Fables #79

This haunting issue of Vertigo's long-running Fables series arrives in early 2009 as part of "The Dark Ages" story arc, and James Jean's cover sets an elegiac, dreamlike tone — a tall, ethereal woman in dark robes dominates the composition, while a grieving older man and a veiled younger woman are visible behind a gauzy curtain, surrounded by scattered roses and shadowy floral detail. The muted, luminous palette and Art Nouveau-inflected figures give the image an almost funerary solemnity that feels entirely fitting for a chapter titled "Fabletown Unbound." With Willingham, Buckingham, Gross, and Pepoy on the interior, this is Fables at its most atmospheric.