has had a more inconsistent reception from readers than the first half, and I would in general agree that it no longer had quite the same novelty and urgency (after a while, one gets a good sense of Bill Willingham's bag of tricks as a writer; but then, I think that's true with most series). But there's still a lot of very strong material at the back end (I think the "Inherit the Wind" and "Cubs in Toyland" storylines are the highlights of the second half).
Anyway, I haven't been as interested by the putative final arc of the series, the suddenly-introduced idea that all the women in Snow White and Rose Red's family are cursed to kill each other until there's only one left, which Rose Red just accepted as gospel and started making plans to kill her sister. They always had a contentious relationship, but this in no way felt like a natural outgrowth of it. And as it turns out, they don't. But the way they do this, while something many people had identified as a flaw in the prophecy, remains so obviously a flaw that it makes Rose look like a moron for going so far before spotting it (i.e., supposedly there are only girls in her entire family line, but Snow White has four sons). Anyway, this plot wraps up without doing much in the way of damage, but it's far from a blockbuster conclusion.
The petering out of the putative main plot aside, there's quite a lot to love about this conclusion, as once that's out of the way Willingham gets into what amounts to a long series of snapshots of the characters' futures -- mainly in the form of a bunch more of the "Last [character] Story" shorts that he's been doing for the last several issues. He tidily identifies which prophesied fate applies to each of Snow and Bigby's children (though five of those seven were pretty obvious at this point). The series ends with a sense that the stories of all the characters are far from over (I'm sure some people will find the ending with Geppetto frustrating, since that plotline has been building for a while and it doesn't really amount to anything within the series itself).
Anyway, to Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and all the others who produced this series from 2002 to 2015, thanks for all the memories.
The latter half of the series, after the main confrontation between Fabletown and Geppetto's Empire, has had a more inconsistent reception from readers than the first half, and I would in general agree that it no longer had quite the same novelty and urgency (after a while, one gets a good sense of Bill Willingham's bag of tricks as a writer; but then, I think that's true with most series). But there's still a lot of very strong material at the back end (I think the "Inherit the Wind" and "Cubs in Toyland" storylines are the highlights of the second half).
Anyway, I haven't been as interested by the putative final arc of the series, the suddenly-introduced idea that all the women in Snow White and Rose Red's family are cursed to kill each other until there's only one left, which Rose Red just accepted as gospel and started making plans to kill her sister. They always had a contentious relationship, but this in no way felt like a natural outgrowth of it. And as it turns out, they don't. But the way they do this, while something many people had identified as a flaw in the prophecy, remains so obviously a flaw that it makes Rose look like a moron for going so far before spotting it (i.e., supposedly there are only girls in her entire family line, but Snow White has four sons). Anyway, this plot wraps up without doing much in the way of damage, but it's far from a blockbuster conclusion.
The petering out of the putative main plot aside, there's quite a lot to love about this conclusion, as once that's out of the way Willingham gets into what amounts to a long series of snapshots of the characters' futures -- mainly in the form of a bunch more of the "Last [character] Story" shorts that he's been doing for the last several issues. He tidily identifies which prophesied fate applies to each of Snow and Bigby's children (though five of those seven were pretty obvious at this point). The series ends with a sense that the stories of all the characters are far from over (I'm sure some people will find the ending with Geppetto frustrating, since that plotline has been building for a while and it doesn't really amount to anything within the series itself).
Anyway, to Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and all the others who produced this series from 2002 to 2015, thanks for all the memories.
