Bill Willingham dismisses 'Fables', 'Once Upon a Time' similarities

The creator of Fables has denied that Once Upon a Time is a rip-off of his comic.

Bill Willingham has spoken out about rumours that the new ABC television show has copied his ten-year-old Vertigo title.

He dismissed the similarities between the two creations - which are both based around fairytale characters living in secret communities in the real world - in a piece he wrote for Comic Book Resources.

Willingham said: "Our fantastic literature is rife with 'they've been hiding among us all along' scenarios.

"There were plenty of such tales long before Fables came along. There will be scads of them long after Once has aired its final episode and Fables shipped its final issue.

"If you start with the notion of fairytale characters still alive in the modern world, the next step of placing them in a secret community seems almost axiomatic."

Addressing the confusion that emerged after Once Upon a Time's creators claimed not to have read Fables and then later said they had read it, Willingham revealed that one of the creators had and the other had not.

Fables has had 111 issues in its main run released, as well as various spinoffs.

Once Upon a Time debuted in October this year.

> 'Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland' postponed until 2012