Vertigo's first prose novel spins out of 'Fables'

The world of “Fables” has spawned a first — the first prose novel published by Vertigo, DC Comics’ mature-reader imprint.

“Fables,” created by writer Bill Willingham, is a long-running comic book series. The premise is this: The characters from fairy tales, folklore and nursery rhymes are real and are alive today, many of them residing in a secretive New York community among us normal folks, or “mundanes.”

Those magical and apparently immortal characters — Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Goldilocks and so on — are actually from other worlds and came to Earth long ago.

“Peter & Max: A Fables Novel,” released this month by Vertigo, focuses on two such characters: Peter Piper — who does indeed pick a pickled pepper during the course of the story — and his brother, Max, who grows up to become the dastardly Pied Piper.

“It’s a story of sibling rivalry between the two brothers, and how that metastasizes inside Max to lead him down the truly dark path to make him turn into the evil character of the Pied Piper,” Willingham said.

The story spans centuries, from medieval times to today, and doesn’t require knowledge of the comic book series, Willingham assured. “If you’ve not read ‘Fables’ at all,” he said, “it’s no problem reading ‘Peter & Max.’"
Loyal “Fables” readers though, will be treated to appearances by some regular characters from the comic book,  including Red Rose and Bigby Wolf.

The book also contains several illustrations by Steve Leialoha, the inker on “Fables,” and an eight-page, black-and-white comic at the end.

Willingham, who says he had previously dabbled in prose fiction, wanted the challenge of writing a novel. And when he came up with the idea for the story in “Peter & Max,” he realized it was too complex for the comic.

So he decided to tackle it as a novel. As a courtesy, he said, he offered it to Vertigo, even though it doesn’t publish prose fiction. To his surprise, Vertigo snatched it up.

“Fables,” which launched in 2002, has also led to a graphic novel, a spinoff comic book series, a potential TV show and more.

“I thought ‘Fables,’ when I proposed it, was a pretty strong idea for a series,” Willingham said. But he added that he has been surprised by its success — and by the growing “Fables” empire.

Willingham is already looking ahead to the 100th issue of “Fables,” still about a year off. “It will be 100 pages long, so it’s going to be a pretty huge story.”

Meanwhile, he’s also the new writer on DC’s “Justice Society of America” and IDW’s “Angel.” So after traveling to various conventions around the world this year, he has told his editors and publishers that he’s staying put in 2010.

“I will stay home and write. I’ve got a lot of work to do — wonderful work, but it does require the hours of the day.”