Once upon a time, ten-year-old Gertrude wished to live in a world of fairytales and magic. She got her wish, landed in Fairyland, and spent the next few decades wishing she could leave. After hacking, slashing, and mutilating her way out of Fairyland, leaving a trail of bodies and gore behind her, Gertrude is finally back in the real world as a full-grown adult. But the nightmare isn’t over for Gert, as she’s forced to face her greatest challenge ever — finding a job.
Writer Skottie Young returns with the sequel to his hit series in I Hate Fairyland #1, joined by artist Barret Bean, colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and letterer Nate Piekos. Gertie may be a grown-up, but she’s still a violent, short-fused ticking timebomb and a hellion without any education, experience, or social skills. It’s difficult for her to hold down a job. But when she finally does find something to do, it’s not what she had in mind.
I Hate Fairyland #1 picks up where the original series concluded, with Gert out of Fairyland, aged up from a ten-year-old to a grown woman in her thirties. Unlike most aged-up sequels, I Hate Fairyland #1 is not much darker nor edgier than its predecessor. Though for a series rife with hilariously egregious bubblegum-hued violence, that isn’t saying much. This time, Young’s black humor is still extreme and gross, but it doesn’t have the cutesy world of Fairyland to contrast with. Everything is set in the real world. Gert’s cynicism, sarcasm, and psychopathy contrast well with the more mundane world around her. She’s still a bitter and short-tempered monster who uses “fluff” as an expletive — and she still gets her rear end handed to her in a ridiculously extreme and bloody fashion.
The previous series was a long-form story fuelled by Gert’s desire to go home. This time, I Hate Fairyland #1 introduces a seemingly tighter, more focused story with entirely different stakes. Granted, said stakes are guaranteed to end with Gert all the more unsatisfied with her life, but give her a chance to interact with the real world in a whole new way, no longer desiring to simply go home.
In the original series, Skottie Young helmed both the writing and the art, creating a deranged aesthetic of sugar, spice, blood, and guts. This time around, Barret Bean is in charge of the art. He stays true to Young’s previous aesthetic trappings, emulating his style quite nicely. He brings his own style to this funhouse-mirror art, favoring smoother, sleeker lines and painterly strokes, contrasting with Young’s previous heavy and jagged lines. This slight art shift works, considering that both Gert and the audience are older, and the story seems a little smoother, as opposed to the disjointed glory of the original series. Jean-Francois Beaulieu returns on colors, again sticking to a psychedelic palette of candy-colored chaos and oversaturated pastels. The palette is slightly more subdued for the majority of the issue, which is grounded in reality, with strong shades of blue dominating Gert’s gloomy and gory adult life.
Gert may have finally grown older, but neither she nor I Hate Fairyland #1 show signs of maturing — thank goodness. Equal parts scathing farce and senseless violence, I Hate Fairyland #1 is a worthy sequel ready to explore another equally bloody side of Gert’s character.
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