Jack of Fables is a spin-off comic book series of Fables written by Bill Willingham and Lilah Sturges and published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. The story focuses on the adventures of Jack Horner, a supporting character in the main series, that takes place after his exile from Fabletown in the story-arc Jack Be Nimble. The idea for the spin-off comic came after editor Shelly Bond suggested to put Jack in a separate comic when Willingham planned to write him out of the series.

While Jack of Fables focused on the eponymous Jack Horner, the spin-off also allowed Willingham and Sturges to expand upon the Fables universe by adding new characters, settings, and anthropomorphic personifications of philosophical and literary ideas in the series. A preview of its first issue was shown in Fables #50, and the series itself debuted in July 2006. It ran for 50 issues from July 2006 to March 2011, and received positive reception from critics and fans alike during its release, though over time would be criticized because of the main character's abhorrent sociopathy. In 2007, it was nominated for numerous Eisner Awards and won Best Lettering for Todd Klein and Best Cover Artist for James Jean. The series has since been collected in both trade paperback and deluxe edition hardcovers.

The decision to remove the character of Jack Horner from the series came when artist Mark Buckingham proposed to expand the Fables' logic of "popularity equals power", which stated that fairy tale characters were only as strong as their popularity in the real mundane world. He and Willingham decided to use Jack in showing how a Fable might use this theory to further his/her own gain. This led to the two-part story arc entitled Jack Be Nimble where Jack created an action film trilogy of himself that elevated his popularity with the Mundies, which in turn also increased his powers. This story arc was supposed to be the last time Jack Horner would appear in Fables, and Willingham initially wanted to write him off the series, but editor Shelly Bond suggested that Horner be put in a separate comic instead, stating that she did this because she did not want to lose her "favorite" character in the series. Jack of Fables was first previewed in Fables #50 before finally being released in July 2006. With the new series in publication, Willingham decided to use Jack of Fables in introducing other literary characters in the Fables mythos and to expand its universe to include the Old West and the Folklore of the United States. The new series also gave Willingham and Sturges more freedom in writing its universe than in the main series.

Jack of Fables was the first project that Sturges worked upon in the mainstream comic book industry. Bond and Willingham originally chose Lilah Sturges to act as a second voice on the new series, and Willingham himself have previously known Sturges during their founding of the independent publishing label Clockwork Storybook. Sturges remarked that in writing Jack of Fables, she found herself putting the character in more and more positions she found amusing. Others who worked on the main Fables series also worked on the spin-off, including long-time Fables inker Steve Leialoha who served as penciller and inker in two issues. Artists Tony Akins, Andrew Pepoy, Todd Klein, Russell Braun, Andrew Robinson, and Brian Bolland also worked on the series. Todd Klein, in particular, was chosen to add humor in the story, and Sturges praised him for his work in doing so while avoiding a "cartoony" feel. In writing the story, Willingham and Sturges both made sure to keep the spin-off independent and not overlap too much with the main series, which Willingham felt would have made it a "Fables Jr. kind of book".

Like in Fables, the series took place in the contemporary world albeit with characters from fairy tales and folklore living alongside normal humans in secret, known as Fables. The story followed one such popular Fable named Jack Horner who was known from stories such as Little Jack Horner, Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack and Jill, Jack Be Nimble, Jack Frost, Jack O'Lantern, Jack the Giant Killer and others. Before the start of the story, Jack stole some money from Fabletown in order to create a film trilogy and make a name for himself in Hollywood. The Fables soon found out about his deed and they sent out the town sheriff Beast to apprehend him for his crime. To Jack's dismay, Beast managed to find him in Hollywood, confiscated all the money and properties he had built, and was told that he could never set foot on Fabletown again. The series then started off after Jack left Hollywood.

While hitchhiking, Jack was captured by an armed group of magical creatures calling themselves Literals. They imprisoned him in a place called the Golden Boughs Retirement Village, a magical community owned by Mr. Revise where Fables are trapped, censored, and lose all their powers. Although incarcerated in the village, Jack managed to rally up all the other imprisoned Fables to help him escape. Afterwards, he befriended a Literal named Gary the Pathetic Fallacy and together they became entangled in more adventures. Jack's adventures consisted of him getting married in Las Vegas and fighting a Fable mob leader named Lady Luck, getting stabbed by the Excalibur in the chest and finding out that he was just a copy of another Fable named Wicked John, heading out into Americana to find lost treasures with Humpty Dumpty, and returning to the Golden Boughs just in time to lead them in a fight against a powerful Literal named Bookburner. After successfully defeating Bookburner, Jack and Gary then promptly left the Golden Bough to finally enjoy their new found treasure, but the treasure they had hoarded had a drastic effect on the two, with Jack himself losing his immortality, before beginning to age and bloat. Gary theorized that these were probably brought by the spin-off's artist taking revenge on Horner due to his previous remarks about him. After taking refuge in a cave to stash their treasure, Jack was then transformed into a dragon (similar to Fafnir) and forced to stay in that form until a hero comes and slays him.

The story then shifted to Jack's son Jack Frost II, who was born from his brief romance with the Snow Queen before the events of the overall series. After learning of his mother's apparent disappearance, Frost, who'd been locked up in her castle since birth, finally left and set out on his own adventure. He let go of his winter powers that he inherited from his mother, and travelled into the Homelands to become the legendary hero he had always dreamed off. His first battle as a hero was against a group of scavengers he came across in the capital city. Though he found difficulty fighting without his powers, he nonetheless killed them all with the help of a mechanical owl, whom he named MacDuff. His next adventure came when a girl hired him to save her kingdom from monsters they called Night Walkers. Jack was soon trapped and captured by these monsters. He also discovered that they too were being tormented, this time by a powerful sorcerer who ruled both the lands of the monsters and the humans they were preying. He agreed to save the Night Walkers from the sorcerer, but in return they must also learn to coexist with the humans in peace. Jack then tracked down the sorcerer in his own castle, killed him, and finally freed the two races. This victory turned him into a well-known hero in the Homelands. He and MacDuff would continue their adventures, making new allies and lovers, discovering new weapons, and battling other monsters from both fantasy and science fiction.

After becoming the legendary hero he always wanted, Jack Frost decided that his final quest before retiring was defeating a ferocious dragon, rumored to be hiding inside a cave filled with treasure, which he did not know was actually his own father, Jack Horner. Horner himself had a premonition that he and Gary would be defending their treasure to the death from intruders, who would turn out to be minor characters that had appeared in the series.