I Hate Fairyland is a hilarious and gory romp through the eponymous Fairyland by a thirty-seven-year-old little girl who has been trapped there since she was ten due to her lack of questing ability. In twenty-seven years, Gertrude has developed into the most foul-mouthed and dangerous denizen in all of Fairyland, doing basically whatever she wants including getting high, drunk, and murdering the crap out of anyone too annoying. Volume one is the cutest gore-fest I’ve ever seen.
The Details
Written and Drawn by Skottie Young
Coloring by Jean-Francois
Lettering & Design by Nate Piekos of Blambot
Available April 20, 2016
Image Comics
The Good:
“Whatever, I do what I want!”
That phrase has never described anything more accurately. Skottie Young just sat down and decided, “You know what? Screw it”! There’s blood and guts all over the place, hell we get showered in the (new) narrator’s guts at the beginning of every issue! We’ve got a thirty-seven-year-old woman in the body of a ten-year-old trying to seduce a frog-man. Alcohol, drugs, and all other kinds of debauchery you can image litter the adorable landscapes of this child-dreamland.
Of course, this freedom doesn’t just apply to the author/creator. The heroine, Gertrude is like Skottie’s author avatar as he decides to live out his darkest fantasies about slaughtering anything and everything. Stars too bright? Blow them to pieces. Who cares if you misunderstood the riddle and ripped the hearts out of every cute giant creature in a hundred block radius. Besides, the law of the land can’t touch you! It’s the ultimate gore-filled dream of freedom.
IT’S SO CUTE
When you hear “Fairyland” you can’t help but picture the exact cartoony world Mr. Young delivers us. If it wasn’t for the extreme adult content, I could easily see this style animated on Cartoon Network. Of course, cartoon physics apply and are almost the sole driving force of the plot. Scenes transition smoothly from one extreme situation to another and take fully advantage of the adorable cartoon “effect”.
I love how dialogue affects so much of a scene in terms of tone and even color scheme. Angry dialogue is bold and bright accompanied by a filter of warm colors like red, yellow, and orange covering the whole scene. It gives the reader a sense of seeing each panel, each situation, from the emotional perspective of Gertrude. Really, that’s what this whole thing is about. The mind and emotional state of a little girl, trapped for nearly three decades on a seemingly impossible task. Every color choice, every shadow, every line is chosen to bleed that mind onto the page. Skottie Young may be a little demented in this piece, but the art captures it perfectly.
The Bad:
Given what I Hate Fairyland is, there isn’t much that can be construed as “bad”. There is little, if any, character development. Everyone is static. No one learns anything. The plot is shallow and simple. Character wants to get from point A to point B. Character sucks at it. Character wastes time doing whatever for comical effect. There’s no depth here at all beyond cheap laughs at exaggerated violence and crude behavior/dialogue. That said, that’s kind of the whole point.
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