Fables #12

Fables #12 kicks off a new storyline in June 2003 with a cover by James Jean that immediately sets a noir-drenched, dangerous tone — a trio of armed, masked figures loom in the upper half, guns drawn and menace radiating off every line, while below them a fedora-wearing man cradles an unconscious or wounded blonde woman in his arms. The split composition pulls double duty, suggesting both cold street-level threat and something more tender and desperate in the same image. Bill Willingham, Lan Medina, and Craig Hamilton bring "A Sharp Operation" to Fabletown, and Jean's cover promises the kind of stylish, grown-up fairy-tale noir that made Vertigo's mature-readers label feel genuinely earned.