Review: Road Trips, Grease Paint, And Murder In ‘Haha’ #2
by Brendan M. Allen
‘Rudolph On The Road To Funville- Every boy and girl needs a momma, like a puppy needs a bowl. The funny-sad clown series for a funny-sad clown world continues with a mother-daughter road trip illustrated by Zoe Thorogood.
Haha is a genre-jumping, throat-lumping look at the sad, scary, hilarious life of those who get paid to play the fool—but these ain’t your typical jokers.
With issues drawn by Vanesa Del Rey, Gabriel Walta, Roger Langridge, and more, Haha peeks under the big top, over the rainbow, and even inside a balloon to tell a wide-ranging slew of stories about “funny” men and women, proving that some things are so sad you just have to laugh.’
Last month’s Haha followed Bartelby, a barely employed amusement park clown whose wife hated him. Given his pink slip and mugged by his best friend in the same day, only to be shot point blank in the face by bank robbers, it’s fair to say our man Bart has seen better days.
In Haha #2, W. Maxwell Prince offers up the story of ‘Rudy,’ a dancer at a roadside burlesque that specializes in freakish fetishes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not fetish shaming in any way. The fetishes in question are for actual sideshow freaks. Rudy’s got mama issues, which flips the script a little on the typical stereotype of exotic dancers.
Rudy’s story takes place mostly in one big flashback, where we learn that her mother and father were having some… issues. Mama got institutionalized, and her father had no idea how to deal. One night Mama shows back up to kidnap Rudy, and their subsequent road trip shaped the rest of little Rudy’s life. National Lampoon’s Vacation, but with more grease paint, mental illness, and a little bit of murder.
Prince is taking these stories down some deep, dark paths. The common thread obviously being profession. In this installment, we get heavy themes of mental illness and loyalty. The relationship between Rudy and her unnamed mother is heartbreaking in its raw, honest presentation. There’s a really touching and sweet element to it, while acknowledging the whole mess is completely screwed.
Zoe Thorogood pulls art on this chapter, and most of it works really well. Mom’s harlequin grease paint is gorgeous, and Rudy’s childhood clown persona is adorable and reminiscent of Loonette from The Big Comfy Couch.
I do have a small problem with one of the other sideshow dancers, Fiona. Fiona has forty inch fingernails. The issue is that folks with nails that long can’t use their hands normally, the way Fiona does in every frame. She goes palms up, palms down, thumbs up while her fingers are facing down, and waves her hand in the air like it’s nothing.
Nails that long, they’re HEAVY, and when they get that big, they curl and twist all over the place. Shridhar Chillal, the man with the record for the World’s longest nails, cut them off in 2018 and has permanent disability in his hand because of the weight. I had a lengthy conversation with my buddy George McArthur (who is a legitimate giant and sideshow performer himself) about this, because it bugged me so much.
That all being said, if I’m talking about a minor character’s fingernails, the rest of the art is pretty solid.
As with any anthology, there are going to be chapters that are stronger than others. Haha #2 isn’t quite as good as the first installment, but it’s still very solid. Prince and Thorogood pack a shocking amount of emotion and depth into 24 short pages. Super dark, and well worth the price of admission.
Haha #2, Image Comics, 17 February 2021. Written by W. Maxwell Prince, art/cover by Zoe Thorogood, color by Chris O’Halloran, letters by Good Old Neon, variant cover by Martin Simmonds.
Summary
As with any anthology, there are going to be chapters that are stronger than others. Haha #2 isn’t quite as good as the first installment, but it’s still very solid. Prince and Thorogood pack a shocking amount of emotion and depth into 24 short pages. Super dark, and well worth the price of admission.
