Peter & Max - Bill Willingham [1]
DC COMICS
Diane Nelson President
Dan DiDio and Jim Lee Co-Publishers
Geoff Johns Chief Creative Officer
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Terri Cunningham VP — Managing Editor
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Bob Wayne VP — Sales
Mark Chiarello Art Director
v3.1
This novel is dedicated to Mike,
respected, admired and reliable friend,
who first explored these dark and
wonderful lands with me long ago,
before pen was ever put to paper.
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Illustrations
A Short Note Before We Begin
Chapter One Fables
Chapter Two Going to the Fair
Chapter Three Wolf Valley
Chapter Four What Max Saw
Chapter Five Fabletown
Chapter Six The Black Forest
Chapter Seven Peter & the Wolf
Chapter Eight In Flight
Chapter Nine A Little Touch of Max in the Night
Chapter Ten Hamelin
Chapter Eleven In Transit
Chapter Twelve The Trial
Chapter Thirteen Fire Time
Chapter Fourteen The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Chapter Fifteen The Pied Piper
Chapter Sixteen Cloak and Dagger
Chapter Seventeen A Festival of Vermin and Lost Children
Chapter Eighteen Frost and Fire
Chapter Nineteen Coming to America
Chapter Twenty Celebration
Epilogue
The Price of a Happy Ending a sequential bonus story
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the Illustrator
She drove slowly, northeast out of the village’s main square …
Peter Piper appeared in the doorway, pushing his wife Bo in front of him in her wheelchair.
Little Bo Peep was standing in the greenest field of grass Peter had ever seen.
Now we can never know if Jorg defeated the giant solely by his own strength …
Then, with a soft rustle of leaves, a huge shape detached itself from the concealment of rock and root, and padded forward through intervening trees, resolving into the form of a wolf as it did so.
He flailed at Peter wildly, hitting, scratching and clawing at him, screaming “Give it back” …
She looked small and frail, but Peter knew she wasn’t …
So he turned, with the blade still in his hand, and walked back towards the firelight, which was partially obscured by the trees of the great and terrible Black Forest — his home.
They began sliding downwards, going faster and faster.
Bo turned all of a sudden and ran. The giant wolf immediately sprang after her …
Both girls crawled out from under the fallen tree and clutched at him …
Almost without pausing, he grabbed a crust from out of the big half-barrel …
Peter raised the flute to his lips and began to play.
It was a coat like no other, and Max loved it.
“Blood of the gods!” the second knight said. “I can’t abide animals that pretend to a man’s speech.”
“I can play that,” he said.
The sound of music drifted like a fine mist through Hamelin’s countless alleyways and thoroughfares.
They were never seen again, unto the end of days.
“We need you to marry us,” Peter said, with a broad grin splitting his face.
Any traveler would have to pass by the tower, through the barred gate, or turn back. There was no other option.
Almost as soon as Max had begun playing, a burning sensation began in Peter’s feet and started working its slow but steady way up his legs.
“He’s lying,” a voice said from behind him, once Max had concluded his story.
“Isn’t this lovely?” Max said.
Peter played with the band …
A SHORT NOTE BEFORE WE BEGIN
This novel is based upon my long-running comic book series called FABLES, but it is its own tale, autonomous and self-reliant. No one needs to be familiar with the comics to fully enjoy and understand this book. For those who do follow the comics and wish to know where this falls in the more or less official FABLES chronology, the modern day portions of the story begin about