Reviewer: Andy Logan
Story Title: Jack Be Nimble, Part One
Written by: Bill Willingham
Art by: David Hahn
Colored by: Vozzo
Lettered by: Klein
Editor: Shelly Bond
Publisher: Vertigo > DC Comics
If, like me, you’ve been wondering exactly where Jack has been for the past few issues, this latest story arc puts a nice, fat, full stop on the question for us.
Jack’s character, as written in Fables, has always appealed to me; maybe it’s the darker, more rebllious streak in me, but I like the way Jack is a chancer, always keeping an eye out for an opportunity to make a quick buck or score an easy scam.
Unlike, say, Prince Charming, who thinks BIG with his carefully laid plots and plans, Jack has always been more small time, content to sucker the odd dupe here, the odd dupe there, and make a small pile of cash along the way.
In the first part of this two-part story however, Jack branches out, setting himself up in, of all places, Hollywood. Accompanied by the miniscule Jill – who Jack has helped escape from the Farm in return for her assistance – the dichotomy between the two is frank, funny and refreshing. Jill’s shortness of stature lends itself to several comic interactions as Jack continues to demonstrate his attitude that only he and his needs are important. Ultimately, everybody else is secondary.
Upon reaching Hollywood, with a truck load of stolen jewels, cash and gold, Jack sets himself up in business in a production studio, and sets about creating a trilogy of films based upon his own life story. Again, it’s in-keeping with what we know of the character already that he wants to commit his OWN life story to celluloid; his intention is to celebrate his achievements and nobody else’s.
Interestingly enough – especially when Jack talks us through what he envisages will take place in the third and final part of the trilogy – many of the events are complete, total and utter fabrications. According to his own testimony, Jack seduces just about every major female character in Fables AND kills Bigby Wolf in single combat. Ssssyeah riiiight….
The entire issue is a tribute to the shallow, vainglorious and, frankly, very warped self image that Jack has, deftly keeping in tune with the character’s base motives whilst still allowing enough natural charm and charisma to shine through so that we can’t help but like the ol’ schemer…at least on some level.
It’s also a superb satire and stab at both modern film making and the culture of celebrity. Jack, fearful of recriminations from Fable Town, invents an entirely new public persona for himself, complete with a new indentity that he hopes will stop any of his contemparies realising what he’s up to.
As part of this, he keeps a deliberately low profile, and allows a mystique to grow around him that soon brings the usual hangers on, desperate wannabes and attention seekers crawling from the woodwork. As a comment on our celebrity obssessed culture, where you can become famous simply by dent of being in the right place at the right time, often with no discernable talent (Nicole Ritchie, Paris Hilton, I’m looking at YOU) it’s spot on.
John Trick, as Jack calls himself, is simply a shadowy production studio head with no previous public profile at all, and yet, with the right PR and support, he is soon the hottest name on everyone’s lips in tinseltown. Not bad for a guy who doesn’t even exist.
I’m intrigued to see what the pay-off is for this story…can Jack get away with putting his life story up on the screen, make oodles of money and dissapear into the sunset? And is that even his intention? Is Jack in it to make money, or is he simply starting the process of breaking fully away from Fable Town and crafting a new life for himself in the big, wide, World?
A fun, interesting and different first part has created plenty of questions that need answering in what will, hopefully (and if previous form is anything to go by, it will) be a satisfying conclusion. Roll on next month.
