Fables Covers by James Jean

Yesterday I managed to finally get a copy of Fables Covers by James Jean – something I’ve wanted for a long time!  It’s a hardback art book published by Vertigo collecting Jean’s first seventy-five covers for the award-winning Fables comic series and eleven wrapraround covers for the collected editions.  Besides the covers it also features preliminary sketches, some comments by the artist, and an afterword by Bill Willingham, the writer of Fables.

It’s a gorgeously designed and produced book and Jean’s covers are simply striking.  The artwork is beautifully reproduced and looks even better than on the original comics.  I’ve been reading the Fables comics for a while now and besides being captivated by the storylines and characters I’ve been entranced by Jean’s covers which always manage to encapsulate the stories and capture the feel of the series perfectly.  These Fable covers are possibly my favourite covers for a comic series by a single artist since Dave McKean’s covers for the Sandman series – also published by Vertigo.  You can see more of James Jean’s work at his website.

I would also recommend reading the Fables comics themselves.  They follow the lives and adventures of various characters derived from fairy tales and folklore, putting a twist on these well-known characters from childhood and showing them in a different light, which can in turns be amusing and shocking but always entertaining.