http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=123195
An exclusive one-page story, a follow-up to 1,001 Nights of Snowfall,
and a trip inside a page of Fables were the topics that were discussed
at Sunday's Fables panel at SDCC.
Fables writer and architect Bill Willingham opened it to a capacity
crowd Sunday at SDCC and introduced Fables Senior Editor Shelly Bond,
who then took the mic as the host for the panel. Bond introduced the
panelists: inker Andrew Pepoy, Tony Akins, Steve Leialoha, James Jean,
Daniel Vozzo, Todd Klein, Matthew Sturges, Mark Buckingham, and
finally, Willingham.
Bond then turned the mic back over to Willingham, who announced that
the giveaway at this year's panel (last year's was a signed copy of
Fables #50) a one page Fables story that would never be reprinted.
Willingham then said that was the good news, the bad news was that
they based the printing of the giveaway on the number of copies of
Fables #50 given away last year, and this year, the room was filled
beyond capacity. The writer then urged married couples in attendance
to share their copies of the story, promising that if they shared it,
their marriage would laugh 63.7% longer, due in large part to the fear
of who would get the Fables story in a divorce.
He then promised that if anyone didn't get a story this year, and make
an "I got screwed at the Fables panel last year" t-****rt and wear it
to next year's Fables panel, they would get something special.
Willingham asked that the audience stay honest and not make a huge
number of ****rts just to score free swag next year.
This year's one page Fables story is a Jack of Fables story, starring
Babe the Miniature Blue Ox who will soon be the breakout character in
the series. "You'd think that the breakout character would be Jack,"
Willingham joked, "But he's had the book for too damn long, and if he
can't hold on to it, he deserves to lose it." The numbered story was
written by Sturges and illustrated by Willingham.
Willingham then asked all the attendees to look under their seats for
an envelope. The audience member who found an envelope won a Bigby
Wolf and Snow White statue, designed by Mark Buckingham.
The writer then turned the panel back over to Bond, who said that the
plan from here was to walk through a page of Fables, and allow each
member of the team to talk about what they did. Bond started with the
cover to issue #63, and asked Jean to talk about his process.
Jean said that he starts with a letter-sized sheet of paper for his
rough idea, and makes scribbles until something makes sense, and then
crafts it down until he likes it. At that point, he sends it to Bond
who then approves it, and he then starts on the finishes, which takes
2-3 days.
The discussion then moved through each creative member talking about
how they approached their job, from script to finished page.
Moving on from the production, Bond showed the cover to Jack of Fables
#13 (a Boland cover showing Jack with a sword stuck through him).
"Unfortunately Jack is going to have this sword stuck in him for a
while, because it's fun to harm Jack, and it just gets funnier the
more we do it," Sturges said, noting that the sword will stay in Jack
for a while. The story will tie in with Fables Good Prince, with Jack
playing the role of the Bad Prince - though the books will not
directly cross over.
The next arc will take plane in the American Fable and be called
"Americana," which has been seen only in map form. The series will
also have a Halloween issue, something fitting, according to
Willingham, given that Fables has a Holiday issue.
Willingham and Sturges then poke briefly about House of Mystery, their
new Vertigo series, which is covered elsewhere on Newsarama.
Willingham then opened the floor to questions...
Where there specific questions for the Burning Questions issue that
they liked but couldn't be answered? Willingham: Oh yes - we picked
the questions that features stories that weren't coming up and dealt
with things they couldn't give away, and more often than not, included
a good gag.
Will Fables use more recent "fable" type characters? Willingham said
that he knows that, according to Buckingham, Peter Pan is becoming
available in 2008, and therefore, Peter Pan will become a character in
Fables in 2008.
Willingham later added that he briefly considered casting Peter Pan as
the Adversary because "he comes to our world and steals kids. This
isn't a good thing. This isn't a bad thing." The writer said that he
was very happy that they ended up using Geppeto and how that story
worked out. "For those of you who aren't caught up in your reading, I
just ruined a big piece of the story for you, sorry."
In speaking of the "last" Fables story that Willingham has previously
said he already knew, the writer said that he, together with Bond and
Buckingham, have decided to tell what they were holding as the "last"
Fables story sooner - with Willingham admitting that the unrest and
apparent drumbeats to war the series is currently building up to
Is there a specific reason why Willingham and company haven't included
gods and larger mythological characters in the stories? Willingham
said yes - there's a very specific reason, and acknowledged that while
fairy tales and folklore are often linked to mythology, it's a line
he's not willing to cross, simply because "mythology has been done to
death in comics.
"Not only that, I'm getting old, and I'm getting scared. In case any
of that [mythology] is true, and I end up in some weird afterlife, I
don't want to have pissed any of those guys off.
How does Sturges write Jack of Fables as a complete a-hole who's still
likeable? Sturges: "That's easy, I just base him on Bill."
Are there plans for a follow up to 1,001 Nights of Snowfall?
Willingham said that there is something coming in line with 1,001
Nights, but it won't be exactly like the acclaimed story collection,
and that it will take a while. The project is currently underway, the
writer said, with the start of it being written at the Rudyard Kipling
House in Vermont, where the Fables team gathered for a writers
retreat. The story/script for the unnamed project was physically begun
on the same desk that Kipling used when he wrote Jungle Book,
Captain's Courageous and his other classic works. "If I'd known it was
going to start at that place, I would've made it a Jungle Book-related
story, but it's not," Willingham said, denying the audience a tease.
The unnamed project will be named and officially announced at next
year's Fables panel at SDCC. In terms of what will be in it,
Willingham said that readers have already seen the two main
characters, who are not happy with each other in the new story. Each
one of the characters has appeared in exactly one panel each of some
previous Fables project, Willingham revealed.
Is there one literary character Willingham is dying to put into Fables
that he can't use? "I sure would like to get all of the Narnia
characters," Willingham said, adding that there are tons of characters
that have fallen into the public domain as it is, and they have a
wealth of material to pull on for the foreseeable future.
Does Fables's dysfunctional tone come from Willingham's own outlook on
life? "Wow," Willingham said, vamping for time, "...Snow and Bigby have
a happy family..." The writer then pointed out a member of the audience
who's done scholarly works analyzing Fables and pointing out such
issues, adding that he's just telling stories, and the team is just
making funnybooks.
In closing, Willingham advised the audience that things happening in
Jack of Fables will start connecting with the main Fables series more
as the abovementioned storyline begins to gain steam, and suggested
that people might want to make sure they're reading both.
The panelists, in a gracious display, closed the panel by applauding
and thanking the audience for their continued reader****p and sup****t.
--
Sean
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