History: (The Fables Encyclopedia #1) - The fable prince Ambrose was affected by a curse that transformed him into a frog. A princess came along, and lost her golden ball down a well. She promised the frog a kiss (or much more, in other versions of the fairy tale) if he would retrieve it for her. He dutifully complied, and reluctantly kissed him, transforming him back into a handsome prince.

(Fables #1) - Flycatcher was employed at the Woodland Luxury Apartments in Fabletown as a janitor. Ambrose was mopping the floor while Jack (of the beanstalk) rushed in past him, without saying hello, to get to Bigby Wolfs office to report his girlfriend Rose Red as missing.

(Fables #2 ) -  Flycatcher was being as jovial as possible on the job, singing and dancing around the front lobby of Woodland Apartments when Snow White walked past, having come from a horrible murder scene found in her sister, Rose Red's, apartment the day before. Not having this knowledge, Flycatcher greeted her pleasantly, which was met with a characteristically sarcastic response.

(Fables #3)- Flycatcher and Boy Blue were brought to the apartment directly below Rose Reds‘ by Bigby. He wanted Flycatcher and Blue to re-create the alleged murder scene from photos, everything from furniture placement to blood splatter. Bigby gave the two boys packets of measured blood to use in the recreation with strict instructions to keep track of how much they used. In this manner, Bigby hoped to find out how much blood was at the actual crime scene to determine if Rose Red could have survived. Flycatcher and Boy Blue managed to recreate the entire scene with only one or two misspellings of “No More Happily Ever After”, which was written on the wall in blood. Once they figured out how much blood they used to desecrate the new apartment, they called Bigby to tell him the bad news. In order to match the scenes, they had to use five pints of blood. That’s more than half the blood in an average body. Bigby instructed them to restore both apartments to pristine condition and take all of the ruined furniture and burn it.

(Fables #4) - At the Remembrance day ball, the day when all Fables remembered the homelands before the Adversary conquered so many of them, while Bigby stepped all over Snow White's feet and calling it dancing, Flycatcher, looking quite dapper in a suit, popped up out of the background to compliment Bigby on his skills on the dance floor. This was ignored by both parties. Later in the evening, up on the roof, it was revealed that the alleged murder of Rose Red was just that, a fact that was punctuated by Rose Red showing up at the Remembrance day ball. Flycatcher and Boy Blue were positively indignant at the amount of blood they had to clean up because of this elaborate set up.

(Fables #5) - On the roof, Bigby referenced the infamous parlor scene in murder mysteries, where everyone gathered in a parlor for the big reveal. Flycatcher got confused as to how one can have a parlor scene on a roof, and Bigby assured him the roof was sufficient.

(Fables #6) - Jack (of the beanstalk) was serving his community service for his part in Rose Red's attempt to fake her death in the Fable town offices right alongside Flycatcher., whose reason for being there was much different, Bigby kept catching him eating flies in public, threatening to expose him as a Fable, and the work hours for punishment started to add up. Flycatcher defended an insult about inbreeding, slung at him by Jack, by explaining that as a prince, he had no choice but to marry inside the royal family. Bigby puts Flycatcher in charge, since he had been doing this sort of punishment for years. Jack had wondered why Flycatcher was always doing community service, and his reason made his nickname very apropos.

(Fables #12) - Out of the blue one day, a man named Tommy Sharp, who fancied himself a journalist, called on Bigby. Mr. Sharp reckoned he had figured out the residents of Fabletowns big secret: they were all vampires. Attempting to nip this issue in the bud, Bigby planned a search and rescue mission for Mr. Sharps’ research into Fabletown and it’s residents. In order to do this, he enlisted the help of several Fables: Sleeping Beauty to prick her finger, triggering her curse of sleep. The side effects of this curse were that everyone in the surrounding area, in this case Mr. Sharps apartment building, also fell asleep, and the area was surrounded by newly grown thorns. The curse lasted until a prince woke her with a kiss of true love. Flycatcher and Prince Charming were there to help gather the security tapes form the building once the caper was done. Jack (of beanstalk fame) and Boy Blue were to aid Bigby in ransacking the apartment to collect all the research, and Bluebeard was there to keep watch at the door.

(Fables #13) - The crew came upon a bump in their plans for disposing of Tommy Sharps research, so they had to make a new one; they would take Mr. Sharp back with them. Carrying what he could out to the waiting car, Flycatcher was informed by Bigby that when they get back to Fabletown, he needed to get some people together to go back to the apartment to chop down the thorns left by Sleeping Beautys’ curse. As long as she staid asleep, the thorns would keep growing. Once he was riding shotgun, Flycatcher noticed Bluebeard was crying and asks him why he was sad. Having done what Bigby asked, Flycatcher returned to Fabletown to check in and inform Bigby that the thorns were still growing because Sleeping Beauty was still sleeping, and people were starting to ask questions. Flycatcher came down from the security office with the tapes and struck up a conversation with Prince Charming, sitting next to Sleeping Beauty. Up until now, Prince Charming had no idea that Sleeping beauty was rich and, thanks to the blessing of wealth she received at birth, would always be rich. Flycatcher let this information slip in the most innocent way possible, not realizing what a gold digger prince Charming was.The only way to rouse Sleeping Beauty from her cursed sleep was to be kissed by a prince who truly loves her, and naturally, Prince Charming was the obvious choice for this leg of the plan. Another hiccup came along, however, when Prince Charming's kiss does not wake her, even though it has in the past. Luckily, Flycatcher was a prince and dutifully kissed the sleeping princess, rousing her from her sleep and freeing the building, and it’s inhabitants, from her curse, allowing him and his crew to finish cutting the thorns off the mundy building. 

(Fables #15) - The three amigos, Pinocchio, Boy Blue and Flycatcher were coming out of a comic book store, gossiping about Snow White and Bigby, who had, apparently, taken a vacation together.

(Fables #18) - In the business office of Fabletown all of the magical and enchanted items were kept safe so they didn’t fall into the wrong hands. Among these items was a jar of barleycorns which, when planted, would grow very small females to populate the community of smalltown. It was every boy of smalltown's right of passage, once they came of age, to attempt to steal one from the office. One unsuccessful would be suitor got caught by Blufkin, the flying monkey guarding the business offices, and was brought to Bigby, who gave him a warning and let him go. Intrigued by this new found leniency, Flycatcher asked why Bigby let the kid off so easily for breaking in to the business office and attempting petty larceny, when he got community service hours every time he got caught eating insects. Bigby then regaled Flycatcher with the story of the barleycorn girls and how it’s became a right of passage for each barleycorn boy to attempt to steal one barleycorn to make their wife.

(Fables #19) - One morning, Flycatcher was coming in to work off some more of his community service to find Boy Blue already in the business offices helping King Cole. He went to clean a mirror, singing a song and talking to, what seemed like himself. He asked a question, as he was cleaning the mirror about finding his wife and it became apparent the song he was singing was to the magic mirror. The mirror  responded that, no, his wife had not been found, but that he would keep looking.

(Fables #20) - Boy Blue woke up one morning to find an army of wooden soldiers at his feet. He immediately chastised his roommate, Pinocchio, for leaving his toys all over the floor. Pinocchio explained that not only were they not toys (they were, in fact, carved from enchanted wood by Gepetto from the homelands) he didn’t leave them out, Flycatcher did. He had told him multiple times to not play with his things, but he continued to ignore these requests. Also, Flycatcher left a message for Boy Blue: there was something going on in the business offices and Bigby needed him down there ASAP.

(Fables #23, 24) - Flycatcher was trying to cheer up Boy Blue, who had an exhausting couple of days. This job was made significantly more difficult, however, with Pinocchio being his sarcastic, cynical self. As Flycatcher offered consoling words while Pinocchio offered prostitutes as a remedy for a broken heart. When Boy Blue's love interest, Red Riding Hood, came upon the three of them, Flycatcher tried to keep Pinocchio quiet, which cought her attention. She seemed to know him somehow, but would only vaguely allude to that fact. She hurried Boy Blue away to talk, and Flycatcher found he had left his horn behind. Not only that, it had been dented. Both Flycatcher and Pinocchio agreed this was a bad sign and it had to do with Red Riding Hood. It looked like Flycatcher and Pinocchio were right about suspecting Boy Blues love interest; he’d been missing for a week. Pinocchio seemed to think they eloped and ran away, but Flycatcher knew this was not normal, especially since Boy Blue left his horn behind. As it turned out, Bigby had gone to check up on Red Riding Hood's story about escaping the homelands, and realized she was an agent of the Adversary. She had been torturing Boy Blue for information, and later had her wooden soldiers bring him back, bloodied and barely breathing, to the Woodland offices. While there, the soldiers read a letter from the Adversary giving Fabletown 24 hours to relinquish all magical things and also Pinocchio, since he was the first craved by the Adversary. After their departure, Flycatcher and Jack (of the beanstalk) brought Blue and Trusty John, who was shot in the ensuing scuffle, to the hospital. Back at their apartment, Flycatcher was filling Pinocchio in on Boy Blue's status as he packed to leave with his wooden brothers on the morrow.

(Fables #25) - Taking orders from Prince Charming, Flycatcher was involved in the towns preparations for war against the Adversary. He helped move cement barrels to create a defensive position as the wooden soldiers unpacked more of their kind and arming them. Rose Red came down from The Farm with ammunition, guns and able bodied fables, and she and Flycatcher exchanged a few flirty, friendly words that left him blushing.

(Fables #26) - In the battle for Fabletown against the wooden soldiers of the Adversary, Flycatcher’s role was second in command to Snow White. Not being of military stock, Flycatcher was understandably worried when the first barricade fell. Snow White reassured him that the barricades falling was actually part of the plan. Throughout the battle, Snow White gave Flycatcher the orders to pass down to the section leaders. He managed to get this done, but was very worried throughout the whole ordeal.

(Fables #27) - The battle with the Adversary's soldiers ended, thanks to Bigby, and Snow White had Flycatcher go and greet him. He tried to tell her that she forgot her cane. As he followed her outside, to the aftermath of battle, still holding her cane, he saw her and Bigby being surprisingly affectionate, considering the circumstances. Bigby instructed Flycatcher to take his very pregnant wife back inside, as he stood there in shock, still holding her cane. Very early the next morning, Flycatcher was working beside King Cole cleaning up the carcasses of the fallen. A lightening strike, too close for comfort,  made the mayor and Flycatcher stop collecting wooden body parts to investigate. As they took the elevator up to the mayoral penthouse, Flycatcher held the elevator open so King Cole could go see what’s what. After looking out the back door, King Cole ran back to the elevator, and told Flycatcher no one was to go back up there until further notice. At the witching well for the funerals of the fallen fables, Flycatcher (without his froggy hat for once) was surprised to find out taht the members of the mouse police were involved in the battle. After the mouse police were interred, Red Riding Hood's body was slated to be next. This was met with uproar by Flycatcher, along with most other fables. The decision was made to send her down the well, but unnamed and without sentiment. In the ensuing days, we found Flycatcher pining over his beheaded wooden friend Pinocchio, who lost his head in battle. Doctor Swineheart was unsure about how to repair him, since wood was not his area of expertise, but in true fashion, Flycatcher remained optimistic and hopeful.

(Fables #29 (BTS)) - Farnkie, a disembodied monster head kept in a cage, mentioned to Bigby he doesn’t have much to do except for when Flycatcher and a handful of others read to him.

(Fables #30) - Every fable turned out for Fabletowns first mayoral election. Prince Charming decided to challenge King Cole for his seat of power, and Flycatcher was standing on line waiting for his ballot, talking about how wonderful it was to see democracy in action. He took a bit of flak from Miss Muffet when he told her that instead of voting for one of the named candidates, he decided to write in Snow White.  After casting his vote, he was instructed by King Cole to automatically demand a recount. No being particularly savvy in the world of politics, Flycatcher was a bit unnerved by this request. As the candidates waited with their staff for the votes to be tallied, Flycatcher noticed Trusty Johns garden was in disrepair from the battle that raged against the wooden soldiers. He offered him words of condolence. After the election was decided, everyone crowded around the nursery to see Snow White and Bigby's new arrivals. Six children, half human half wolf. All gathered started suggesting names for the new hybrid children; Flycatcher thoughs that Ambrose would be a good name for one of the cubs. When he was questioned about that choice by Boy Blue, he revealed that Ambrose is his real name. He commented that one of the infants was sitting up, and soon they all began to levitate as everyone gathered looked on in surprise.

(Fables #31) - Snow White prepared to leave for The Farm with her cubs, since they couldn’t stay in Fabletown due to their abundance of fur and floating. Flycatcher helped her load up the van with supplies and babies before driving her upstate. When they arrived, Rose Red decides it would be a good idea to give a new mommy a heart attack by letting some of the cubs seemingly float away. As Flycatcher and Snow White tried to reach them, Rose Red show them the birds they have trained to look after and occasionally fetch the infants form the sky.

(Fables #32) - Mr. Webb had been suffocated, it seemed, and Flycatcher was trying keep Miss Muffet calm. Later, in Beasts office, Flycatcher was asking about the Mr. Webb case when he got what some would consider good news. Beast told him that he looked at his file and found the when Bigby was sheriff, he would write Flycatcher up for the most minor infractions to keep him in a continual loop of community service. Sensing injustice, Beast released Flycatcher from the remainder of his time and, consequently, left him with no place to go.

(Fables #33 (BTS)) - Beast was up at the Farm investigating a string of murders similar to that of Mr. Webb. While he was there, Rose Red asked him why he fired Flycatcher. Beast didn’t think he was firing him, he thought of it as setting him free from the continual loop of punishment. Rose Red explaineds to Beast that Flycatcher may he been serving time on paper, but in actuality he loved what he did. It made him feel important. Beast responded that he was willing to hire Flycatcher back as a real employee. Rose revealed that Bibgy kept Flycatcher in perpetual servitude for his own protection. If Flycatcher had a job that he could quit, he’d leave and go back to the homelands to look for his wife and children, potentially getting himself killed. If, however, he was serving a never ending sentence of janitorial duties, he couldn't leave. Thankfully, Rose Red knew where Flycatcher was staying and ordered Beast to go and re-arrest him for his own safety, because he’d already been asking about any open gates leading back to the homelands.

(Fables #35) -  Flycatcher was discussing his weekend plans to go see the movies that Jack had written, directed and produced. He mentioned that while he never particularly cared for Jack, now that he’s famous, he wonderd if he’d ever return to Fabletown.

(Fables #41) - With the return of Boy Blue to Fabletown, with the real Red Riding Hood in tow, everyone was up in arms. On the steps of the office, Grimble and Flycatcher talked about the growing crowd of Fables trying to get in and whether they'd riot. Flycatcher was so happy that Boy Blue is back, he slipped and fell and hit his head when he saw him.

(Fables #42) - There was a mysterious limousine outside of the business office that has been sitting there idling al morning and it had Flycatcher worried. Grimble thought it was just a mundy car that got lost, but Flycatcher was insistent that it was something more and tries to convince Grimble to go outside and see what was going on. Flycatcher said he couldn't do it himself because he was just the janitor. While staring at the mystery car, Red Riding Hood came down to get the key to bring Boy Blue his breakfast. Flycatcher asked her to tell Blue that he’d be down later with some games to keep him company. He whispered his concerns about this Red Riding Hood being another fake like the last one to Grimble. After hearing Boy Blue's name, Flycatcher decided that if his friend could be brave enough to go back to the homelands, he could be brave too. He walked up to the limousine and tried to get the attention of whomever was inside. All of a sudden, the door opens and, what looked to be all of Arabia stepped out of the car. They were furious no one came out to greet them until just now and they started insulting Fabletown and all of its' inhabitants. Fortunately for Flycatcher, none of them spoke English, so he couldn’t understand a word they said. One of the group spoke English very poorly and started trying to tell Flycatcher their reason for being here, but it only came out in disjointed, mismatched words. Flycatcher was very uncomfortable as this strange man got closer and closer to him speaking broken English.

(Fables #44) - In preparation for storming the Arab fables room, Flycatcher had the job of simply opening the door and stepping to the side, allowing the rest of the Fabletown government to enter the room, secure it and remove the bottle they needed to capture the Djin. Aftwerwards, Flycatcher was sent out to, once more, lock the gates of the Woodland office and deal with a horde of angry fables. Thankfully for him, no one involved told him anything about why he had to lock the gates. This makes it easier to tell the people he didn’t know anything about why the business office has been locked down for the second time in so many weeks. To make matters worse (and get the crowd more wound up) out of the business office walked Boy Blue, the now-known-to-be-traitor. He explained to Flycatcher that his punishment options were either a year in confinement in Fableton, or two years of hard labor up at The Farm; he chose The Farm. He asked Flycatcher to look after Red Riding Hood (the real one, this time) in his absence.

(Fables #45) - As the Arabian Fables packed up to leave, Flycatcher was there helping with the bags. After the Arabian envoy left, with King Cole as the new ambassador for the west, Flycatcher took Red Riding Hood to his favorite candy shop; the one where he and Pinocchio and Boy Blue used to go often. As they walked along, Red Riding Hood asked when she could go see Boy Blue up at The Farm after she told Flycatcher (who she called Ambrose) that he should give himself more credit and they started talking about moving her things into her new apartment. It was relatively clear (to everyone except Flycatcher) that she was being slightly more than just friendly. As they walked, the newly freed slaves of the Arabian fables walked by, dressed quite provocatively and Flycatcher started to stutter when he talked to them. Since English is not their first language, some of the things they said sounded quite lascivious. Out of nowhere, Red Riding Hood lost her mind, acting like a jealous girlfriend of sorts, yelling about how Flycatcher would probably look at her like that if she dressed like they did.. Flycatcher, not being particularly savvy when it came to relationships, wound up insulting her as he tried to comfort her and she ran off.

(Fables #47) - Flycatcher was walking down the street singing to himself, unaware of the two people in the background, Rodney and June, wooden soldier spies for the Adversary.

(Fables #50) - Bigby finally returned the Fabletown, after a particularly difficult mission, and Flycatcher was in the office with the rest of the staff to greet him. He pounced on Bigby, hugging him and telling him how much he missed him and how glad he was that Bigby was back safe. After the announcement of Bigby and Snow White's engagement Flycatcher was working with Boy Blue as the foreman to build them a house before they returned from their honeymoon. As promised, Flycatcher had looked after Red Riding Hood, and instructed her not to be afraid of Bigby upon first glance. The two of them attended the wedding together, just beyond The Farm.

(Fables #53, 54) - Flycatcher, still in frog form, was sitting on a deskin the business office surrounded by Fabletown officials, all trying to figure out what happened. All Beauty saw was him walk in, pace back and forth and then turn into a frog. Flycatcher was transferred to a tank in the business office. During a meeting of utmost importance, Flycatcher hopped out of his tank and Bufkin caught him. Beauty seemed to recall that this happened before, but that is as far as her memory would let her get. Prince Charming suggested sending him up to The Farm, but Beauty insisted she could remember how to bring him out of it, she just needed more time to remember the rest. Kevin Thorne, a writer who fancied himself an investigator, figured out that there is something off with Bullfinch St. Just from walking around, he’s picked up quite a bit of information about the multitude of Fables who live there. As he’s walked his dog, he kept overhearing people reference, in hushed tones, a place called “The Farm”. While he couldn’t figure out what exactly it is, he knew it was where Fables went when they disappeared. He wondered if Flycatcher had been sent there, since he hasn’t seen him at the candy shop in a while.

(Fables #55) - In a story, being told by Pinocchio to the gathering of Adversarial forces, Flycatcher was standing in the business office when Prince Charming realized the Adversary had attacked. Pinocchio didn’t know that his friend was currently an amphibian. In reality, Beast was holding Flycatcher while catching flies and feeding them to him.

(Fables #56) - Even though Flycatcher was still a frog, Santa Claus didn’t forget about him on Christmas. He managed to get Flycatcher to talk, and he says he remembers what happened to his wife. Santa apologized and told Flycatcher he can’t help him ever forget again. To make things worse, Santa brought Flycatcher's wife, who was dead, to visit him. She picked him up and, even though he was a frog, she kissed him and that kiss turned him back into a man. Flycatcher was furious, and, rightfully, wants to know why Santa would make him remember something so painful. He told Flycatcher that a war was coming, and he has to be ready because he was the only one who could save the Fable worlds. Maybe all of them, but he needed the strength to do it. Santa apologized for causing him so much pain in remembering, but said it was all for the best, if that was what Flycatcher chose to do with it.

Comments: Adapted to comics by Bill Willingham & Lan Medina.

Wikipedia has information on the fairytale Frog Prince.

Ambrose had an entry in The Fables Encyclopedia.

profile by Dr. Schadenfreude.

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