Writers: Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges
Pencils: Tony Akins
Company: Vertigo

I’m a huge fan of Fables, and it is easily my favorite monthly title. I also really enjoyed reading issues #1, #2 and #3 of the spin-off book, Jack of Fables, but unfortunately, my enthusiasm for the new title is beginning to ease off. It is still a very solid book and one that I will continue to look forward to reading for the foreseeable future, but the problem is that I have gotten so accustomed to the stellar quality level of the main Fables title, that a very solid Fables related book is still quite a disappointment in comparison. Check this article out to learn more about the main Fables title and its shared universe with Jack of Fables.

The root of the problem lays with one irreconcilable issue. Jack of Fables is about Jack of Fables. What makes the parent title one of the best comics in years is an incredible ensemble cast and Willingham’s ability to use it well. Almost every character is interesting, and almost no character is vital to the telling of a quality story arc. The new spin-off book unfortunately boasts very little more than one of the most, if not the most, one-dimensional character of the entire original cast. Jack’s arrogance and disdain for everybody around him is only interesting for so long, and then it just becomes repetitive and tiresome. In Fables, it wasn’t a detriment to the book because the rest of the characters were engaging and numerous enough to keep the story from becoming one-dimensional, but Jack of Fables lacks the strong ensemble cast and tries to replace them with a underdeveloped supporting cast. The supporting cast might have been interesting enough to make the book great if there was enough focus on them to develop the characters. Sadly, the main character focus of the book prevents them from becoming important enough for me to really care about them or find them that terribly interesting for more than a panel or two.

Having said that, let’s get into what there is to like about Jack of Fables, and there’s plenty. The brief glimpses of each member of the supporting cast are, in fact, done quite well. There is absolutely classic panel in the beginning of issue #2 where Humpty Dumpty drops the f-bomb after a failed escape attempt, and the antagonist, Mr. Revise, is a great villain. Sturges and Willingham continue to do a great job on the dialogue with Jack and with all the other characters. I only wish I could see more of these characters and just a little less Jack.

The plot premise of the first arc is quite compelling. Jack has been captured by some mundys that run what could be loosely referred to as a luxury retirement community for fables with a twist… you can never leave. Of course, Jack finds the idea of mundys telling him what he can and cannot do a bit ridiculous and is actively planning his escape. His inevitable escape attempt promises to be amusing and a veritable spree of wacky mishaps.

The art is pretty good, too. The comedic quality of the action sequences are conveyed by the cartoonishly stylized art of Tony Akins. The readability of every face is also very impressive, especially on the not quite human fables. Bringing human facial qualities and expressions to an egg is not the easiest thing in the world to do. There are many similarities of style and personality between the art on Fables and Jack of Fables. The credit for bringing this feel of continuity between the two titles obviously falls to not just Akins, who has worked on the parent title in the past, but to the colorist, Daniel Vozzo, as well.

Overall, Jack of Fables is a very solid, very entertaining book when judged in isolation, and a book that I could easily recommend, but just don’t expect it to be earth-shattering-good the way that Fables is. On a side note, who else has noticed that Jack of Fables sans spacing is Jackoffables?