Fables

Fables #34, art by Mark Buckingham

Fables is a comic book series created and written by Bill Willingham, with various artists (most often Mark Buckingham) illustrating. Published by DC's Vertigo imprint from 2002 to 2015 (with various spinoffs and occasional resumptions thereafter), the series focuses on a race of fictional characters, primarily from public domain sources such as fairy tales and folklore, known as "Fables" who have been exiled by an invader into the mundane world and engage in darker activities than the Disney versions usually depict. Principal characters include variants on familiar figures such as Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, Old King Cole, and others.

Muppet Mentions

In 2004, the comic series was being developed for film by Vertigo's larger corporate owner Warner Bros. with The Jim Henson Company, but it never reached the script stage. However, the following year, both studios would be name dropped in Fables #34, with the egotistical Jack (a composite of all storybook Jacks) being told he's near "Jim Henson Studios" (while the studio he's bought is a rendering of Charlie Chaplin Studios, the Henson Company headquarters). Jack assumes they have the cartoon frog and is told by his agent/lawyer (inevitably named Bernie) that that's The WB, while Henson has the puppet frog.

Other issues of the series and its spinoffs have included Muppet mentions.

Jack of Fables #50 (2011), art by Matthew Sturges

Fables #127 (2013), art by Sturges, in which Flycatcher sings "Rubber Duckie" before taking a bath.