Sitcoms play with different variations on the guest who stays too long. In I Hate Fairyland, Skottie Young has taken that trope and applied it to portal fantasy. This excellent graphic novel starts with young Gert being transported to the colorful, fun Fairyland, where she is given a Fairy guide named Larry. Her mission is simple: complete the quest, find the key, and go home. Only, it turns out that she’s incompetent at completing quests but is hyper-competent in violence. Instead of going home like the rest of the visitors to Fairyland, Gert is stuck for forty years in the hell of fantasy. Her mind and personality age, but she is stuck in the body of a little girl. Following the odd couple combination of Gert and Larry is fun, funny, and a wicked look at the casual violence inherent in fantasy and fairy tales.

TL;DR: Cutest killing machine goes through a beautiful land of fairy to make us laugh and cringe. Highly recommended.

The art of I Hate Fairyland is stunning. The cutesy look with the bright colors pop off the page. Each panel is a visual delight, and it is worth looking through the book without reading the dialogue to get the story through visuals only. I will often linger on certain panels to make sure I see all that’s packed in. The design, while beautiful, adds to the cognitive dissonance of watching a Shirley Temple-esque gal disembowel Giggle Giants. Good art is a story all by itself, and everything works here. The color choices are fantastic, and one small part of an overall fantastic production piece. Each page looks slick, epic. I love it when I find a panel or page that could be pulled from the book and stand on its own. I Hate Fairyland is filled with many instances that I want to make my desktop background. The art alone makes the book worth buying.

Without good writing, good art is wasted. Luckily for me, I Hate Fairyland has an excellent story that is very well told. Through the first sixteen issues, Gert’s journeys the length and breadth of Fairyland with never a dull moment. Mr. Young has created an overall story that continues to surprise me while evolving from character choices, rather than need for the story to hit certain beats. The dialogue is fantastic and inciteful. As shown in the panel above, Gert deals with real emotional issues, such as being an entitled fan¹. Because Fairyland is a place for kids, its inhabitants, including Gert, curse with euphemisms that are easily decipherable. A few examples are “mother puffer” and “fluff me.” While this could get old quick, Mr. Young uses it so well that it’s just a natural part of the story, and these euphemisms are used in such a way that they aren’t cute at all.

Gert and Larry carry the story. They get the most screen time, and their relationship is excellent. Their odd couple routine of murdering monster and world weary guide works and continues to grow as they journey together. Neither really likes the other, but they need each other. There’s a storyline where Larry imagines what his life would have been like if he’d never met Gert, and it wasn’t any better the life he had. In fact, it was considerably worse. This seems to indicate that he enjoys the hell that is his life with Gert. Our adorable killing machine of a hero could easily be a one note character, but she works as well. I love the idea of a 40 year old woman in a child’s body commenting on the tropes of children’s fantasy. Due to the fantasy nature of the world, her serial killer tendencies are more comical than horrific, but she is without doubt a monster. Her only talent, the area in which she excels, is killing. If presented with a problem, she will kill everything instead of actually solve the problem. This is horrific but also a hilariously genius loophole to the Fairyland rules. However, the loophole isn’t broad enough to let her accomplish her mission. She reminds of people who instead of stealthing like the video game wants, they just kill everyone and everything. Gert is worth following on her adventures as she attempts to murder her way back home.

I Hate Fairyland is a book to add to any read list. Gert and Larry journey through Fairyland in order to find a way home for Gert. Travel along with them and see fairy tales from a new, darker perspective. I’ve enjoyed every issue that I’ve read so far, and I look forward the continued adventures of comic’s cutest murdering machine. The first fifteen issues are out now from Image Comics, with sixteen² coming out February 7th. It’s fun; it’s visually stunning; and it will have you saying, “Mother Fluffer, that was great!”

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1. I laughed when I read this, considering that I had just written an essay on the entitlement of fans. Gerts belief that by following her hero, she had earned Gwag’s attention and time is the definition of entitlement. Following and supporting earns fans zero minutes of their hero’s time, let alone an opportunity to work together.

2. Thanks to Image for early access to issue sixteen, which sees Gert’s story shift locations and shift obstacles. Issue sixteen starts a new, harsher storyline. I can’t wait to see where it goes.