Around about page six of the upcoming issue of Fairest, both the flashback, and the magic kick in. No surprise there, the flashback is deeply tied to the magic of this issue.
You’d part the way expect to find a black cat walk across the background of the scene, while Cinderella (Cindy) and Marcel Champagne are aboard the boat. There’s a definite air of superstition and magic aboard. But of course, any cat would threaten Marcel’s rodent-affinity. So a clear signal of the mystery and magic of the oceans in the form of a black cat aboard a ship might be a bridge too far.
Not that the scene is light on the magic inherent in genre. Like all Fables scenes this one this story weaves together the structure of ages-old fairy stories with the kind of pulp directives that make these stories even more accessible for a modern audience.
But the real magic is something deeper, the kind of memory-mediated storytelling that emerges from a flashback-driven story. The kind of thing you’d find on an episode of True Detective. Turn the page and out of nowhere, you’re taken back to the moment where the last issue left off.
It’s a wonderful feeling, to return to comics’ pulp roots, with a kind of fairy-tale storytelling that’s even older.
Please enjoy our exclusive preview of Fairest #24.
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