5 out of 5

You know, I actually own the full, hardcover version of this, and its quite good, but the formula unfortunately starts to tire at length.  So the bite-sized FCBD version is perfect, giving exactly enough of these twisted (sorry – fractured) fables to provide a chuckle before the joke wears thin.  Would’ve been interesting to have seen this published as a few single issues.

A whole bunch of ace quality writers and artists take the classic tales you know – Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk – and either mash them up with others or spin them in oddball ways, generally to humorous effect.  Five tales appear here, with such luminaries as Bryan Talbot, Doug TenNapel, and Ted McKeever contributing, but even the (perhaps) lesser known names deliver great stuff, and admittedly the expanded edition has even that much more talent stuffed in.  This is also a wise selection of the varying styles in the book (so good on ya’, FCBD makers), as we get yuks (Talbot, art by Camilla d’Errico), silly (TenNapel), strange (‘The Real Princess’ by Alexander Grecian and Christian Ward), outside-of-the-box humor (Derek McCulloch and Anthony Peruzzo’s hilarious Rapunzel take) and even something a tad experimental (McKeever).

And yet, shamefully, I haven’t read the full book more than once.  Short attention spans for the win!