The New Fables Questions for Willingham thread

[David Allen Green]

Hi there!

Four questions:

1. Is King Cole based in part on the King Cole in Geoffrey of Monmouth's medieval History of the Kings of Britain? (Where Lear and - to a great extent - Arthur and Merlin were effectively invented too.) This would then link with Colechester and thereby perhaps with Humpty Dumpty.

2. Are you still thinking about introducing Merlin?

3. Will we see Irene Adler or any other Sherlockian character?

4. Is the sword in the stone in the general office something of which we will see more than just in the background? And is it the Arthurian artefact?

[Yusef Abonamah]

Is the Forsworn Knight from anything or was he just made up?

[Jack Johnson]

Is the Forsworn Knight from anything or was he just made up?

I think I can help you on this one; he is from a story, but he was not called the forsworn knight in that story. Bill has yet to tell us who he is, but he has (sorta) said the answers will be in the upcoming Fly arc.

[Yusef Abonamah]

I think I remember reading something about that on Wikipedia. How did you come up with the idea to make Boy Blue so awesome, because he is awesome.

[Kelsi Parker]

Would Lizzie Borden be a Fable? She's got a poem and all, and characters like Humpty Dumpty and King Cole have historical backgrounds, but have become more famous for their rhymes.

[Justin OConnor]

Would Lizzie Borden be a Fable? She's got a poem and all, and characters like Humpty Dumpty and King Cole have historical backgrounds, but have become more famous for their rhymes.

In that case, how about Ms Mary Mack?

[Ben DeRogatis]

Are we going to see anything from the Russian homelands in the future?

[Chris Scott]

Isn't Baba Yaga from the Russian Homelands-equivalent?

[Jack Johnson]

Yes, she is. As are her three knights, whom Blue beheaded.

[David Allen Green]

Yes, she is. As are her three knights, whom Blue beheaded.

It is such a pity Blue did not kill Bluebeard - and in the same manner - as one could write the following:

Blue beheaded Bluebeard; beheaded Bluebeard beheld Blue's beheading; but Blue beheld Bluebeard's head.

And that would be fun.

[Budd]

I agree, I think the world of Rus is supposed to represent (at least one of) the Russian lands from folk tales.

Here's my question:

Keeping in mind that you've written elsewhere that you won't necessarily be looking at straight mythology for fable-ous characters (is this where the no-gods thing comes from?), what criteria do you use to differentiate between mythology and folklore?

For example, I've read that in earlier Russian myths, Baba Yaga was akin to a great earth goddess, before she was 'minimized' into being a witch/sorceress. This seems similar to how in Irish mythology, one generation of gods would become displaced by invaders (eventually becoming fairies, pixies, leprechauns, etc.). Your use of Weyland (originally a god, but seemed in AF to be mostly just a really handy guy with tools) seems to also follow this schema.

Loved the shout out to the Asgardians in AN&D, though I wonder, given how Frau isn't exactly trustworthy, whether or not we should believe her breakdown of the magic makeup of gods vs. djinn. I know, I know . . . keep reading -- I will!

[Ben DeRogatis]

Should've said "are we going to see anything more". Ah well.

[Bill Willingham]

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer; Member of Fabletown?

Nope.

[Bill Willingham]

Has this situation ever lead to a character being inserted into a panel or scene?

Hmmm, I'm not sure, but I don't think so. Mostly I save those gems, waiting for a chance to use them with the right character in the right scene.

[Bill Willingham]

In hindsight, is there anything you would do differently in Fables if you knew then what you know now?

Plenty. The nature of serialized fiction is that you can't go back and rewrite the earlier issues. And, as I've said far too many times before, nearly anyone in this business, looking back on previous material, can only see the mistakes. They'll haunt us forever.

[Bill Willingham]

Who is your least favorite character that you write or have written? Not one that you don't like writing about, I assume you enjoy even villains, but on a personal (if fictional) level- Is there any one character you write that occasionally makes you stop and think, "Um, ew. I can't believe I wrote him/her actually doing that! Where did that come from?"?

Back in the short-lived Coventry days I wrote (and drew) a little imp from Hell named Beezel who was so evil in such grotesque and personal ways that I still cringe a bit when I revisit those issues. I set out to craft the most evil villain in comics history and I still fear I may have gotten close to succeeding.

[Bill Willingham]

1) Can we get another Farm centric arc?

2) Any plans to finally bring the Woodsman( the other Tourist) into a story soon?

3) I don't if this has been answered before, but will we find out what happened to Gerda from The Snow Queen?

4) Is the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella a different character entirely from the Blue Fairy?

5) Any plans to get to some more Oz characters?

1) Yes, but probably not as soon as you'd like -- or as soon as Bucky would like.

2) Yes.

3) Maybe.

4) Yes.

5) Most of the Oz bunch ended up in the Golden Boughs Village in Jack of Fables. How many of them actually got away in the Great Escape? Hmmmm.

[David Allen Green]

And another one - is the Queen of Hearts the mother of Prince Charming?

She does look like the Tenniel cartoon at the wedding with Snow!

[Bill Willingham]

Bill, is the version of stories you use whichever one is most popular with the mundys at the time?

Not exactly. The version of a story I use is whichever one best suits my needs. For example, in the many versions of Red Riding Hood, most of the time the wolf is killed with the Woodsman's ax. That didn't suit my needs, but the one version where they sew his belly with stones and throw him into the river (or lake) to drown did suit my needs.

In the Cinderella case, I learned of the glass slippers as a kid long before I learned that they may have been golden slippers -- so the glass slipper version just seems more right to me.

[Bill Willingham]

...do you have any hints to how much we can expect to see of Cindy in the foreseeable future, Bill?

Cindy gets her own arc soon. I'm still trying to work out whether it's the next big arc after The Good Prince, or if it has to wait for another big Arabian-centric arc first. I'll know better when I've better worked out the pretty intricate details of some big events to come.