Jack of Fables isn’t the sexiest book on the stands. A spin-off from a series with a devoted following and a huge amount of critical indifference, it’s wandering its own way, and doesn’t seem particularly bothered by anything.
It ditched the main character altogether a while back and started following somebody else because he looked a bit more interesting. It’s got solid, competent artwork that doesn’t bother with any flash tricks and writers who produce some of the most mediocre superhero comics ever created.
And yet, I do genuinely enjoy the comic, and look forward to reading it every month. It’s just a bit weird how I barely re-read them. I’ve read each issue of The Boys six or seven times, looking for new resonances, but the latest Jack of Fables just goes into the box with all the other Jack of Fables.
But I don’t throw them out, or give them away, or sell them. Because I might read them again sometime and will undoubtedly enjoy the experience. After all, it’s charming and modest and silly and clean and sometimes a bit exciting. It’s still the most free-wheeling comic around, going off in any old direction that looks interesting, an approach that is lots of fun and sometimes funny. This freedom to ditch characters, or switch them around, or go anywhere means that every issue is enjoyable, even though I always forget what happened in it half an hour later,
It might sound like a back-handed compliment to call Tony Akins and Russ Braun’s art solid and competent, but competency is a goddamn virtue these days and there work has always been pleasantly clean. While it is a little unadventurous, this compliments the bizarre twists and turns that the plot takes.
This ruthless desire to take every narrative zig-zag the plot throws up and present it with an absolutely straight face can also been seen in the Bolland covers. The covers are especially notable because they’re some of the artist’s best work in years, and all he does is show a scene from the comic in its most literal form. The results are frequently bizarre, Bolland’s art serving as the perfect straight man to the silliness inside. The craziness of the plot still seems perfectly reasonable under Bolland’s unwavering line.
The plots that fill Jack of Fables are crazy, and do go off wherever the hell they feel like, and while this means there is a wonderful amount of unpredictability, it also means it can often feel immaterial or unimportant. The most recent run of the series has been particularly forgettable, with the current title character off having the usual fantastical adventures, while the original Jack sits in a cave after turning into a dragon.
The new Jack has been pleasingly proactive in his adventures, and it has been marginally exciting to see him swinging a magic sword around, but it also leaves the comic feeling like it has been treading water for some time. Fortunately, with a big, convenient #50 coming up, everything is starting to pull together. The jarring cliffhanger of the most recent issue was a terrific switch between cute Jack Dragon And Gary funny pages and a final page reveal of the dirtier, grungier and nastier reality.
Jack Horner, who cart-wheeled through the pages of Fables and his current title, is now a vicious monster to be put down, and his son is on the way with a bloody big sword, having squeezed in a lifetime’s worth of adventures between the panels.
It could go anywhere. Although the foreshadowing that surrounds New Jack makes it fairly unlikely that he will come out in one piece, either of the Jacks could see their story end. There are no guarantees.
And that’s why I enjoy it more than anything else. It’s a comic that takes place in real time, with a typically charming supporting cast of Fables. I keep thinking I should get sick of the little blue bull joke, but I never do, and the comic has taken metafictional machinations to appropriately absurd limits before dialing it right back, while still getting in a couple of good in-jokes about that.
But it’s mainly because I still enjoy reading a story that could go anywhere, where anything could happen. One that knows the rules of narrative fiction, so it’s allowed to blithely ignore them and do whatever it feels like. That’s why I get it every month.
And because it does have a sense of humour - Comics, including superheroes, can take themselves too damn seriously, and it’s sadly refreshing to see one go about its business with a grin on its face. Especially when it’s a Vertigo title. The worst comics from the imprint were all guilty of absolute seriousness, and it's something that this comic side-steps completely.
Jack of Fables is just silly sometimes, and sometimes it gets quite dark, but it never takes itself too seriously. Just like real life, the comic can be horrible and absurd and it’s no use crying over it.
You’ve got to laugh.
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