I feel like reviewing each issue as I go, so take that, reader. 
 Fables: Chapter #1 -- "Old Tales Revisited":There are times when everything is stacked against a work. For me, that time comes most often when everyone and everything is telling me that I should and will adore the work in question. Fables is my case in point. It is a multi-award winning, literature based satire/allegory that multiple reviewers, whom I trust, and friends have recommended, but Fables cannot survive that weight (at least not in this first chapter). I finished "Old Tales Revisited" baffled by the fuss. I found it not at all original (I know, I know, how can it be when it is playing with fairy tales? But "Fractured Fairy Tales" from Bullwinkle and Rocky were original, so it is possible), not at all entertaining, and not at all worth my time. Thus, I will, of course, be continuing with the next issue right away (probably tonight).Fables: Chapter #2 -- "The (Un)Usual Suspect":So the investigation has begun and Bigby, the humanized Big Bad Wolf, is being fleshed out as a character. We see him hanging out with an embittered Pig of the Three Little Pigs fame, and we get some dumb jokes about "ham & eggs," and that is precisely what this comic is shaping up to be so far: an excuse for dumb jokes and "fabulist" stupidity. It's off-putting, and it constantly pushes me out of the world. What Willingham most needed was a strong editor to cut through the crap because the mystery of Rose Red's murder (kidnapping?) could have been okay. Here's the other thing ... why is it that when a mash-up occurs from one genre to another it is always a mash-up with Mystery? I'm guessing because it is easy. But wouldn't it be more interesting, more unique, more worthy of praise to mash-Fables-up with something less used and abused? I think so. Finally, I am hating Snow White, and digging Prince Charming. Less of the former and more of the latter, please.Fables: Chapter #3 -- "Blood Tells":My real problem with this series is beginning to coalesce. It is not fully formed, and it could be overturned by future chapters, but my problem with Fables at the moment is that the modernized Fables aren't working for me. I am sure Bill Willingham thinks it's clever to put the Fables in the modern world, but why, I wonder, would the Fables have to fight their natures? Surely they could just be who they were in the past in the modern world, using the modern world to further their initial desires, to bring their fables and fairy tales into modernity. He flirts with that with one or two characters, but the bulk of the characters go against their nature, and it certainly seems that way with Bigby (the main character?) at the moment. Perhaps this has something to do with the Adversary, but I know nothing of him/her/it at the moment, and all I see are characters not staying true to their natures. It ain't working for me.Fables: Chapter #4 -- "Remembrance Day":The segregation of the human (or passably human) and the inhuman in this book pisses me off. Not only does it have the stink of that old stand-by of fantasy -- racism -- about it, but it is also lazy story telling. It doesn't have to be this way, and at this point not enough is being done to explain the segregation. All it does is raise questions for me. Why, for instance, must the Fables live in New York, or any big city for that matter? Why can't the inuman Fables in the New York Zoo, or within a self-contained, wizard enclosed (you know, like Bluebeard's castle in an apartmen), city positioned menagerie? No good answer for either of these questions, yet segregation is put forward as a necessity, and even the law. Is this intentional commentary? Or is this just something the author thought was clever without consideration of its potential subtext? I am leaning towards the latter. There's one more chance for Willingham to capture me as an ongoing audience member, but I won't be making any wagers in that direction.Fables: Chapter #5 -- "The Famous Parlor Room Scene (Sans Parlor)":I noticed this on the cover of my book last night before I read Chapter 5: "[Fables is] a top-notch fantasy comic that is on par with Sandman." ~~Variety. I say, "Fuck off!" to that. That's like saying My Little Pony is on par with Swamp Thing. Trust me. Variety is wrong (even if this series gets better).Fables: Supplemental #1 -- "A Wolf in the Fold":Perhaps there is more going on in Bill Willingham's brain than what makes it into the first Fables arc (which doesn't surprise me, but it may drive me further in the series). Included in this first volume is an origin story about the Wolf's importance in the escape from the Adversary and his long term love for Snow White. It's is much, much better than the graphic novel that preceded it, and I think if that had been the story proper I'd have loved the first shot of Fables rather than the annoyance I felt. Too bad this tale was only a background story. It's better than the story Willingham chose to tell.Fables: Shameless Advertising #1 -- "The Price of a Happy Ending":It's the first excerpt from another work in the greater Fables universe, wherein a fire breathing Raven talks a pair of Fables into some covert black ops in the war, black ops that will alleviate some of the necessary genoiced. It's tantalizing, certainly more interesting in these few pages than the first arc of the series proper, but I think Chris's statement in the comments is still a more compelling reason to continue.Fables: Shameless Advertisng #2 -- "Animal Farm":Hmmm ... this looks much more promising, and since it is the direct continuation of "Legends in Exile" I can actually see myself giving this a crack. I like that Willingham is addressing, to some extent, the disparity between the city dwellers and those on the farm. I am not sure that he is conscious of the racism yet, but I've a feeling he may be; if not conscious then it is depressingly present in a way that will kill the story for me entirely, but this bit of advertising may actually have worked for me.Fables: Shameless Advertising #3 -- "Fairest":So the ad for the comic focused on the Princesses begins with the Prince of Thieves sneaking through a camp of goblins to smoock a princess or two. Cool art. Don't care.