This is topic Anyone here reading "The Dark Age" arc of Fables? in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
I recall there are a few other fans of Bill Willingham's Fables Vertigo series here.

What are your thoughts on The Dark Age so far?

Not to spoil anything, but it looks like those readers who thought The Good Prince and War and Pieces were full of too-easy victories and too-happy endings spoke a tad soon, eh?

Mister Dark is certainly shaping up to be a fantastic new Big Bad. I'm wondering if I'm supposed to recognize him, or if he's a brand new creation.

Really, really worried about Boy Blue...
 

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Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
 
I'm enjoying it, but I can't help wondering if it's gone too far in the other direction. The loss of Fabletown opens up some story possibilities, but it also severely restricts some others.
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
It certainly makes me wonder on what the outcome of the Fables/Jack of Fables crossover will be.
 

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Posted by Nato (Member # 1448) on :
 
Posting in support of this thread, although I am only just getting into the very beginning of Fables--only about 4 issues in.
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
Great Scott, man! We're seventy-six issues ahead of you! Forget everything you read in this thread. NOW.
 

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Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
 
It's weird to me to think that Fables has now outlasted Sandman.
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
So many online reviewers seemed convinced "War and Pieces" -was- the last Fables storyline. That may be why Willingham wrote the text piece to stick around for the next seventy-five issues.

Darn it, now I'm having flashbacks to the part of "Brief Lives" where Dream slew Orpheus...how depressing it was, once I realized Gaiman truly was going to wrap it all up.
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
Here's something cool: An unpublished sketch by Bill Willingham of Peter Pan as the Adversary.

Of course, since the Peter Pan characters were not available, Bill ended up choosing a much, much different character for the true identity of the original Big Bad.

Still, it's a nice-lookin' sketch.
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
Re: Issue #81


Willingham! You JERK!

*puff-pant-gasp*

Well. Now, I feel better.

Most appropriately titled Fables arc yet.
 

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Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
 

quote:

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Of course, since the Peter Pan characters were not available

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I don't understand this. Peter Pan is public domain....isn't it??
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
Depends on which country you're talking about. The Great Ormond Street Hospital owns the copyright to the original Peter Pan play and claims that it won't enter public domain in the United States until 2023. Not that there aren't those who claim otherwise, but they have money and resources Willingham doesn't.

Willingham decided to skip any potential trouble and choose a different character.
 

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Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
 
Here's my understanding. Correct me if I'm wrong. Peter Pan was published in 1904? So it would have been public domain in 1979. They didn't extend copyright beyond 75 years until 1999(?), if memory serves, due to Disney being made of pure evil. By that time it would have already been in the public domain for 20 years. How can they make the argument that it won't be public domain until 2023? What's that based on?
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
The copyright for Peter Pan expired in 1987, 50 years after J.M. Barrie's death. However, the U.K. government determined that the hospital (which had been willed the rights by the author) had a perpetual right to claim royalties on the work. In the mid-90s, a change in European law allowed them to renew the copyright to the author's life plus seventy years, making the new expiration date 2007.

However, they claim that since the play has a publication date some 17 years after the novel, that it remains protected until 2023.
 

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Posted by plaid (Member # 2393) on :
 
Just read The Good Prince; that WAS way too easy.

On a random note, there's an unsettling bit in that one where some of the Fables are going to Sniper School and they get lectured on where's the best place to shoot someone in the head. Um, thanks, why'd Willingham want to include that??
 

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Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
 
BTW, I'm amused to see Willingham combine the boogeyman and the Tooth Fairy in almost exactly the same way Pratchett did, to extremely different ends.
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by plaid:
why'd Willingham want to include that??

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I would suppose just another detail to add authenticity to the story, though you could go to his message board over at ClockWork StoryBook.net and ask him.

(Really though, the series so far has been chock full of violence and murder, much of it deliberately disturbing. Just like the old fairy tales.)
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by TomDavidson:
BTW, I'm amused to see Willingham combine the boogeyman and the Tooth Fairy in almost exactly the same way Pratchett did, to extremely different ends.

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