List of Fables characters (Literals and Part-Literals)

This article is a list of Literals and Part-Literals in the Vertigo comic book series Fables, Jack of Fables, Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love, Cinderella: Fables Are Forever and Fairest, published by DC Comics.

Jack Horner

Kevin Thorn

Kevin Thorn is a former New York City journalist who has the ability to see behind the illusions cast by Fabletown magic-users. After the Battle of Fabletown, the anchorman on the news show Thorn worked for reported an out-of-control block party, a building fire and a gang fight in the Upper West Side; minutes later, the details were fading from everyone's head but Kevin's. After reporting this to his boss, he was fired for "going all X-Files". Kevin has now dedicated himself to discovering what exactly is going on in the Upper West Side. He is leaving a complete paper trail in case of his sudden death (which he now considers to be a strong possibility). During the Sons of Empire story-arc, it is revealed that Kevin is acting as a superintendent at a house three blocks away from Fabletown. This house is also now occupied by Hansel and his staff, though Kevin seems unaware of their true identities. In Kevin's free time (when not spying on Fabletown residents), he is writing a book describing what it is he has discovered of the Fables. He has been keeping an eye on them for long enough now to be familiar with many of the regulars and has noticed the disappearance of several - Bigby Wolf, Snow White, Boy Blue and so forth - linked with references to "The Farm". He has come to the conclusion that "the Farm" is actually a euphemism for execution, giving him the mistaken impression that the Fables willingly kill their own without reservation. He is aware that Tommy Sharp was also investigating Fabletown and was subsequently murdered, which has only served to heighten his misgiving about the Fables.

During the Jack of Fables arc The Bad Prince the reason for Thorn being able to see through the Fables' illusions is finally given: he is, in fact, a Literal, beings who are like Fables, but represent literary devices rather than actual characters. Like many Fables, though, he was taken to Golden Boughs Retirement Village and was stripped of his memories so that he could be made into an ordinary human being. When he begins to regain his memories, he is recaptured so that the process can be repeated. In that process, it is implied he is one of the most powerful Literals in existence, and the soldiers sent to capture him imply that even all of them with their guns could only irritate him, at best, if he fought back. Nonetheless, they manage to bring him back peacefully, where it is revealed Revise is actually his son, and the Pathetic Fallacy is his father. It seems that he became a mundane by choice, and doesn't refuse the notion of losing his memories again.

It later emerges in the storyline Jack's Big Book of War that Kevin has powers leading to the creation of Fables themselves; however, it has not yet emerged what they actually are. It seems that Kevin refers to Fables as his creations and he consents to the revisions of his son Revise as the lesser of two evils, in an attempt to protect them from his other son Bookburner.

In The Great Fables Crossover he's revealed to be truly the creator of the Fables, the embodiment of the storytelling. Having been able to break in a new pen, after destroying the pen (a simple goose-feather) used to write the Fables (and possibly the mundys as well) in the attempt to stop the Writer's Block, he becomes displeased with the current events, as the Fables themselves had grown beyond his control (he explicitly claims that Geppetto's transformation in the dreaded Adversary was something he couldn't even fathom), and decided to uncreate them, rebuilding a new world from scratch.

After Jack Frost II is able to stop him from writing the literal word end to the universe, Dex, the Deus Ex Machina and the most powerful of the Literals, creates a new, empty universe for the Literals to inhabit and fill out as they please. Despite having a new occasion to create, Kevin expresses displeasure and worries, as after thousands of years spent dreaming the end of the universe, he's unable to write out a beginning to a new universe.

Pathetic Fallacy

The Golden Boughs Retirement Village is also home to a man known as the Pathetic Fallacy, although he comes to prefer being called Gary, who has the powers of that concept. His precise status at the facility was somewhat unclear; while he did Revise's bidding, appearing to have his trust and carry out a number of minor staff duties, he was also kind and sympathetic and aided the escape plan. It is later revealed that the Pathetic Fallacy is a Literal, an extremely powerful magical being of a different kind to the Fables, in that he personifies a literary concept rather than being a character from literature. He was the father of Kevin Thorn and grandfather to Revise, although he appears to only be aware of this on occasion.

The Pathetic Fallacy traveled with Jack Horner, taking on the role of his sidekick, being somewhat naive and frequently confused, although he had lucid moments when he shows a great deal of knowledge about how stories work. He regards inanimate objects (which are, of course, generally quite animate in his presence) as friends and talks to them frequently.

In one of his lucid moments, he refuses to join the Literals in the new universe created for them by the Deus ex Machina and willingly sacrifices his powers. Reasoning that the new universe will develop a Pathetic Fallacy when the need will arise, he returns at Jack's side.

After Jack Horner transformed into a dragon, The Pathetic Fallacy hid him in a cave where he had piles of gold. It was revealed he entered a brief marriage with a woman and sold some of the original books in exchange for cows (for Jack to eat, as opposed to other people, namely the women he brings back to the cave). When Jack Frost arrives to slay the dragon (not realizing the dragon is his biological father), the Pathetic Fallacy rushes to Jack Horner's defense, destroying the Fulminate Blade. As a result, Jack Frost shoots him, which kills him since he had been living as a Mundy.

Mr. Revise

Mr. Revise is in overall charge of the Golden Boughs Retirement Village. His exact status is unclear, but he is descended from Literals, a group of magical beings who, unlike the Fables, who are characters from story, appear to personify literary concepts. He seems to embody the concept of the editor, in that he revises the universe so that it makes perfect sense. He is the son of Kevin Thorn and the grandson of the Pathetic Fallacy, though he appears older than both of them. As such, Revise holds a considerable amount of supernatural power.

Revise considers his role to be "neutering" Fables partly by stripping them of their darker elements, with his ultimate goal being to rid the world of magic. He had been close to accomplishing that before the Fabletown refugees made their way to this mundane world.

Tying in to Revise's intention to destroy magic, The Golden Bough was originally written by Sir James Frazer to show that even the "enlightened" faiths of the 19th Century were descended from the most superstitious and primitive. Like Frazer, Mr. Revise appears to be a modernist who wants to abolish superstition. In the end of the Great Fables Crossover, he's revealed in a more sympathetic light, as it is mentioned that keeping the laws of physics constant over time had been his idea, making science possible. It's also pointed out that he's been a stabilizing force against whims of Kevin Thorn, who could justify any event by claiming poetic license. Eventually, he decides to follow his father in the new universe created by the Deus ex Machina.

The Page Sisters

The three Page sisters serve Revise directly as the senior librarians of the Golden Boughs Retirement Village, each with their own speciality. Robin Page is in charge of security, training the tigers and so forth, Priscilla Page handles retrievals, the capture of Fables and bringing them back to the facility, while Hillary Page runs the research department. It was revealed, in Jack of Fables #26, that the sisters have two different fathers; Hillary is the daughter of Revise, while Priscilla and Robin are Bookburner's daughters.

The Page sisters all appear to be relatively young, are attractive and all three have slept with Jack Horner, something that he takes considerable pride in having achieved, though he also shows horror after learning that they are his half sisters. Hillary spends some time traveling with Jack after his escape from Golden Boughs, but left after discovering that he'd slept with both of her sisters before her and is now helping the Bookburner, Revise's brother and the father of her two sisters, track the fugitives.

After the revelation that Jack was their half-brother through their shared mother, Prose Page, they were horrified to realize that they'd committed incest. Hillary was disgusted, Priscilla was enraged, and Robin was speechless.

Bill Willingham has revealed in an interview that the Page sisters are the embodiment of organizing and codifying (in this case Fables)^[1]

The sisters have some mystical abilities as a result of their Literal heritage. Libraries are Hillary's place of power, while the open road is Priscilla's. She claims to know "shortcuts to anywhere," which she uses to reach Kevin Thorn's hideout ahead of Snow White and Bigby. It is implied that all three sisters give up their powers when they decide to stay in the Fables universe instead of accompanying the other literals into the new one provided by "Dex" (Deus Ex Machina, the Literal embodiment of the dramatic concept) - however, Robin seems to be able to communicate with a stone lion at the end of Jack of Fables (unless she was just acting crazy and actually found another way to unlock a secret passage). The sisters decide to travel the world with their nephew, the current Jack Frost. Hillary and Priscilla appear to have motherly attitudes toward him to him while Robin seemed to be following along out of reluctance: the former later advises Jack Frost to cast aside his wintry powers and find his way by himself, thus separating from him and paving for their favorite nephew the path of the hero.

After becoming mortals, the sisters lived as normal "mundies" for years. Robin had a baby, Sammy Junior, with Sam after a one-night stand with the former Golden Boughs prisoner. The sisters eventually got tired of life as mere mortals doomed to grow old and die, and started searching for Revise's books of original, unrevised Fable stories, knowing that the original books would make them immortal once more. The search brought the sisters to a dragon, who was in fact a transformed Jack Horner; Jack had stolen the books when the Golden Boughs were destroyed. The sisters arrived at the same times as several former Golden Boughs prisoners, who were on a quest of their own, searching for Fabletown. The sisters went after the books while shooting at the dragon, which made the dragon burn the books - he was tired of them anyway - in anger. The sisters, upset at the loss of the books, started shooting everyone around them, thinking that since they were doomed to die without the books, everyone else could just as well die with them. This made some of the Fables retaliate and all three of the sisters were killed; Humpty Dumpty fired his cannon at Priscilla, the Tin Man killed Hillary by firing a laser through her chest with his tin cannon, and the Cowardly Lion mauled Robin to death.

In "Fairest : In All The Lands", it is revealed that the Page Sisters used to either live in Fabletown or visit it, as they talked to a seer in a laundry who foresaw their death in a cave, as later seen in "Jack Of Fables : The End" (which led them to just decide to avoid that cave, until they gave up and accepted their fate). This is rather perplexing, as their existence was forgotten by Bigby and Snow White, by the end of "The Great Fables Crossover" - thus making it impossible for anyone in fabletown to know or recognise them (unless they managed to reintroduce themselves a second time after the crossover).

The New Jack Frost - "Jack Two" or "Jack Too"

His real name is Evelyn-Lawrence-Pinder-Shinks-Cobblepewter, uttered in its entirety once by his caretaker Vrumptus. Son of Jack Horner and the Snow Queen, nephew of the Page Sisters, and so one-quarter Literal and three-quarters Fable himself, Jack Frost is the estranged son of Jack Horner, conceived by Lumi and Jack when Jack Horner, trying to harness the wintry powers and the riches of the Snow Queen for himself, romanced the still naive and gullible Lumi. As a result of his predictable betrayal, Lumi hardened her heart, becoming the cold, ruthless villainess shown in the series, lavishing the young Jack with all her bottled and repressed love. It is unexplained why she would give her son such a name.

But whatever the reason for his name, Jack shows no ill will to his mother or his caretaker Vrumptus. He seems to care for and love both as family and knows very well of his father's treatment to his mother. As a result, owing to Lumi's duties as an adviser for the ominous Adversary, young Jack lives a sheltered life along with his majordomo Vrumptus, growing into a sickly, frail child. When at the climax of the war between Fabletown and the Empire, as shown in War and Pieces, Lumi immediately falls permanently asleep because of Briar Rose's curse, her wintry powers seek Jack, turning him into the second Jack Frost (essentially a male version of the Snow Queen), imbuing him with several powers, such as the absolute mastery over cold and snow of his mother, the ability to travel between dimensions and the mystical ability to track Jack Horner. After receiving his powers one of the first things he does is to change his name which he decides to call himself Jack.

Although briefly distracted by of the similarities between Wicked John and Jack Horner, Jack Frost manages to find his father at the Farm. Jack Horner, annoyed by his son's childish insistence, tricks him into believing that he must first complete a great quest before he has the right to ask his father any questions. With this objective in mind, Jack Frost takes part in the battle between Fables and Literals, ultimately turning the tide in favor of the Fables by freezing Kevin Thorn before he can write an end for the current universe. When the Literals leave the main universe to write a new one, Jack Frost stays back with his aunts, the Page Sisters, forswearing his bumbling father and unsure of his future. On Hillary and Priscilla's advice, Jack Frost divests himself of Lumi's powers. However, to his great surprise, instead or returning the meek, sickly kid he was, he turns into a quite handsome young man with the stamina and physical prowess of his father and the innate ability to hop between dimensions. Joining forces with Gepetto's wooden owl, briefly tasked by the Adversary in spying the Homelands, whom he names "McDuff", he starts a career as a hero for hire, with McDuff acting as the brains of the operation, and the good-natured, courageous, but trusty and still naive Jack acting as the brawn.

Bookburner

Son of Kevin Thorn, brother to Revise and father to Priscilla and Robin Page. Bookburner takes a different approach in dealing with magic to his brother, choosing to burn books completely, effectively removing those characters from existence. He does, however, claim to keep copies in what he refers to as his 'private collection', which appears to give him power over what remains of those characters, allowing him to compel them to act on his behalf. He has not been seen since the destruction of the Golden Boughs Retirement Village.

The Genres

A group of Literals who are the embodiment of the different genres found in story telling. The known genres are:

• Western, who looks like John Wayne. He can sense Bigby's actions, because they both are sheriffs. He likes to play cards (possibly poker) alone.
• Blockbuster, a dimwitted, musclebound commando who can sense when explosions happen. He resembles Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Mystery, a very silent woman whose face is always covered by a black veil.
• Horror, a terrifying little girl. She can even scare Kevin Thorne.
• Romance, a beautiful red head.
• Science-Fiction, twin brother to his sister Fantasy
• Fantasy, an elven woman with pointy ears
• Super-hero, younger brother of Science-Fiction and Fantasy. Known to be constantly dying and resurrected (like Western).
• Literature, who holds the others in contempt.
• Noir, who looks and acts like Sam Spade as portrayed by Humphry Bogart. He can solve some cases without needing to be physically present and he also managed to sneak up on everybody in the room, when they were summoned by Kevin.
• Comedy, who looks and acts like Groucho Marx. He makes no difference between "a muse" and "amuse".
• War, who looks and acts like a soldier from World War II.

Other Literals

• Writer's Block: Kevin Thorne's twin brother. He looks exactly like Thorne, but has the appearance of a mental patient. Writer's Block presence muddles Kevin's creativity and prevents him from writing the end of the world. Though Writer's Block is always close to his brother, Thorne doesn't notice him until he accidentally touches him. In order to continue with his plans, Thorne murders Writer's Block - again.
• Dex (Deus Ex Machina, the Literal embodiement of the dramatic concept), arguably one of the most powerful of the Literals, but only under very specific circumstances. He can solve all problems, but only when doing so is impossible by any other means. He can appear out of nowhere, but he cannot work miracles, as he can only work "once per story, usually toward the dénoument".
• Eliza Wall: A Literal and temporary narrator of the Jack of Fables series and represents the fourth wall, a theatre concept now also adapted to any storytelling device (Movies, literature etc.). She also has siblings - of whom nothing is known, except that, unlike her, they have no fourth wall awareness, as they do not understand it when she directly speaks to the readers.
• Prose Page: Jack Horner's mother, who gave birth to Jack after an affair with a Fable, Prince Charming. She later gave birth to the Page sisters, Hillary with Revise and Priscilla and Robin with Bookburner.
• Onomatopoeia: Little is known about Onomatopoeia, though is mentioned by Revise after escaping the Golden Boughs Retirement Village.
• Foreshadowing: Little is known about Foreshadowing but that she is a female, though is mentioned by Revise after escaping the Golden Boughs.

References