Jack of Fables

Jack of Fables
Cover to issue #1 of Jack of Fables (September 2006). Art by James Jean.
Publication information
Publisher	Vertigo Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date(s)	July 2006 – March 2011
No. of issues	50
Main character(s)	Jack Horner "Gary" the Pathetic Fallacy Jack Frost
Creative team
Created by	Bill Willingham, Lilah Sturges (credited as "Matthew Sturges")
Written by	Bill Willingham and Lilah Sturges (credited as "Matthew Sturges")
Artist(s)	Tony Akins, Andrey Pepoy, James Jean, Brian Bolland
Collected editions
The (Nearly) Great Escape	ISBN
Jack of Hearts	ISBN
The Bad Prince	ISBN
Americana	ISBN
Turning Pages	ISBN
The Big Book of War	ISBN
The New Adventures of Jack and Jack	ISBN
The Fulminate Blade	ISBN
The End	ISBN

Jack of Fables is a spin-off comic book series of Fables written by Bill Willingham and Lilah Sturges (credited as "Matthew Sturges") and published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. The story focuses on the adventures of Jack Horner, a supporting character in the main series, that takes place after his exile from Fabletown in the story-arc Jack Be Nimble. The idea for the spin-off comic came after editor Shelly Bond suggested to put Jack in a separate comic when Willingham planned to write him out of the series.

While Jack of Fables focused on the eponymous Jack Horner, the spin-off also allowed Willingham and Sturges to expand upon the Fables Universe by adding new characters, settings, and anthropomorphic personifications of philosophical and literary ideals in the series. A preview of its first issue was shown in Fables #50, and the series itself debuted in July 2006. It ran for 50 issues from July 2006 to March 2011, and received positive reception from critics and fans alike during its release, though overtime would be criticized because of the main character's abhorrent sociopathy. In 2007, it was nominated for numerous Eisner Awards and won Best Lettering for Todd Klein and Best Cover Artist for James Jean. The series has since been collected in ten trade paperbacks and one deluxe edition.

The decision to remove the character of Jack Horner from the series came when artist Mark Buckingham proposed to expand the Fables' logic of "popularity equals power". He and Willingham decided to use Jack in showing how a Fable might use this theory to further his/her own gain. This led to the two-part story arc entitled Jack Be Nimble where Jack managed created an action film trilogy of himself that elevated his popularity with the Mundies and increased his powers as well. This story arc was supposed to be the last time Jack Horner would appear in Fables, and Willingham initially wanted to write him off the series. However, editor Shelly Bond suggested that Horner be put in a separate comic instead, stating that she did this because she didn't want to lose her "favorite" character in the series.Jack of Fables was first previewed in Fables #50 before finally being released on July 2006. With the new series in publication, Willingham decided to use Jack of Fables in introducing other literary characters in the Fables mythos and to expand its universe to the Old West, the Folklore of the United States and to other elements as well. The new series also gave Willingham and Sturges more freedom in writing its universe than in the main series.