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*
And I Hate Fairlyand is back with Issue 4, bringing with it another dead narrator on page one and another cliffhanger ending resolved off screen. Hooray for running jokes! Actually, hooray for lots of jokes, because like the first three issues before it, this one is damn funny from pretty much start to finish. I’m really running out of ways to talk about this comic.
I’ll be honest, I was kind of expecting Issue 4 to shake things up a bit in terms of formula. Gertrude looked to be deadier than dead at the end of Issue 3, and her first appearance in Issue 4 isn’t exactly pretty. Fairyland must have some amazing health care. Or it’s magic. (It’s probably magic.)
There are two ways to look at this running joke: One, it’s funny; Two, it’s lazy. I do find it funny, and by the end of page one, I was laughing out loud and scaring my cat; however, resolving major cliffhangers off screen is a bit cheap and certainly diminishes the peril Gertrude and Larry find themselves in at the end of every issue.
However, however, this comic clearly doesn’t care about that because it’s I Hate Fairyland. Context is key, and the context here isn’t a gripping narrative with near-death experiences but depraved humor and gore.
I mean, let’s face it guys: Even if I Hate Fairyland ends with Hope getting the key and Gertrude winding up stuck in Fairyland forever, we all know the last panel will be of her in a throne room, a crown upon her head, and about a thousand corpses all around her. She’ll be smoking a cigar and holding a gun, its barrel still smoking.
And we will laugh!
As of four issues now, the premise of I Hate Fairyland hasn’t grown stale. Yes it’s still a foul-mouthed adult in a girl’s body going around and killing cute and fluffy things, all while her sidekick drinks and smokes, and yes the world of Fairyland itself is mostly nonsense, but if it works, then it works.
And if you really want to scrutinize this comic, there are certainly dark places you could go. I mean, Gertrude does want to kill Hope—who is a little girl stuck in Fairyland like her. That’s pretty messed up. At the same time, I’m fine with it because Hope is obnoxious. She’s a true villain, through and through!
Plus, this isn’t really a comic I want to scrutinize. I’m having plenty of fun on its surface level.
I suppose the only thing truly different from this issue, besides the shift in plot to go and steal powers from one of the SEVEN EVIL DOOMS, is that most of the jokes here are in the artwork and not in the text. Facial expressions, gestures (the middle finger), and general movement are more spot on than ever, and all are very funny.
Guys, I LOVE this comic series.
