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Written by & Art by: Scottie Young
Colors by: Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Publisher: Image
*SPOILER WARNING sort of. Because this is a comedy comic, talking about the plot means talking about some jokes. So if you don’t want to know any of that, then just go buy it already*
Last month I picked up the first issue of I Hate Fairyland and shared it amongst my friends and family, assuming they would find it as hysterical as I did. They…really didn’t. Well, I did the only thing I could do: disowned them, moved far away, and am now living in my car regretting zero of my life choices.
Because seriously, how could you not find this comic hysterical!?
Issue 1 of IHF ended with the promise of a big battle between Gertrude and Bruud the Brutal, but Issue 2 fast forwards past that. We get the aftermath though! It’s uh…well, Gertrude is drunk, in a bar, and talking to the head of that Bruud’s head while also hitting on a anthropomorphic frog. The head is proving to be better company than the frog.
You know though, despite being about 24 pages of non-stop R-rated jokes that landed 100% of the time, IHF actually manages to work in some real character development for Gertrude. She’s vulgar and drunk for most of the issue, but she’s also kind of a tragic figure. There’s certainly more to her than non-stop rage and murder, though that does make up about half of her character.
That other half, however, is actually quite special, despite being washed in blood and offensive humor. Yet it still works, and I really do have a better appreciation for why she’s such a broken villain.
And it must be noted that Gertrude is the villain of this story. The queen—who is still after Gertrude’s green-haired head—is the hero, or barring that, at least a good guy. She’s only doing what’s best for her kingdom. Her best, sadly, isn’t anywhere good enough.
For Issue 2, the new foe is a witch and her army of bewitched fauns. The word “army” must be taken in the literal sense. There are a lot of them.
It’s a shame that Gertrude now has a very big axe.
Last issue I praised Mr. Beaulieu’s coloring job, and yeah, I’ll do that again here. The comic looks fantastic. Everything that worked in the first issue is back, and that’s about all there is to it.
If you passed on the first issue, you really, really should reconsider. I mean, assuming this kind of humor is your thing. But even if it is, there’s still an interesting story to be found here. IHF twists a lot of what we know about fairytales on their head, and it’s not every day we get a story from the perspective of a sympathetic villain.
