A winged monkey from the Oz tales, Bufkin acts as Fabletown’s librarian and thus is generally found in the cavernous business office, where he both works and sleeps. Close to Boy Blue, he hid for a week when his friend left for the Homelands, thinking that he would be blamed for not stopping him. Bufkin lacks wisdom, although he is certainly not stupid, is occasionally mischievous and prone to drinking heavily and stealing the Mayor’s booze, nevertheless he is generally a good worker and rarely complains. During the events of the Storybook Love arc, when everybody was out of the office, Bufkin came to the conclusion that he was now in charge and decided to rename Fabletown Bufkintown, a change that only lasted as long as it took somebody else to find out about it. He also uintentionally saw Prince Charming and Beauty kissing, fearing Beauty’s threat to Charming would happen to him, he became very jittery around Beast. He apparently reads a lot of the books in the library, and it is suggested that he has learned skills like lockpicking from this. On learning this Prince Charming threatened to kill Bufkin if he stole his alcohol again, Bufkin is then seen with another book—one relating to Political assassination. After the magic’s holding Fabletown together have been unraveled he was stranded in the business office along with all the formerly imprisoned fables. During this time he was able to bottle the Djinn and kill Baba Yaga and her knights by utilizing everything he has read (in this volume, several indirect allusions to The Wicked Witch of the West are made). He was aided by the Magic Mirror, Frankenstein’s monster’s head, the Barleycorn maidens and several heads of the captured wooden soldiers. However, he soon discovered his beloved wings had been burned by the assault.
Other Media
Video Games
He appears in the game The Wolf Among Us by Telltale Games.