In 2002, Vertigo/DC Comics published the first issue of Bill Willingham's Fables. The series imagined the lives of fairly tale figures-Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, Cinderella and the ubiquitous Prince Charming, among many others-as they made new lives for themselves in modern-day New York City, having fled their storied homeworlds following an invasion. After 150 issues and many awards, Fables concluded its run in July 2015. This collection of new essays is the first study of the sprawling and complex series. The contributors discuss such topics as Fables' status as a contemporary adaptation of folk and fairy tales; its use of conventional genres like sword-and-sorcery, crime and romance; its portrayal of social and political relationships; and its self-referential moments. Providing a detailed introduction to the various themes and ideas in the series, this book explores how Fables portrays redemption and the function of community, and how our hopes and fears influence our ideal of ""happily ever after.

Catching the Torch examines contemporary novels and plays written about Canada's participation in World War I. Exploring such works as Jane Urquhart's The Underpainter and The Stone Carvers, Jack Hodgins's Broken Ground, Kevin Kerr's Unity (1918), Stephen Massicotte's Mary's Wedding, and Frances Itani's Deafening, the book considers how writers have dealt with the compelling myth that the Canadian nation was born in the trenches of the Great War.In contrast to British and European remembrances of WWI, which tend to regard it as a cataclysmic destroyer of innocence, or Australian myths that promote an ideal of outsize masculinity, physical bravery, and white superiority, contemporary Canadian texts conjure up notions of distinctively Canadian values: tolerance of ethnic difference, the ability to do one's duty without complaint or arrogance, and the inclination to show moral as well as physical courage. Paradoxically, Canadians are shown to decry the horrors of war while making use of its productive cultural effects. Through a close analysis of the way sacrifice, service, and the commemoration of war are represented in these literary works, Catching the Torch argues that iterations of a secure mythic notion of national identity, one that is articulated via the representation of straightforward civic and military participation, work to counter current anxieties about the stability of the nation-state, in particular anxieties about the failure of the ideal of a national ""character.