Bill Willingham's upcoming "Fairest" will feature Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella from "Fables"

With the original graphic novel "Werewolves of the Heartland" finally arriving this fall, fans of "Fables" received another fairy-tale ending Saturday night during the "Vertigo: Fables" panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego as Bill Willingham, creator of the multi-Eisner Award-winning series, announced its latest spinoff from Vertigo, "Fairest."

"It's an ongoing series, but it's almost a series of miniseries," explained Willingham in a one-on-one interview with Comic Book Resources. "We'll have an arc with Sleeping Beauty and see what's happened to her lately, but then when we do a Cinderella arc, Chris Roberson and Shawn McManus will return to the character, as they do such a wonderful job on Cinderella's adventures, but from now on those miniseries will fold into this series."

Willingham confirmed that he will write the first arc, which features Sleeping Beauty and the story will show the princess wake up and explore what's happened as a result of her shortened, eternal sleep.

Making the news even more exciting for "Fables" fans is the fact that Willingham will team with all-star artist Phil Jimenez on the Sleeping Beauty arc.

"Phil's work on the book is gorgeous," said Willingham. "As a matter of fact, we may try and [pull] a Bucky [Mark Buckingham] with him and tell him he's never allowed to leave the series for very long. So we'll see how that goes."

The second arc, "Rapunzel in Japan," will be written by award-winning South African writer Lauren Beukes and will feature the art of Inaki Miranda, who illustrated "Fables" #99. Buekes recently won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for her novel, "Zoo City" and she's also earned a nomination for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

"Lauren is just a terrific storyteller, and she's teaming up with Inaki Miranda," said Willingham. "Again, the art will just knock your socks off."

Willingham wouldn't get into specifics beyond that, but teased, "We will look at the other 'Fables' characters that fit the definition of 'fairest in all the land.' And we're going to throw in a few surprises. There will be a few characters that will be considered legitimate under the 'Fairest' rubric that may surprise you that they are a part of it."

Check back with CBR News in the days ahead for Willingham's full CBR TV video.