Comic Pick Up: I HATE FAIRYLAND

Skottie Young – Writer/Illustrator

Jean-Francois Beaulieu – Colours

Nate Piekos – Lettering

I’ve been neglecting comic books the past year. Juggling work, kids, a mountain of TV and films to catch up with, has meant my pull-list dwindling away to essentially SAGA and the occasional Marvel book like the always brilliant MS MARVEL or THOR.

I miss them. So I tried to remedy that by picking up a few trade paperbacks, which are a much easier way for me to get my fix, with a full 5 or 6 issues worth to delve into. This weeks read was the Image title I HATE FAIRYLAND Vol 1: Madly Ever After, from the bonkers mind of Skottie Young. He’s done some great work before this, including the Eisner Award winning series THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ , and also produced dozens of cool variant covers for Marvel, many of which I own.

His writing style is as sharp as his drawing, energetic, exaggerated and consistently hilarious. He really grabbed my attention in his 2014 ROCKET RACCOON run, which for the majority he also drew himself, and in FAIRYLAND he really lets his mind run wild, creating incredible, absurd landscapes of “The Bawling Fields” and the “Peaks of Snoring Snotties” as well as insane characters like a riddle-rapping Slug, to the dark lord Darketh Deaddeth and his realm of skulls. All of this madness is centred around the story of Gertrude, a 10-year-old girl who, on a wish, was brought to the magical realm of Fairyland, but she has been unable to complete a quest to take her back home, and has since been trapped for 27 years, her body unable to age along with her mind.

It’s a hilarious and violent tale, a woman trapped in her younger self, who’s grown bitter and psychotic as she struggles, with help of her tiny, cigar smoking sidekick Larry, to find a key that will let her go home. And when I say violent, I mean enough bloodshed and death you’d imagine George R. R. Martin might want it toned down. Gert will murder, maim, disembowel any of Fairyland’s magical creatures who so much as inconvenience her, but its all drawn with such vibrant, candy-coloured beauty by Young that you’d be half tempted to recommend it to older kids despite the “Mature” rating on the back.

The story itself is a riot, you’re thrown in immediately and it continues to move along at a brisk pace, travelling through various mystical realms of Fairyland, as Gert tries to complete her quest. It’s a fun ride, a relatively straightforward outline of a hero searching for something, but delivered with incredible humour and style by Young, who squeezes a lot of brilliant visual jokes into the panels, along with the snappy dialogue, one of my favourite touches being how Gert expresses her frustration. She enjoys to partake in expletives like any normal 37-year-old, but without the knowledge of any actual foul language in the soft and sweet Fairyland, it leads her to shout such gems as “Muffin Fluffers” and “Smother Fudger” in anger. Its clever and funny, and the entire book is filled with similar flourishes.

If you have never ventured out of the Marvel/DC scene, new to comic books in general, or just fancy something fresh and vibrant, I can highly recommend I HATE FAIRYLAND, a bonkers and hilariously dark tale of magic, fantastical creatures and one little woman’s violent march through it all in search of a way home.

I HATE FAIRYLAND Vol: 1 is available on Amazon for £8.99: