Plot: Jack Horner is riding across the Old West with a gang of the lowest hombres looking for trouble. They find it when Bigby shows up.

Comment: This is my first issue of Jack of Fablesand it was quite good. The series follows the exploits and adventures of Jack Horner after he’s kicked out of Fabletown, the Manhattan home of displaced storybook characters. Issue #22 opens in 1883 and explores Jack “Candle” and his gang of outlaws out West.

Willingham and Sturges do some inventive storytelling around this western tale. As dates are noted, so are events: “On the 30th of May, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was about to collapse caused a stampede that killed twelve. The Candle Gang only killed three that day.” The notations bring a larger framework to the events of Jack and his gang, especially the many that concern death. Jack and his gang may be thieves and murders but they aren’t the only ones in 1883. That same year the Ku Klux Klan lynched fifty-three black people, Hiram S. Maxim invented the first automatic machine gun, and General Ahmed Orabi declared a holy war to oust the British out of Egypt.

Akins and Pepoy’s art has a lot of detail and nuance as well. Again, these elements give a greater context to Jack and his gang. In one panel, the governor demands Jack hang by a rope by end of the month. The governor emphasizes this by raising both arms in the air over his head. His office is filled Gilded Age austerity; grand curtains, richly ornate, silver lamps, and rows of mounted antlers and paintings on the walls behind him. And in his hand a copy of Ben Hur . And although the governor is never seen or referred to again, the level of detail extended to this character displays the larger scope of the work itself.

This may be just a western tale of some ornery lowlifes, but sometimes even they make it into the history books. Or is it storybooks?

As much as I enjoyed Jack of Fables, I can’t seem to get into it. This is not a reflection on the book itself, or the source material Fables either. I’m just not interested in these characters or story. I have no reservation toward subject matter or quality of the books. Quite honestly, I love comics that use public domain characters in real world situations, especially when they are well-written (I guess that’s a given. Who looks for badly written comics? Fans of Pirates vs. Ninjas?). And Bill Willingham has crafted an extremely thorough and researched history for his Fables-verse that uncovers a lot of the subtext of my favorite fairy tales, making them poignant and very entertaining.

But, sadly, it hasn’t made a lasting impression on me to continue reading. I feel incredibly guilty for not being enticed by this book. One of my older sisters bought me the first trade of Fables for Christmas thinking that I would love it. I didn’t! It feels like some bizarre arranged marriage, where the girl is beautiful, smart, and wealthy, and has everything I could ever want, but I feel nothing for her. I can appreciate Fables, but I just don’t love it.

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