Fables #91

This fifth and final chapter of the "Witches" arc arrives wrapped in one of Fables' most quietly unsettling covers — Joao Ruas renders an ancient, gnarled tree whose twisted trunk and bare branches resolve, almost imperceptibly, into the weathered face and long white beard of Geppetto, his pale eyes staring out from the bark like something half-remembered from a dark dream. The muted, washed palette of grey and sage gives the image a haunting, fairy-tale melancholy perfectly suited to Vertigo's mature-readers sensibility. With Willingham, Buckingham, Leialoha, and Green bringing the story to its conclusion, this February 2010 issue promises a fitting end to one of the series' most atmospheric arcs.