Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The legend behind the Fables of The Farm and those displaced from both their natural worlds and Bullfinch Street in New York might end up relying upon the actions of two of the great witches that reside on the side of the greater community. For in Frau Totenkinder and the young but powerful Ozma, all the fighting for survival so far has been one in which their true selves have managed to keep out of the limelight, all that now is over and the real war begins.
Whilst Frau Totenkinder has played a huge part in Bill Willingham’s Fables so far, the first appearance of Ozma is to be celebrated and not least for the fact that it might take readers off into a different world than what they perceive and into the realms of the Land of Oz and arguably the best character after Dorothy, the last line of the fairies and destined to be Queen, Ozma.
It is Bill Willingham’s great skill as a writer, never mind the superbly envisaged artwork that accompanies the series, that captures the imagination at its fullest and in the addition of Ozma and the heroic story of Bufkin’s crusade against the escaped Baba Yaga, the 14th in the series of graphic novels Witches lives very much up to its well deserved and fulsome praise.
The over whelming sense of sorcery is one that fills the pages with neat transition throughout and the dynamic tussle for leadership, both in the Farm community and within the Witches’ enclave, is to be admired as Mr. Willingham’s foresight makes the mirroring of both elements a desired pleasure of reading.
In Ozma though, the boy who became a girl and the most powerful being in Oz, the bountiful nature of sorcery and witchcraft, of the abilities beyond human nature and unseen by all but the clearest sighted in Fable Town is a reflection of the smoke and mirrors produced by all in modern society, the unseen workings that shape the lives of the ordinary through their lofty positions in corporations and the so called greater good who ultimately have more power than sense.
It is too Bill Willingham’s great sense of artistic endeavour that such a story can be produced and one that the moral high ground becomes blurred and sent deep into the mist that grows ever thicker in the Fables world.
A graphic novel of great urgency, of towering perspective and an introduction to a character, which goes beyond the calling of a friend of Dorothy’s.
Fables: Witches is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall