Fables are a wonderful way to learn – and they have been for many centuries! Chris Duffy has organized a great collection of an all-new take on fables … in comics format with Fable Comics! The graphic novel has amazing cartoonists take on classic fables from Aesop and beyond! First Second has put together a fun blog tour to promote its release. It features each of the authors and fables from the collection with reviews and interviews, and you can get the full list of participants at their site.

Out entry into this wonderful virtual tour is “The Sun & The Wind” by R.O. Blechman, taken from Aesop‘s tales. For those who don’t know, Aesop was a slave and storyteller. He is believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. His collection of fables have survived through time and be reinterpreted through so many different forms of entertainment and media.  The first printed version in English was way back in 1484.

This particular tale was originally titled “The North Wind and the Sun,” and is simply about persuasion. The story is about the North Wind and Sun who have a competition to get a man to remove his cloak. In Blechman’s interpretation the cloak is a coat, and follows numerous other feats of strength. In various version the wind and sun are replaced with Gods, or even philosophers.

Not to give away the ending of the story, but the easiest translation and lesson is that “Persuasion is better than force,” a simple philosophy that probably should be used a lot more in today’s world. That just shows how timeless Aesop’s fables are, they’re still very relevant today.

In my research of the history of this particular fable, I also found that is’ used in linguistics as well as a way to compare languages such as a dialect or a region. The natural language is better than the Lord’s Prayer, a nice little tidbit and fun fact.

Fable Comics is 28 different stories with nice life lessons throughout, perfect for getting kids to learn the classics while also being entertained. Even as an adult, this got me to dive into the history a lot more, and I can say I learned a lot about it all. Throughout the centuries, these life lessons are relevant today.