Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham, et al

Finally! A Fables book I can talk about with no fear of spoilers! And the reason why I can is because 1001 Nights of Snowfall is a prequel: it collects ten stories that take place long before the events in the series. This is how the stories are framed: In the early days of Fabletown, Snow White is sent as an envoy to see the Sultan of the Arabian fables. However, the Sultan isn’t pleased that the envoy is a woman, and he holds her hostage. Like Scheherazade in the original One Thousand and One Nights, Snow saves herself by telling the Sultan stories – stories that make him spare her life so that he may find out how they end.

The stories she tells feature most of the series’ most popular characters. There’s one about the early days of her marriage to Prince Charming, “The Fencing Lessons”, whose implications are chilling. Our Snow has gone through much worse things than we could have imagined in her youth, and they have nothing to do with the feckless Prince. It also suggests another possible reason for the end of their marriage. I think I’ve said this before, but I really like how Prince Charming developed throughout the series. He never ceases to be a jerk, but he turns out to be a much more interesting jerk than he seemed to at first.

Flycatcher’s story, “A Frog's Eye View”, is the saddest of them all. It’s about what happened to Flycatcher’s family when the Adversary’s army invaded, and it made me all teary-eyed. For those new to Fables, Fly is the Frog Prince of stories, and the whole turning into a frog thing plays a crucial role in what happens.

“Diaspora” is about how Snow White and Rose Red meet and save Frau Totenkinder when leaving for the mundy world, and also about the famous witches’ life story. Frau Totenkinder is the witch of Hansel & Gretel, and also of every other fairy tale featuring a nameless evil witch. The source of her power is unambiguously revealed at last, and it’s not very surprising – her name is Totenkinder, after all. She’s certainly an ambiguous and very interesting character, and I have a feeling she’ll have a big role to play in the series’ future direction.

These three stories were my favourites, but I really loved them all. Also, when it comes to the art, this is my favourite Fables book by far. The list of illustrators includes almost all my favourite comics artists: Charles Vess, John Bolton, Jill Thompson, James Jean, Tara McPherson, Mark Buckingham, and others. It really is a stunning book. From “The Fencing Lessons”, illustrated by John Bolton:


Art by Charles Vess:


From “Diaspora”, illustrated by Tara McPherson:
A collage with a bit of art from each story:


And now the question you might be asking yourself: is 1001 Nights of Snowfall accessible to those who are new to Fables? I would say that yes, it is. It’s a prequel, so it won’t spoil anything for you, and it will give you a good idea of what to expect from the Fables universe. On the other hand, you’ll probably get more out of it if you already know the characters, if you’re aware of their relationships, if you know the future consequences of each of the episodes shown in this book. But then again, reading this first will also make things more interesting for you when you get to the series proper. So I think both this and Legends in Exile would work as starting places.

Other Opinions:

Books of Mee
Fyrefly’s Book Blog
Everyday Reads
Tripping Towards Lucidity
Libri Touches

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