You know about the trickster character in literature? Most quickly recognized

are probably the Coyote of Amerindian lore, and the Monkey King of Asian tales,

and perhaps Anansi the Spider, from African folklore.

Now we've Jack. He's every Jack (or John) of every fairy tale: he climbed the

beanstalk, he's been nimble, he's been quick--Jack's jumped over the

candlestick...he and Jill climbed up the hill... and so on.

His supporting cast includes the (ahem) Pathetic Fallacy (a literary term,

here-to-fore) who gets inanimate objects to do his bidding; a "hot librarian";

and the villain, Revise, who, well, seeks to 1., eliminate Jack, and 2., retcon

all myth and fairytale.

Where Fables, from whence sprang Jack, deals more largely with fable creatures

at large, and their internal war for homeland, Jack of Fables sets Jack, one

fable at large, in the (ahem, again) Real World.

It's smart, it's smarmy (sometimes), it's loverly drawn: the adventures of a

lovably bad guy.

Try two or three issues in a row.

Matt

I agree. Fables was one of the greatest discovers I made last summer. I devoured all the trades. I do have the first trade of Jack and the issues since but I have to admit I haven't read them all yet. I just need more time to catch up. It is great stuff. I feel it's a shame that more people here don't talk about Jack or Fables.

Jack's a huge pain in the ass. But he does have SOME good qualities. The likable jerk. I mostly bought the series once Babe got funnyXD. I just love her or is Babe a him?oO

I just got into Fables, and I actually liked the Jack of Fables-spinoff better than Fables itself just because I loved Jack so much. Like Fables, Jack's series was a hit-and-miss for me as far as plot material was concerned, but Jack himself is such a fun character that I could easily ignore all of the flaws of the series. There's just something utterly lovable about his naive arrogance and complete lack of self-criticism. I just love trickster characters like him.

^ This is easily one of my favourite Jack moments. I also loved him in the Fables/JoF-crossover, where he's just being a total tactless jerk for no apparent reason while Rose Red is crushed with grief and depression and everyone else is busy with trying to stop the end of the world. He was just so hilariously selfish in that story arc :´-D

I hope Jack returns to comics someday.