Graphic Novel Reviews: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, by Bill Willingham

1001 Nights of Snowfall, written by Bill Willingham and illustrated by various artists, is a collection of short stories which serve as a prequel to the comic book series Fables. These short stories, in comic book form, are framed by a prose story in which Snow White visits a Sultan in the Arabian fable lands. Here she gets mixed up in the 1001 Arabian Nights story, in which a sultan, fearing his wives' infidelity, marries a new bride each night and kills her in the morning. Snow White avoids death by telling him a new story each night, all of them fleshing out background information about the characters of Fables. adparams.getadspec('c_billboard1');

The first story, "The Fencing Lessons," begins to reveal some things about Snow White's history and what the story really was with the Seven Dwarves. As is par for the course in Fables, the twists are disturbing, but the character development becomes even more interesting. Prince Charming continues to grow more three-dimensional, while Snow White, it seems, has skeletons in her pre-Amnesty closet just like everyone else.

"The Christmas Pies" is an adorable and harmless story, one of Fables' few, wherein the talking animals of Fables escape through trickery. The next, "A Frogs-Eye View," begins sweetly but ends in tragedy as we discover the memories that Ambrose, the Frog Prince, has managed to repress.

"The Runt" is Bigby's backstory. Willingham pulls no punches; we've been told before what the Big Bad Wolf did pre-Amnesty, but here it is laid out in graphic detail. This and "The Witch's Tale," which explains Frau Totenkinder's backstory and how she gained her magical powers by sacrificing children, are the most interesting because of they demonstrate the series's moral ambiguity. The "villain" Fables, even though they've reformed, never have their actions excused or whitewashed with good intentions. They just simply exist.

"Fair Division" is a good ending for the graphic novel, telling the story of Old King Cole and the way he took care of the non-human Fables. And yet, perhaps it's too much of a feel-good story. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting to discover that, like the other Fables, King Cole must have some dark secrets.

Altogether, 1001 Nights of Snowfall is a very good collection. The writing is superb, and the choice to use different artists and art styles for each story, as well as the prose framing device makes it feel more storylike, a bit disconnected from the present-day Fables universe. It's not essential reading to understand the story of the main comics, but it's very much recommended.