>>80797495
because fairytales as a genre is almost exclusively marketed toward women. disney basically ensured that entire generations of young girls grow up with fairytales, especially those involving princesses. Fables and Once Upon a Time and others only build upon what Disney began in the lives of young girls.

>>80797495
>I'm not judging
You better not be. Fables was fantastic.

Mostly.

YOU'RE MY BOY BLUE ;_;

Jesus, I hate Fables. Not even meming. What an awful fucking mess of a comic.

The Wolf Among Us did everything it tried to do but better, so thank God it gave us that much at least.

I like the very first story arc, with bigby trying to find rose red. Everything after issue 5 was complete and utter garbage, interlaced with some interesting concepts, but mostly just complete shit

>>80797724
Why? It was funny and unique and it was the first of its kind.

>>80798038
That doesn't make it good and it wasn't. Especially the whole unsolicited opinion of Israel.

>>80797495
>I remember reading somewhere that Fables sells like gangbusters with female readers
That's really not surprising though with half the cast being female and the whole romance plot with snow and bigby

>>80798086
>Especially the whole unsolicited opinion of Israel.
It was a whole one page and it was never mentioned again

>>80798038
>a comic where Goldilocks is a communist who fucks Baby Bear on the side
>funny

I feel like I'm being baited but what the hell.

Fables doesn't know what kind of comic it wants to be. Is it a comedy that makes fun of fairy tale tropes? Is it an epic fantasy story that puts a darker spin on fairy tales? Is it a political satire that uses fairy tales as stand-ins for real world issues? Its tone is all over the place and it makes for some really weird discrepancies. There are parts like the Goldilocks shit that's so weird try hard that there's no way it could be anything but a joke, but it's taken absolutely seriously like you're expected to look at it as something of grave importance. The "jokes" aren't funny and the "serious" parts are so edgy and tryhard that they're hilarious. It's all over the place.

The characters are irritating, too. Bigby and Snow's hideous mutant kids have the roles and complexity of furniture. There are only two or three of them that have any real importance, so it makes no sense why they didn't just write those ones into the story and instead focused on seven or whatever the weird amount was if they didn't plan on using them for anything. Everyone in Fabletown is sort of an asshole too (except for, again, like one or two characters) so there's no real investment to their cause.

It's not a bad concept, not at all. Like I said, I loved The Wolf Among Us; that proved the premise could work in the hands of other writers. If this had been a Neil Gaiman story, it would've been incredible and thought provoking. But it isn't, it's written by Bill Willingham who I'm convinced by this point is a hack who destroys everything he and his staff touch. Go play TWAU then read the tie-in comic the Fables staff wrote and you'll see the difference immediately.

>>80798197
Not the guy you're taking to but I read it as the writer being weirdly childish.

It's like, depending on your personal views, the fable town community can either be an analogy for Israel or Palestine. But then gillingham was like "Fuck that, people will read this the way I want them to read it"

which kind of just poisons it.

>>80797687
>Fables was fantastic.

it was great until the darkman arc. then it got silly and then it got bad

>>80798197
>It was a whole one page and it was never mentioned again

the whole kingdom of Heaven was an allegory for israel, the writer admitted it later

>>80798257
almost all of bigby's kids got some char development. however they were not the focus of the comic for most of its run

>>80798273
>Not the guy you're taking to but I read it as the writer being weirdly childish.
Writers and artists express their opinions in their works all the time, theirs nothing really childish about it, you may not agree with his opinion and it may have been a bit heavy handed but it wasn't childish and after that bit it was never even mentioned again but somehow its the most harked on part of the comic.

>>80798197
The Israel speech is only one part of the ridiculous political grandstanding. There are other weird parts that stick out like a sore thumb because it's apparent it's Willingham writing his political views into the story. The part with Snow talking about the potential for an abortion with her doctor after she gets pregnant comes to mind immediately, but I know for a fact that there are others.

>>80798332
he does it 50 issues in as if it was a knee jerk reaction to respond to the people who were like "hey this works as an analogy for Israel and Palestine"

>>80798328
>however they were not the focus of the comic for most of its run

Which is why I wonder why they were even introduced to begin with, especially when there were so many of them. They could've accomplished the same effect with only one or two; hell, two probably would've been more appropriate because it could've had potential for parallels between Snow and Rose's relationship.

The story was already incredibly bloated with characters as it was. The kids served no purpose. They were pointless, ugly monstrosities, and the moment they flew out of Snow's vagina was the moment I realized that would probably be the most memorable they'd get.

>>80798257
>Fables doesn't know what kind of comic it wants to be. Is it a comedy that makes fun of fairy tale tropes? Is it an epic fantasy story that puts a darker spin on fairy tales? Is it a political satire that uses fairy tales as stand-ins for real world issues? Its tone is all over the place and it makes for some really weird discrepancies. There are parts like the Goldilocks shit that's so weird try hard that there's no way it could be anything but a joke, but it's taken absolutely seriously like you're expected to look at it as something of grave importance. The "jokes" aren't funny and the "serious" parts are so edgy and tryhard that they're hilarious. It's all over the place.

I disagree. If you tried reading it like it was Sandman, then thats your problem; but the comic was always tongue-in-cheek and and a thinly veiled parody of superhero genres with Bill's own political commentary inserted all over

I don't know. I don't really care for them.

>>80797687
Boy Blue was GOAT

>>80798422

The represented a gradient of "fables", from 100% monster-like (Ghost) to 100% human-like and even an abstract (Winter)

And they had pretty memorable arcs, like the fisher king one.

>>80798456
>a thinly veiled parody of superhero genres with Bill's own political commentary inserted all over

Yes, because the pro-life/abortion debate has so much meaning to an obese forty-something neckbeard writer.

I didn't read it expecting Sandman or Constantine or whatever. I read it expecting a darker, modern take on fairy tales with occasional black humor. It must have done something right because a ton of people like it for whatever reason, but for me, I couldn't get into it because the humor was obnoxious, the characters were unlikable, and the tone was all over the place.

>>80798328
>it was great until the darkman arc. then it got silly and then it got bad

I don't think Willingham knew how to end it - there were so many loose ends across all the Fables books. I don't think it should have ended really - he should've just moved on and let other people take it places.

Maybe I'm biased. I loved those characters more than I should have.

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>>80798691
It's still hard to read this.

>>80798691
>I don't think Willingham knew how to end it

At some point near the end, it seemed like he was purposefully trying to anger readers.
I haven't read the last few issues and i want to.

>>80798735
That was the last good story

>>80798764
>At some point near the end, it seemed like he was purposefully trying to anger readers.
>I haven't read the last few issues and i want to.

It answered nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Part of me still believes it's just an unofficial hiatus.

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>>80797495
Not sure, it just a strikes a chord with me. From a young age girls are just indoctrinated to be interested in fairytales and princesses.

Once Upon a Time is too awful even for me to watch though.

Fairy Tales ™
are familiar
are timeless/relevant
are emotional
have prominent female characters
are in many media from film to novels to cartoons to toys
have toys
are culturally broad based
have stories designed to be related to by both genders
have stories that are culturally transferable to new countries etc