My friend and colleague Mark Buckingham, along with the fine gentlemen of Clockwork Storybook, the second greatest writing group in the history of English letters (coming in close, right behind The Inklings), read the chapters as they were completed, and provided many helpful suggestions. They are: Mark Finn, Chris Roberson, Matthew Sturges, and Bill Williams. Mike Sinner, the fellow in the dedication, was always on hand, at the end of the phone, to help me recall details of our shared days in Germany, on those all too frequent occasions when my poor memory wasn’t quite up to the task. Thanks, Mike.
Dr. Radu Florescu’s scholarly work In Search of the Pied Piper was enormously helpful in finding the character Max, and in constructing both versions of Hamelin Town found in this story. I would also like to thank the good people of Germany, who were fine and generous hosts during my years living there, and specifically the citizens of Hamelin. Let me apologize now for the gross liberties I took with your country and your town. My sole excuse is that the changes I made were never for capricious reasons, but were always for the good of the story. Some readers will have caught that I had Peter pay in Deutschmarks, rather than in Euros, in this story, and that was intentional. My version of Germany steadfastly exists sans Euro, for reasons too complex, or petty, to explain here. Certain things, like the robotic missile silo car park, the ice cream rats, and many of the more extraordinary details of modern Hamelin and its environs actually exist as described. I couldn’t make such things up. But some of them have been moved a bit, here and there, to better suit my needs.
The first half of this book was written in Vermont, in the house once owned by Rudyard Kipling, painstakingly restored by the Heritage Foundation, using Kipling’s original books, furniture and fixtures, which they were happily surprised to discover stored in an old barn on the property. Peter and Max were created in the same room, on the same desk in fact, that Kipling created Mowgli, the rest of the Jungle Book characters, Kim, the Captains Courageous, and many others. To say that it was an inspirational setting in which to begin a fantasy adventure story is to be guilty of criminal understatement. Thank you to the kind men and women of the Heritage Foundation, for opening the property to me and for your hard work in making my stay so comfortable, restful, and productive. Thank you, too, to the good ghost in that home for the use of your writing room and library, which always seemed to have just the right text on some obscure subject of medieval history, technology or nature, within arm’s reach, whenever I needed it.
Finally I must single out Steve Leialoha, artist extraordinaire, who provided the illustrations for this tale. Steve has been one of the insiders, illustrating FABLES stories for as long as they’ve been published (eight years now, and counting). With PETER AND MAX he not only interpreted these characters and settings wonderfully, but offered many helpful suggestions on how to make the story stronger.
Some of you readers know that this novel is set in the same fictional world as my long-running comic book series called FABLES, also published by DC/Vertigo. For those who’ve yet to encounter the FABLES comics but who might now be inspired to seek them out after reading this novel, you can find some helpful information on how to do just that in the pages that immediately follow. I hope you’ll decide to linger a while longer in our enchanted woods, and that you find your extended stay rewarding and enjoyable.
BILL WILLINGHAM
I’D LIKE TO THANK BILL AND SHELLY FOR GIVING ME this opportunity to indulge my love of fantasy and music in illustrating this wonderful tale. And to Trina for her patience with the long hours it took getting there …
STEVE LEIALOHA
BILL WILLINGHAM
Bill Willingham never fought a desperate and losing battle in a good cause, never contributed to society in a meaningful way, and hasn’t lived a life of adventure. But he’s had a few moments of near adventure. There was that time in the Yucatan jungles when he didn’t get eaten by the leopard, on the same day he narrowly avoided (barely by a mile or two) stumbling into the column of army ants on the march. Once in the mountains of Idaho he didn’t do battle with the black bear that was napping in the middle of the only trail down to civilization. In Northern Germany, during the annual Reforger war games, a main battle tank didn’t fire on him when he had to pull it over for a traffic citation. And once, in the Boundary Waters, he nearly landed a lake trout this big (hold your hands apart — no, farther apart than that), but it got away just as he was lifting it into the boat. At some point in his life Bill learned how to get paid for telling scurrilous lies to good people, and he’s been doing it ever since. He lives in the wild and frosty woods of Minnesota with a dog and a cat he hasn’t met yet.
STEVE LEIALOHA
A thirty-year veteran of the industry, Steve Leialoha has worked for nearly every major comics publisher in the course of his distinguished career. Titles featuring his artwork include DC’s Batman, Superman and Justice League International, Vertigo’s The Dreaming, The Sandman Presents: Petrefax and The Sandman Presents: The Deadboy Detectives, Marvel’s The Uncanny X-Men, Spider-Woman and Dr. Strange, Epic’s Coyote, Harris’ Vampirella and many of Paradox Press’ Big Book volumes. Since 2002, Leialoha has inked Bill Willingham’s hit Vertigo series Fables, for which he and penciller Mark Buckingham won the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Penciller/Inker Team.
Follow the monthly adventures of the multiple Eisner Award-winning FABLES series:
Vol. 1: LEGENDS IN EXILE
The immortal characters of popular fairy tales have been driven from their homelands and now live hidden among us, trying to cope with life in 21st-century Manhattan.
Vol. 2: ANIMAL FARM
Non-human Fable characters have found refuge in upstate New York on The Farm, miles from mankind. But a conspiracy to free them from their perceived imprisonment may lead to a war that could wrest control of the Fables community away from Snow White.
Vol. 3: STORYBOOK LOVE
Love may be blooming between two of the most hard-bitten, no-nonsense Fables around. But are Snow White and Bigby Wolf destined for happiness — or a quick and untimely death?
Vol. 4: MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS
When Little Red Riding Hood suddenly walks through the gate between this world and the lost Fable Homelands, she’s welcomed as a miraculous survivor by nearly everyone — except for her old nemesis, Bigby Wolf, who smells spying and subversion more than survival.
Vol. 5: THE MEAN SEASONS
This trade paperback features two tales of Bigby’s exploits during World War II as well as “The Year After,” which follows the aftermath of the Adversary’s attempt to conquer Fabletown — including the birth of Snow White and Bigby’s cubs!
Vol. 6: HOMELANDS
Boy Blue is on a mission of revenge as he uncovers the Adversary’s true identity! Plus, the two-part story of Jack’s adventures in Hollywood, and the tale of Mowgli’s return to Fabletown.
Vol. 7: ARABIAN NIGHTS AND DAYS
Opening a new front in the struggle between the Fables and the Adversary, the worlds of the Arabian Fables are invaded — leading to an unprecedented diplomatic mission to Manhattan and a nasty case of culture shock.
Vol. 8: WOLVES
The community of Fables living undercover in our midst has endured plenty of suffering at the hands of the Adversary. Now it’s time to return the favor, but the one Fable who can accomplish this mission has hidden himself away in the wild and will take some convincing if he can even be found.
Vol. 9: SONS OF EMPIRE
Pinocchio suffers seriously divided loyalties between his father and his fellow Fable refugees in New York City. Plus, Bigby Wolf reluctantly decides it’s finally time to square accounts with his long-estranged father, the North Wind, and makes a journey with Snow White and their cubs to find him.
Vol. 10: THE GOOD PRINCE
Flycatcher is drawn into the spotlight as he discovers the startling truth about his own past as The Frog Prince. At the same time, he learns that the Adversary plans to destroy his enem
ies once and for all. Can the meek Flycatcher actually stop this deadly foe?
Vol. 11: WAR AND PIECES
The war against Fabletown heats up! Cinderella heads out on a cloak-and-dagger mission to bring a mysterious package back into town. But when the Empire goes after the same prize, there’s no telling who will be left standing when the smoke clears.
Vol. 12: THE DARK AGES
In the post-war chaos of the Adversary’s former realm, a terrible force is about to be unleashed — an evil that threatens not just Fabletown but the entire mundane world.
Vol. 13: THE GREAT FABLES CROSSOVER
As the free Fables struggle to regroup following the destruction of their New York City stronghold, they are suddenly faced with a wholly new menace — one that threatens not only their adopted planet, but all of reality itself!
Vol. 14: WITCHES
The exiled Fables are forced to turn to their oldest and most powerful members — the witches and warlocks who once occupied the Woodland’s 13th floor — to defeat their latest adversary, Mister Dark. But rivalries within the Fables’ sorcerer community threaten to fracture their united front — and leave them open to destruction.
Peter & Max: A Fables Novel Page 25
