James Jean, whose distinctive painted covers have helped to set the tone of Vertigo’s Fables for the past six years, is leaving the series with February’s Issue 81.
Jean, who wants to devote his time to painting and personal projects, made the announcement today on his website:
I first received the call to create the first cover to Fables in October, 2001, a month after my roommate, Yuko Shimizu, and I watched the twin towers crumble from our loft in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Not long after, I got on a plane to Austria for 3 weeks and watched news of the anthrax scares from abroad, returning home to a message from Vertigo comics on my answering machine, asking me to create the first five covers to Fables. Now the suspected sender of those anthrax-laced letters has committed suicide this month, and we’ve gone 2 terms with a war-time president. In between, I’ve been fortunate enough to have done a lot of illustration. But for the past year or so, I’ve stopped working for magazines, books, and advertising as I tried to make the transition towards my personal work . . . until now, Fables has represented the last vestige of my illustration career. Now it’s onto personal projects full-time.
Jean won five back-to-back Eisner Awards for Best Cover Artist for his work on Fables and other titles, and another for Best Short Story for his collaboration with Bill Willingham on Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall.
August 26th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
August 26th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
I always felt that Fables is one of the few books where the cover is just as important as the story inside, if not more so. James Jean’s departure will be hard to take. I wish him well; his art is fantastic and needs to be seen by a wider audience.
August 26th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
His covers were perfect. Every new issue, you’d look at the cover and say “What is going on here?” and after reading it, the cover is so obvious. I respect his decision. He’ll be missed.
August 26th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Oh man, that’s a shame *sigh*, well, I hope they find a good artist for the covers. Peace.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Isn’t the Fables cover book only covering through issue 75? I would hope they include the last few covers.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:02 am
No!
Do you think it has anything to do with the covers collection run in he had with Vertigo? It’d be a shame if it did. My god, his work is amazing
August 27th, 2008 at 7:20 am
Dear DC,
Please postpone the Fables cover collection to include all of his covers through issue #81.
Thanks.
August 27th, 2008 at 8:15 am
May I suggest a replacement? Jo Chen anyone?
August 27th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Just how time consuming is doing a single cover a month? Would it really get in that much way of “personal projects?” Or is something else going on here (as some have suggested regarding the cover-book)?
August 27th, 2008 at 9:05 am
@God-Man:
Oh man that would be awesome, it’s practically the same as Jeans.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Yes I agree. Please postpone the the James Jean collected edition of Fables. I can wait that long just to get the completed works.
August 27th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Crying inside. At work. Must. contain.. self…