Fables #106

Two small children — a girl in a dress and a boy in a t-shirt and jeans — stand with their backs to us, gazing out across a field scattered with broken tombstones and debris, bathed in an unsettling red haze. Joao Ruas's cover art carries a quiet melancholy that feels more like a children's fairy tale gone wrong than straightforward superhero fare, which fits perfectly with Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham's long-running Vertigo series. Issue #106, "Downfall: Chapter Five of Super Team," promises the kind of thoughtful, emotionally resonant storytelling that has kept Fables essential reading throughout 2011.