Everafter: From the Pages of Fables‘ first story arc may have come to an end, but worry not as this done in one tale reveals a different kind of fable. Can Dave Justus, Lilah Sturges and Steve Rolston make this fairy fly true, or is it a dud?
Everafter: From the Pages of Fables #6 (Vertigo Comics)
So what’s it about? The summary reads:
Experience the dawn of the Everaftering through the eyes of the legendary magician, The Amazing Szymon! At a crisis point in his tired career, the Amazing Szymon is on the verge of throwing it all away when his tricks of the trade are suddenly revitalized by real and inexplicable magic. After Feathertop intervenes with a promise to guide this new Fable in exchange for his service with the Shadow Players, Szymon’s mission to rescue a Mundy pop star from a distant goblin realm reveals sinister underpinnings.
Why does this book matter?
Spinning out of the highly acclaimed series Fables, the creative team is giving us a taste of a world that’s well aware fables exist. That makes for a different kind of story, especially with its espionage twist.
Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?
Did you know that though?
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this issue, but was pleasantly surprised by the time it was all said and done. Justus and Sturges craft a unique sort of story as we meet a magician who is a total hack. That is, until he suddenly begins to do real magic with no trouble at all. The story weaves in the early days of Feathertop and his creation of the special ops team which allows the viewer to see another side of the character. For all intents and purposes this is an origin story as we meet Nowak, partake in his adventure as blindly as he is, and see it come to an end in the now. It comes together wonderfully and there’s plenty of fun bits of humor and expectation bending moments.
The art by Steve Rolston with colors by Michael Wiggam has a nice cartoony vibe that gives the story a sense of innocence. I’m a sucker for this style when gore and nudity is involved as it has a direct effect on your expectations. Fun details mount up which help convey a sense of world (like mushrooms growing in a rock or spiders crawling along the edges of a panel). Characters in general look good, with a certain bulbous villain coming off hilariously well due to his Jabba the Hutt qualities.
It can’t be perfect can it?
The story starts off rather slow with much of Nowak’s beginnings uninteresting and easy to guess. His love of magic in childhood never plays much in the latter half of the story, which makes it feel rather pointless given the two pages devoted to it. There’s a clever bit of writing going on, but the character of Nowak is less than interesting.
Humble beginnings.
Is It Good?
Aside from a protagonist you’ll care very little about, the story is clever and weaves well into the Everafter story.
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