Put A Band-Aid On It: Reviewing ‘I Hate Fairyland’ #11

Many comic books, after dropping a game-changing cliffhanger before a few months’ hiatus would come back with something big-time serious. I Hate Fairyland can be accused of many things, but being like many comic books is not one of them.

Prepare yourselves for over-the-top gore, pop culture poking, and something a bit smelly with I Hate Fairyland #11. Another colorful experience from Skottie Young, Brett Bean, Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and Nate Piekos.

Last we left this series the formerly imprisoned Queen Cloudia had stolen Duncan the Dragon’s key, allowing her to go to the real world. Poised to take her massive power to a place that was ill-prepared for it, turns out the Queen was the not prepared one. We bear witness to a slew of ridiculous escalating death scenes like Cloudia becomes the Fairyland version of South Park’s Kenny.

The Queen dying over and over and Gert getting told about it (from the very well-informed news hound Larry), and becoming increasingly disinterested, is fun enough for an issue. Young continues to take this book and subvert what anyone might suspect could happen, even knowing how wild this book is. That’s why the fact that it’s a whole issue full of death and storytelling all to reach a punchline centered around a recent event pop culture couple fart joke was definitely not on my IHFL bingo card.

Yes, you read that right, it’s a whole issue leading up to a fart. Then the issue gets meta, per usual, and calls itself and its writer out for that fart joke. Will this issue be extremely dated (likely very soon) with the celebrity couple it’s poking at (Baylor Snift/Taylor Swift & Trabis Belche/Travis Kelcie)? Oh, most definitely, especially with the relationship track record involved on one side, but it sure hits that current event laugh factor.

One thing that you can count on when it comes to this series is that you cannot ever count on what might happen. Young is going to pull out some genre or idea or wild card and we’re just along for the ride. I for one am enjoying the ride, even with its sudden dips and smells and so much blood everywhere. Just caked in so much blood and guts. What were we talking about again?

Oh yeah, I Hate Fairyland #11.

But it’s not just Young taking us on this wild (maybe cursed, who can say) ride. No, all that wackiness has to be brought to actual visual life. Young used to tackle that portion, but through this revival series, it’s fallen to Bean who just nails it every time. As do Beaulieu with colors and Piekos with letters, and we’ll dive into that further below.

Plenty of that fairytale whimsy wrapped up in super detailed weighty emotional depths. Each moment and beat is felt viscerally, the over-the-topness of it all hitting harder because of that more light fun feeling the whimsical brings. Something about watching bright shiny fairytale beings being hacked up or doing terrible things just brings out a certain feeling. Like one is getting away with something, no matter the fact they haven’t been a child in quite some time.

Whether big action set pieces or smaller moments of conversation, there is equal weight to it all. Human elements shine through because Bean makes sure that it’s not just all outlandish fun. I’d say there has to be heart, but a lot of the characters we follow are lacking in what we might consider ‘heart,’ but hey it’s close enough as a descriptor. At the end of the day no matter how many bits of viscera are thrown around the pages, they are truly gorgeous to behold.

Even more so with all the flashy, vibrant, yet also grounded colors that Beaulieu is working with. This is where a lot of that aforementioned whimsy comes from, so much of the bright palette is meant to hit home what type of world we’re within. Mixing them with the more toned-down/natural color beats creates a solid mix. Together they allow each space and character to feel united while also wholly unique.

Everything the characters are saying is just as bold and big as the artwork, and Piekos shows that. Bubbles and boxes of various shapes, styles, and color schemes that are big loud as needed, or soft and quiet. Character emotions and personalities dripping from every word, making sure their voices can be heard each and every moment.

Perfectly paneled artwork with colors that sing and lettering that just flows like butter. One can see this as a silly bloody comic, and in many ways, it fits that, but it’s so much more. Everyone is pulling their absolute A game, and it shows. Through and through it’s just beautiful fun awesome comics. Which is sometimes just what we all really need.

I Hate Fairyland #11 is now available from Image Comics.