I almost always read comics as trades. Sometimes comics fans will tell me that I should stop waiting for the TPB, because having a pull-list and going every week to the comic book shop is the best way to keep comic book shops in business, and that reading trades is the death of the Local Comics Shop.

But seriously, the biggest obstacle to reading comics for me is the average comic book shop. They smell like dirty attic and sweaty man. The books are often organized by the owner’s secret pattern, by the employee favorites, or by publisher, to make browsing difficult for casual comics readers. (Sure, it’s not impossible to take note of which imprint published a good book and look in that section, but compare it with Amazon recommending new books by artist, author, topic or just what other fans of Aria and Fables enjoyed too.) I can think of a few awesome comic shop staff members, but they’re grossly outnumbered by the guys who follow girl shoppers around, who stop and stare in dead silence when a girl walks in, or who directs the answers to my questions to my husband. Sometimes posters of boobie girls make it extra clear what kind of shoppers the owners want to make comfortable. It’s just not for me.

Also, I’d rather read a trade than issues, because I like curling up to read a complete story better than weekly cliffhangers.

Fairest is fairy-tale princess side of Fables, and this collection, Fairest In All The Land, is the third collection, beginning at issue 13, if you are someone who follows those things. (You can probably even find comics when organized by publisher, too, you dedicated fan!)  Fairest In All The Land is pretty accessible, the story can be understood and enjoyed with no previous knowledge of the Fairest/Fables world or events. There’s a bit more depth, especially in personal relationships, after reading the previous trades, though.

The story opens with narration by a magic mirror, in case you weren’t sure it was a fairy tale, and the mirror narrates bits through each issue. After a mysterious murder in Fabletown, Cinderella, released from hearth-sweeping duties, is appointed detective. As she investigates, aided by Ozma and half-aided by an enchanted car, she discovers that all the princesses — Snow White, Rose Red, etc. — are in danger. Investigating the murders bring the reader many different aspects of the magical world.

In one section, Briar Rose is in a 1960’s girl band (a theme I really liked in Aria), trying to keep a low enough profile to fit into the mundane world (also a theme in Aria), but her powers keep tempting her. (Seriously, Aria is a great comic.) In another, we see fairy-tale princesses with husbands and children.

Each issue is illustrated by a different artist, with slightly different takes on Cinderella and Briar Rose and the rest of the cast. I enjoyed the different imaginings of classic characters, but at times I was confused by the collection of pretty blonde ladies drawn differently from chapter to chapter.

Although all of the characters will be familiar from Disney and Grimm and other versions of fairy tales, the relationships between the princesses are made more clear in the earlier issues of Fairest. I’m not entirely sure the panels with Snow White and Lamia would have made any sense without the first books, although it doesn’t affect understanding and enjoyment of the book’s major arc.

In my first read of Harry Potter, I really enjoyed discovering which bits of information were magical world-building and which were important clues. There’s the same feel here when reading a bit of backstory on how the Barleycorn Women, psychic Mrs. Ford, the seven enchanted swords, or the magical car came to be. As the story reaches the conclusion, worldbuilding information comes back into play, and reveals a solution, perfectly in keeping with the magical world, to the enchanted mystery.

Originally written for Norgy magazine, October 2013