The New Fables Questions for Willingham thread

[Stephanie Horn]

Hey Bill have you been approached to make Fables into a Television Show or a movie?

Many times.

If you did, how would you do it? Would you revamp existing stories, or would you do something completely new and different for it?

[Jonathan Cook]

Hey Bill have you been approached to make Fables into a Television Show or a movie?

Many times.

Please don't let them do a movie unless you get complete control on the script and story. I'd hate to see this series poorly adpated to the movie screen like many other comic books have been. You tell 'em "Its gonna be my way, or no way!" If thats the case, I'm all for seeing a Fables movie! Heck, let me know where I can go audition for a role.

[Steve Long]

Hello Bill! After reading Issue 64 and noticing it had a very cartoony feel to it - not just the art, but the dialogue too - I was wondering how much you take in to consideration the artist when writing your scripts. Would you have written it differently knowing Bucky was going to be drawing it, for example? I mean, I'm not sure I could imagine Bucky's Blue and Red talking like that, but it worked perfectly whith Aarons art. And do you ever revise the script based on what an artist may have come up with during the drawing process?

[Stephanie Horn]

I thought of something else! You said "dead means dead." How does that work for when the Fable dies and they get reborn? Are they just dead to the storyline?

[Ian Westhoff]

will we be seeing anymore of Feather top? I just began re-reading my Fables trades (going to read them straight through) and finished book 1 and the Wolf in the Fold prose story. Feather Top (is that one word or two?) was such an interesting character. I think I read here somewhere that he was one of the 3 Tourists Bigby used? Will Feather Top be coming up in any of the next story arcs?

[Cory Bowen]

What are your thoughts on the live-action Jack and the Beanstalk movie currently being made?

[WarPlayer]

I was going to comment, but I'm not Bill, so I'll just say it look like its on Cable. Boo! I'll have to wait to see it on DVD.

[Donald Hargnett]

Looking at the cast, it looks like it's "Fable Babies". Chevy Chase? really?

[Eduardo Blake]

Just a couple of ideas that came reading some issues:

1- so how did Bigby and Snow get to the Homelands and back in "Father and Son"? I can guess they used the flying carpet to go up to the Cloud Kingdoms, but how did they returned? Or did going to the North Wind's castle involved using another gateway, or an arrangement with NW himself, who seems to be able to go back and forth between the Homelands and the mundane world at his pleasure with some effort?

2- So, the Frau is quite handy at using other people's eyes (wooden soldiers, the zephyrs) to spy on her enemies. Considering she grew back Kay's eyes, could she have used that spell on him?

(Of course, Kay would have known about this using his ability). Overthinking...

[Jack Grey]

Hey Bill!

I'm sorry if someone has asked you this already, but, what comics do you get/read as they come out?

Thanks!

[Angela Edris]

Just out of curiosity, which came first, the stories of the fables or the fables themselves?

[Scott Erikson]

Mr. Willingham,

What rule to you use in determining how many words to fit into a comic panel, and how many words to put in a text bubble? I notice you use more words per panel than Alan Moore allows himself to use in his books. (According to an interview he did, If there's 6 panels per page, he'll only do 35 words per panel)

[Bill Willingham]

Scott,

As a general rule, unless there is a very good reason, I never let a single word balloon exceed more than two full lines of text in a Microsoft Word document, set at 12 point type, Times New Roman font.

And I try to keep it at no more than two such word balloons per panel, but sometimes that can be fudged a bit, if there are three very small word balloons for example.

Captions can occassionally exceed the two lines per caption rule, because, a rectangular-shaped caption is easier to fit in a panel that an oval-shaped balloon -- generally speaking.

[Ron Allen]

Hello, every one, first time poster. Firstly, I would like to say that until recently the only comics I read were maybe some frank miller batman stuff and that was it. until a friend of mine loaned me the first couple of fables tpb's and I am now an huge Bill Willingham fan, and am also discovering other great writers, Gaiman, Moore, Kirkman BKV and such. so thanks.

anyway... I really enjoy seeing all of the Kipling Fables and am a big fan of his. and I have gathered from previous posts that there is a cinderella and arabian arc following the good prince and was just wondering how much are we going to be seeing of mowgli? I kinda assume that he will be present in the cindy arc, but you never know.

[Bill Willingham]

Mowgli has a big future with the series, but beyond that I am not willing to say -- for now.

[Stephanie Horn]

Hello, every one, first time poster. Firstly, I would like to say that until recently the only comics I read were maybe some frank miller batman stuff and that was it. until a friend of mine loaned me the first couple of fables tpb's and I am now an huge Bill Willingham fan, and am also discovering other great writers, Gaiman, Moore, Kirkman BKV and such. so thanks.

anyway... I really enjoy seeing all of the Kipling Fables and am a big fan of his. and I have gathered from previous posts that there is a cinderella and arabian arc following the good prince and was just wondering how much are we going to be seeing of mowgli? I kinda assume that he will be present in the cindy arc, but you never know.

Howdy and Welcome Ron! I'm a huge fan of Cindy :) I can't wait for more of her. I don't know how much of the Tourists we'll see since everyone's been called inn.

[Ron Allen]

I am really glad to hear that.

Until recently I had been reading the trades and now have to wait a whole month for more fables!
I feel like a junkie going throgh withdrawels. ( jack of Fables Helps me make it a the month).

any recomendations for some good titles?

[Heather Dean]

Hey Bill,
I only got my hands on the Fables series recently and have read the complete work in an embarassingly short amount of time and now I have to tell you that I can't wait to read more! Not only is Beauty and the Beast my absolute favorite fable and that I love your take on the characters. Okay, beyond that here are my questions...

1) Will Beast ever find out what happened between PC and Beauty? If so, does PC survive?
2) Who knew Boy Blue had so much power to him...will we ever see a return to his mask-wearing sword-swinging persona?
3) I have to say that Hansel was my favorite villain introduction in a long time, are we going to learn of any other fabletown residents that turned so dark?
4) Why doesn't Beauty wear a wedding ring?

[Ian Westhoff]

You know, I've never even noticed that Beauty doesn't wear a ring.

I loved Boy Blue in his swashbucling garb. That was one of my favorite story lines and moved Blue high up on my favorite list of characters.

[Joel Anthony]

I am really glad to hear that.

Until recently I had been reading the trades and now have to wait a whole month for more fables!
I feel like a junkie going throgh withdrawels. ( jack of Fables Helps me make it a the month).

any recomendations for some good titles?

I suffered that same thing when I started the series. The shakes go away eventually, but then you do silly things like burn your entire lunch hour to go grab the most recent issue like I'm about to do. ;-)