We’re a few minutes away from the Official West Coast Fables Panel kicking off and we’ll be liveblogging.
Get ready to hit refresh.
The West Coast Fables Panel has moved to ECCC from SDCC because Willingham is just tired of the crowds at San Diego.
Mark Buckingham is only going to the Fabletown and Beyond convention in Rochester, MN in a few weeks. Apparently, it hasn’t been promoted terribly well and Willingham is stumping for it.
He’s opening his own bar for the convention. Just for 3 days.
Sean Williams (who’s writing the third arc of Fairest): It’s a new character, Nalayani, a Fables character from India. It takes place in the present.
This arc will feature a Maharajah who has appeared in the background in Fables and will be a prominent character in the main book in the near future.
Barry Kitson, who’s done 3 pages of Fables in the past, has just finished Fairest #14. He’s just drawn his first naked woman for the book. He’ll also be drawing Fables #130, which will be called “Junebug.” This will foreshadow the next “really bad thing” scheduled for a couple years down the pike.
Willingham has three people from the audience singing Barry Kitson a “congratulations for drawing your first naked lady anthem” for a chance to win a free copy of the Werewolves of the Heartland GN. It’s… unique.
Jess Nevins will be writing a Fables Encyclopedia.
The Fairest in All The Land, OGN. The Magic Mirror decides to explain what his standards of beauty are, through a series of stories. It’s due out for Christmas.
There will be a Fables video game. Telltale Games will be at the Fabletown convention to talk about it, though.
Also at Fabletown, Shelly Bond will be reviewing artist portfolios. The best one gets to draw a Fables story.
Q&A
Three people will get guaranteed truthful answers. The rest… it might be true, but might be sarcastic.
Q: Where’s the cool bar at ECCC?
A: The Sheraton Fountain Bar is where the pros are hanging out.
Q: Are the image of the Blind Mice inspired by an old Walt Kelly comic?
A: He doesn’t know. Jill Thompson was the artist on that.
Q: Will he use Peter Pan?
A: Peter Pan isn’t in public domain in the UK because of its relationship to the children’s hospital. He’d wanted to use Peter Pan as The Adversary, but didn’t because of that. Peter Pan is now in public domain, but he doesn’t have a story right now and DC was nervous about being the first company to use Peter Pan.
Q: Which character under copyright would you like to work with?
A: The cast of Narnia. Tarzan is only partially in the public domain and thus problematic.
Q: Do you ever feel trapped by your own story on how to continue?
A: To continue? No. Trapped because he killed off a villain too soon? Yes.
Q: The event with the Unwritten is _not_ a reboot of the Fables universe?
A:No. “We’re not going to Stephanie Brown it. We might Jason Todd it a little.”
Q: What’s the draw to working with Bill?
A (Barry): Bill frees my artist soul. There aren’t that many comics he can’t wait to read and Bill writes one of the ones he does.
Q: When is Robin Hood showing up?
A: He’s dead. He died in the Last Castle. He might have something in mind.
Q: Who’s your favorite character to draw?
A: Sadowski – he gets to draw the first gay Fable, plus the Maharajah is fun. Kitson – Rose Red.
Buckingham based Rose Red on his wife.
Q: When are we going to see Bigby face Dracula?
A: I had no plans for that. There are probably too many vampires stories for him want to do it.
Q: Where did Fables start?
A: The first origin was Fractured Fables on Bullwinkle. His mother explained the concept of public domain characters to explain why the Bullwinkle fairytales were so different from the originals. Since he had been dropping fairy tale bits in his superhero stories, when he was at a low point in his career, he decided to pitch a full-on fairy tale series.
Q: What is the extent of mundy influence on Fable mortality? What’s the limit? (Could Prince Charming reconstitute himself after being blown up because he was popular.)
A: The theory is the more the mundy’s believe in/are aware of you, the more powerful you are. It does, but it’s not the only factor. For instance, Prince Charming was able to drag the bomb over while already been hurt enough for a normal person to die. It’s really about the creation of secondary belief, a Tolkein concept where you’re into the story enough to accept what’s happening.
Q: Will the Fabletown con include a day trip to Story City?
A: It’s a good idea that hadn’t occurred to him. He doesn’t think there’d be time with the schedule.
Q: Will the Literals or something like them return?
A: No. It would overbalance the story, so the story could only be done once.
Q: Any advice for a write to make her artists’ life easier.
A: Only put one action in each frames.
Try and encourage your artist to use their imagination.
Have a back and forth discussion about the art, especially if it’s a new artist.
Aaaaaaand we’re out.
