I’ve been enjoying the first few Fables volumes, but skipped ahead to the latest because it is one of the Hugo nominees for Best Graphic Story. It is rather fun: starts with a vignette of the relationship between Little Boy Blue and Rose Red, then Cinderella’s daring rescue of Pinocchio, then most of it is the war between the good guys led by Prince Charming (using machine guns and bombs) and the bad guys led by their mastermind Geppetto (who restrict themselves to magic, and therefore lose). I did feel a lack of moral ambiguity on either side – the good guys are all good, the bad guys all committed to their cause; I suppose it is a fairy tale, but Willingham’s interpretation of the characters is so sophisticated in other ways that I was disappointed in this respect. (I know that Rose Red at least has a more ambiguous past, in one of the previous volumes, but there’s no mention of that here.)

I’m glad, as I said before, that this Hugo category has been introduced for this year, and I hope it returns.