A Deadly Thing Called Love: Reviewing ‘Untold Tales Of I Hate Fairyland’ #3

Love. Vampires. Knights. Witches. Fairyland has it all. Too bad they’re also all things that Gert will most definitely destroy. It’s her way after all.

Untold Tales Of I Hate Fairyland #3 presents three new tales of bloody mayhem, spanning Gert’s many years in the fantasy realm. Allowing others to dip into the sandbox is one of the best parts of this miniseries. While the styles, focus, and tone might change, all the main parts of the recipe stay the same. Chiefly: the protagonist truly is the absolute worst.

Gert is mentally and age-wise a grown woman trapped in a child-like form, making the prospect of marriage/love a more than touchy subject. Series creator Skottie Young and artist Rachele Aragno find a way to skirt around that issue by going in a very unexpected direction. What better partner for Gert than someone else that is far older than the body they are trapped within, like say a vampire?

Essentially, after crapping on the institution of marriage, Gert’s marital past is revealed to Duncan the Dragon by Larry. After failing at finding love many times, she ends up with the vampire Count Seymour, but — as Gert explains — it took a very stereotypical story couple route. Young plays into, of course, how terrible Gert can be as she brings her husband people to feast upon and how she got out of her toxic (at least from our unreliable narrator Gert’s view) marriage. Take a guess how, you’re probably right.

Aragno has a really fun style that is both minimal and quite detailed. It’s almost like the colors mimic the style of watercolors. Giving them a heaviness even while they are toned down and almost washed out in some cases. Plenty of empty/white space is played with through the various panels, framing the characters and events in a way that keeps them clear.

Just like the previous issues, we get another story from Dean Rankine on story and art duties. This one follows the very knightly Sir Hanselot, fitting every farcical fairytale knight/prince stereotype, crossing paths with a dragon (Duncan) and Gert. It’s all from his point of view until the fateful crossing goes exactly was one would expect, for Hanselot at least.

I love how Rankine’s style is very fun in its stylistic choices and overall appearance. It fits a fairytale space and really makes things stand out. At the same time, it doesn’t shy away from the absurd, grotesque, and adult elements that are a hallmark of the Fairyland stories. Blood-and-guts in a cute-fun sort of way is always a good one in my book.

Lastly, we get a story from Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá exploring the thin line between love and hate. It follows a young person who is enamored with Gert and her adventures, but ends up a casualty of Gert’s wonton destructive ways. Leading them to decide that she is the worst, filling them with hate, only to end up at the wrong end of an encounter once again. It’s a darkly fun tale that puts us at the ground floor of what happens to those who are left behind in the wake of the Gert storm that terrorizes this land.

Bá’s style has a very dramatic flair to it where emotion is thick on the page. It’s a bit rough in places — which fit the tone — with sharp lines and edges. All the colors allow for pops of brightness, but it’s overall toned-down with a darker filter over it to fit the darker story direction. This lets us feel how much these characters have gone through and why they are in the space that they currently inhabit.

Bringing it all together, as usual, is the artistic lettering talents of Nate Piekos. It’s so great how he’s able to hit the same power and strides in each story while doing something quite different with the lettering in each one. All the various dialogue, bubbles, SFX, colorful fluffy curse bits, and more fit perfectly with any and all artistic styles. Piekos easily could have just done the same through all three tales and called it a day, but that’s the line that separates many in this creative field. Putting the extra effort here makes sure that the lettering feels organic and right while making sure it stands out even more in a good way.

Untold Tales Of I Hate Fairyland #3 is now available from Image Comics.