Story & Art: Skottie Young
Colours: Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Lettering: Nate Piekos of Blambot
Release Date: 14th October, 2015
Andrew M Says…
How exciting is the prospect of a Skottie Young drawn (and written) comic about Fairytales? If you think to yourself ‘Who is Skottie Young,’ after reading that last sentence then shame on you, now go and google image ‘Marvel Babies.’ Yes! That’s it, that Skottie Young: Captain Marvel #1 cover Skottie Young – are we on the same page now? Good!
I Hate Fairyland is the story of a girl named Gertrude who one night fell into fairyland from her bedroom carpet, and now wants to get back out. “Not a problem!” the Queen of Fairyland informs Gertrude. All she needs to do is complete a quest for the key that will open the door out of Fairyland to her bedroom. It shouldn’t take long – maybe a day at most! To help her along the Queen gives Gertrude a map of the known lands and a guide called Larrigon Wentsworth III (a small flying creature in a top hat).
That was 27 years ago.
Although Gertrude hasn’t physically aged nearly 30 years in fairyland has affected her outlook on life, consumed by the goal of finding a way out of fairyland Gertrude has become a little bit unhinged from reality. Not surprising given where she is. In fact, the first thing she does when we meet her 30 year later is blow up the moon because his narration of her story was annoying the fluff out of her, of course the stars would have to go also – they were all witnesses. Yes, you read that right, this is a story set in fairyland so all expletives are replaced with words like ‘hug,’ and ‘fluff.’ And our main character opened by murdering the moon and stars.
The comic reads like Scottie Young is having the time of his life. Setting the manic-depressive and murderous cyclone that is Gertrude onto fairyland is hilariously good fun. There are so many little quirks in the world and characters that add an extra dimension to things. Las Fungus being the Fairyland equivalence of Vegas with Nude Grub shows, and the Slug Lord with a ‘Slug Life’ tattoo over his belly are just a couple of little examples.
We follow Gertrude on her quest to slaughter her way across the land find the key and manage to leave. Gertrude and Larry have become a bit of a double-act over time, with Larry seemingly resigned to being her companion he now permanently smokes cigars and has a general haggard look. This is no doubt from the fact he’s in indentured service to Gertrude until she finally escapes. The Queen is also bound to the fact that she can’t harm a guest in Fairyland, but Gertrude is systematically destroying the place in her travels, and slaughtering the night sky was the final straw. If the Queen can’t harm Gertrude then perhaps she could get someone else to, there is nothing in the rules about that….
I enjoyed I Hate Fairyland very much, it carries with it the energy, fun and slapstick of old Warner Bros Roadrunner/Wile E Coyote cartoons and the art seems to be heavily influenced in style (to my mind) by The Ren & Stimpy show. Merging the setting of a young childs imaginative fairyland world containing such places as Ice Cream Island and Candy Rock with a homicidal 5 year old, who gets high on mushrooms, murders indiscriminately and knows how to handle a hangover appeals to me, but I think this may carry the Marmite factor. You’ll either love it, or hate it.
Me? I think it’s Hugger Fluffing great.
Rating: 4/5.
Ceej Says…
Every little girl – and likely a fair few boys – once dreamt of living in a fantasy world of bright colours, fairies, candy, ice cream and bubblegum, right? Well, imagine you’ve been stuck there for almost thirty years, trapped in the body of a child, trying desperately to find your way home and growing increasingly bitter, cynical and just a teensy bit homicidal with every wrong turn you take. Yeah, not so much fun now, is it?
Welcome to I Hate Fairyland, the creator-owned debut from Skottie Young, which introduces to Gertrude, a formerly sweet little girl who has had just about enough of the Muffin Huggin’ technicholour hellhole she has been forced to call ‘home’ for the last three decades. Filled to the brim with dark humour, razor-sharp writing and a wonderfully twisted version of Young’s trademark ‘adorable’ style, this first issue sets out the stall for exactly what readers can expect from the rest of this series as it moves forwards.
Like Andrew said, this is likely to be a fairly marmite book for readers; either you’re going to absolutely love it or you’re going to think the idea is stupid and that Skottie should get back to drawing variant covers. Well, you can add my name to the former camp, because this level of day-glo insanity is exactly what the world of comics needs more of. Skottie cites MAD Magazine as one of his major influences and chief ‘gateway drug’ into the world of comics, and that’s exactly the vibe that I Hate Fairyland has – a knowing-self awareness mixed with silliness for the sake of silliness, and some utterly hilarious visual beats for good measure.
Oh yeah, the visuals. I’m assuming that we’re all aware of Skottie’s unique style from his work on the likes of Rocket Raccoon and Eric Shanower’s Oz adaptations, not to mention those variant covers, but this first issue features a decidedly more violent, more irreverent artistic approach than we’ve seen from him in the past. From the massacring of cartoon stars to the utterly brutal way Gert deals with the mushroom soldiers, everything about this comic pushes the envelope, making it a decidedly adult affair and not one that should necessarily be given to younger readers – as tempting as the bright colours may be.
It’s also worth mentioning that, if this first issue proves nothing else, it proves that Skottie Young is also one hell of a writer as well. Seriously, the dude is just plain funny.
One of the most brilliantly inventive and utterly eye-catching first issues of the year so far, I Hate Fairyland shows us what would happen if Alice decided she’d had just about enough of Wonderland’s hugger fluffin’ nonsense and went on a kill-crazy rampage. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to read that comic?
Rating: 5/5.
PREVIEW ARTWORK
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