Peter and Max

Peter and Max, my Fables prose novel, is officially out today (though it was unofficially on sale from many stores -- such as the three that had it in Tel Aviv, while I was just there -- for a few days now).

Look at the front-of-the-store placement it's getting, just as if it was a real book from a real novelist.

Pretty cool, huh?

I think the cloth from his chest represents the attempt to draw all of the poisons out.

Fables 81 came out today. This concludes a story I knew I'd be doing for some years, but kept to myself for most of that time, even keeping it from the editor and the artists until they absolutely had to know.

        What a joy to be able to make long range plans for a story, a series, and the characters within it. For all of the fun of working inside the DCU fictional universe, I don't control that one, and those that do make so many changes, so often, usually on the fly, that long range planning for DCU comics series is almost a wasted effort, and always one fraught with frustration.

        Maybe it's just the way I tick, but my stories need time to grow and ferment, for some really big payoffs later. This issue of Fables contained one of those payoffs, the first seeds of which were planted way back in The Last Castle story.

        On a not entirely unrelated note, take a look at this gorgeous final cover from Fables' long time cover artist James Jean. In addition to its central theme, you can see bits and pieces of his entire run on the covers scattered here and there around the composition. Quite an impressive goodbye. We'll miss you, James, but will continue to follow your amazing work, and the complex and involving stories you continue to tell with it.

Have you seen this man?

If so, stay away. He's poison. This is another character you're likely to meet, if you kindly accept our invitation to read the Great Fables Crossover, coming soon. Once again, Reliable Russ Braun provided the visual design for this fellow, whom I will not identify. But if you've been reading Jack of Fables lately, you might be able to venture an educated guess.

Not a single shot fired this time.

Matt Sturges came into town for a three day mini writing camp. In that time we wrote two issues of the Great Fables Crossover, tweaked a few finishing touches into our first JSA issue, broke down our second JSA issue, and actually had a few hours for sleep and the odd meal or two.

        Not bad, considering that the last time Matt came into Las Vegas for a similar concentrated work retreat, we did anything but work. We hung out at Sunset and Vines -- a wine bar and restaurant that I own a modest piece of -- swilling good wine and dining on good food. We fired tommy guns, modern machine guns, silenced pistols, sniper rifles and various other implements of death and destruction at a local gun range (and mostly shot at one of their "pick your favorite villain" targets, with the image of a fellow that looked disturbingly -- or delightfully -- like DC Comics' own Dan Didio). Oh how we filled Dan full of holes! We played poker. We saw the sights. And even drove to LA for a day of signings and musings at the LA book fair. What we didn't do then is get a single bit of work done -- the planned reason for the visit.

        This time we did a bit better. The fellow pictured above is one of the characters you'll run across during the upcoming Great Fables Crossover. He's a Literal, and Russ Braun provided the visual design for him. That's all I'll say for now.

This Week's Fine Fellow is...

Jenette Kahn. She's had so many careers that, even limiting myself to those careers that were gloriously, unconditionally successful, I couldn't begin to list them all. So I'll confine myself to a few select areas wherein I've had direct interaction with her.

        Once upon a time Jenette ran DC Comics, as publisher and various other titles (if memory serves). She was still in that position (she'd announced her retirement by then, but wasn't quite out the door) when I first pitched Fables to DC/Vertigo. Jenette immediately made herself a champion of the series and is one of the those most directly responsible for the fact that DC accepted the series without too much fuss. So I owe Jenette.

        Following DC she set out for Hollywood to embark on another career. In partnership with Adam Richman (Hi, Adam), she formed Double Nickel Entertainment, becoming a big shot Hollywood mogul. Except that she's too nice. I haven't met too many big time Hollywood moguls, but they're supposed to be self-impressed spoiled, tantrum-throwing dictators, so I don't think Jenette is doing it right. She's much too generous, kind and interested in getting the most from the people she works with, actually treating them well in order to accomplish it.

        Almost as soon as her production company was formed, Jenette partnered up with Jim Henson Pictures in the first attempt to bring Fables to the big screen. That project didn't work out, for various reasons having nothing to do with Double Nickel or Lisa Henson, who's the boss of Jim Henson Pictures.

        If you want to see what Jenette and Double Nickel is able to bring to the big screen, go see the new (opening soon) Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino. That's a Double Nickel production. How cool is it that the first major release from the production company is already being talked about as a candidate for multiple Oscars next year? Way to go, Jenette.

        She doesn't remember (or claims not to recall) how we first met. In 1984 or perhaps '85, DC Comics held their annual Christmas party at a trendy New York spot called The Automat, designed after those ubiquitous automat restaurants that used to dot the city, back in the old black and white movie days. I wasn't working with DC back then, but I was working with Comico, doing a series called the Elementals. But DC and Comico had good relations at the time and so we were invited up from Philadelphia to join the party. It was snowing hard that evening and so those of us who took the train up from Philly were dressed for the weather. To be specific, I was wearing big, heavy ex-Army snow-stomper boots, which weren't the best shoes for the dance floor. Yes, I danced that night. It only happens when I'm supremely drunk and I was indeed truly blasted that night. At some point I was actually dancing with Jenette and, unknown to me, stomping all over her feet with my big old Army boots. I learned of this when Paul Levitz kindly and discretely escorted me off of the dance stage, sagely advising me that, "Perhaps it would be a good idea if you stayed off of the dance floor for the rest of the evening." That's right. Paul Levitz (Hi, Paul) banned me from dancing. It must have been a permanent thing, because I haven't danced since (and won't).

        One digression of note: At the same Christmas party, DC had hired two lovely young women whose job was to dance with reluctant employees and freelancers. One was dressed as Santa and the other dressed as one of Santa's elves. Later in the evening they switched to being dressed as a devil and angel. Throughout the evening, at several times, I noticed them literally dragging folks out onto the dance floor. That's right. Knowing they worked with people who were, to be kind, a bit more than socially inept, DC hired mercy dancers. One of the Comico folks from Philly, Dan Smeddy (the funniest human being who ever has and ever will exist) was scolded for hogging the (far too lovely to be real) mercy dancers all night. And he was indeed hogging them. By the end of the night he was the one literally having to drag them onto the dance floor. Later that night, after insisting I could make my way on foot to the train station (all of the other Comico people had left hours earlier) I blanked out for a bit and woke up in Chinatown, which is clear across town from the Automat or the train station, which was only a few short blocks away from the Automat. To this day I have no idea how I got there, or what I planned to do there.

        Anyway, back to Jenette. She graciously claims not to recall that I stomped all over her feet that night, until I had to be banned from the dance floor. Shortly after that DC stopped having public Christmas parties. Coincidence? I doubt it. But the very first time I came into the DC offices, following the beginning of the Fables series, Jenette was wearing a cast on one foot. Coincidence? I doubt it.

        But let's move on. Jenette Kahn is, for all of the reasons I've outlined above, and for many more reasons too numerous to list, a truly Fine Fellow.

What's going on with this crazy pen?

Well, you'll just have to pick up the Great Fables Crossover to find out. And what about the letters on each side of the pen? Same answer. When will the Great Fables Crossover take place? It starts early next year beginning with issue # 83 of Fables.

Fables on TV?

This deal has been in the works for some time and I've been asked to keep my yap shut about it for that time, which is fine with me, because, in my all too brief encounters with anything Hollywood, I've come to believe that nothing can actually get made in that town and so everything we see on the tube or in the movie houses are just one vast shared hallucination. I didn't expect anything to come of this latest deal to get Fables made into a TV series. That was going to happen a few times before and it was also going to be a major feature before but never got there. So, here I am perfectly content to keep silent about this latest "but this time I think it really might work out" foray into other media, comfortable within my enclave of skepticism, when all of a sudden, this morning in fact, the Hollywood Reporter has broken the news.

        So here's what we know: According to the report, a Fables pilot episode is likely to be made for possible pick-up by ABC as a TV series. Long time writing partners Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner are penning the pilot screenplay. That's them pictured above. Mr. Zicherman is on the left and Mr. Metzner is on the right. But this photo is at least two years old, so they may look different by now. David Semel (not pictured) will direct the pilot episode, which will be produced by Warner Bros. TV.

        Here's another thing I've learned: According to always dapper and pleasant Ivan Cohen at DC Comics, who is one of their fine young cadre of "let's get this funnybook made into a movie or a TV show" officials, they've received several passes on the first screenplay in the offices and, "This latest rewrite is marvelous."

        Here's my involvement: None. I had nothing to do with writing the pilot. I've not been consulted on the pilot. There have yet to be discussions on whether or not I'll be involved with the series.

        Now that the cat is officially out of the bag, I'll try to keep you updated as things move along -- or come grinding to a halt.

Peter Pan

Since it now looks as if it will be a long time coming before Peter Pan gets to join the cast of Fables -- if ever -- I decided I might as well finally share this character design drawing with you, since it won't likely ever see publication elsewhere. Some of you might recall seeing the character design sketches I did to accompany the original Fables proposal. They were published in the back of the second Fables collection. This depiction of Peter Pan as the Adversary was among them when I first submitted the proposal to DC/Vertigo. It depicts Peter as not only the Adversary, but as the Emperor too. Unlike Geppetto, Peter never would have been content with simply being the anonymous power behind the throne -- behind thousands of thrones.

        In showing Peter among select members of his corrupt and sybaritic court, I was trying for a hint of the look of a young Christopher Plummer, playing the evil emperor Commodus in the 1964 Fall of the Roman Empire (of which the hit movie Gladiator -- at least in the first third -- was nearly a shot-by-shot remake). Plummer captured and portrayed a truly creepy villain. Joaquin Phoenix, for all of his skills and talents, couldn't come close to Plummer's note-perfect portrayal of the same character. Then again, Richard Harris, giant of a man that he was, couldn't match Alec Guinness in the role of Marcus Aurelius. Gladiator had two strikes against it from the get go.

        But back to Peter: Actually, I'm not sure I have anything more to say about this subject or this sketch for now, so I guess I'll let you go early today.

Here's something interesting...

Since it looks likely this blog is shaking down to being a candid (meaning I admit my many blunders) examination of my career so far, you might want to take note of the following blog I found today, wherein someone else is doing much the same thing -- taking a detailed look at what is arguably the anchor-point of my current career.

        David Bird, residing in the truly lovely city of Victoria, British Columbia (which is just about as far west as one can get in Western Canada) is running an issue by issue examination of Fables on his blog. The articles are called, appropriately enough, Issue by Issue: Bill Willingham's Fables. Each separate article makes a fairly in-depth examination of a single issue of Fables, beginning with the first one.

        He started doing this just over a month ago and, by his own calculation, it will take him a good two years -- posting at the desired rate of one article per week -- to catch up to the current issue. As of his posting two days ago, he's up to the middle issue of the second story arc (Animal Farm).

        So far this looks to be a fair and insightful exploration of Fables. Bird's comments are mostly on point, his criticisms valid, and his questions helpful.

        You can find David Bird's blog at: david-bird.blogspot.com

        If I was at all handy with a computer I would have actually posted a link you can click on, but I'm not, so I didn't.

        Enjoy.