I Hate Fairyland Special Edition

I Hate Fairyland Special Edition

Writer/Artist/Cover Artist: Skottie Young
Colorist: Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Letterer: Nate Piekos

I Hate Fairyland Special Edition is a special printing of the Free Comic Book Day issue which was called I Hate Image. It’s a spin off on the I Hate Fairyland series that takes Gert on an adventure through a bunch of various Image comics series. I’m not extremely well versed in Image, so I didn’t catch all the nods, but I caught some of them. Most notably she wanders into The Walking Dead, restores Rick’s hand, helps them kill some zombies, then kills Rick. That sort of sets the bar for where things go.

No matter which series she crashes in on, Gert always ends up killing everyone. It’s basically just the same thing as the main series where she kills everyone in Fairyland, but now she gets to roam to other places and kill some famous characters. From Black Science and Spawn to Southern Bastards and The Wicked + The Divine, all the way to the real world where Gert kills the head honchos at Image. All of that was included in the Free Comic Book Day issue. To sweeten the pot, this one has four extra pages that shows Skottie Young at his drawing board (in comic) and people calling him wanting to be killed in the re-release. So it ends with one more slaughter scene to grant everyone’s wishes.

But that’s not all! After the four bonus pages, there’s the full script. For anyone who is a fan of the creation process of comics, this is the good stuff. It shows what Skottie starts with and how it grows from there. But this is kind of a unique perspective given that Skottie is both the writer and the artist, so the usual art direction isn’t there, but there is notes for the colorist. Adding to that, Skottie includes some notes to explain what he does with his scripts. Being able to read the script is also helpful for catching all the nods in the story to the various Image series and characters.

It goes on from there to showcase a bunch of process shots. These doodles and sketches show how the artwork went from concept to the final page. It also includes more notes. Thus, in the end, you’re getting 23 new pages altogether. It’s a hefty bonus, though it does have a higher price tag.

So the ultimate question – you already have the FCBD issue, do you still need this one? It depends on whether you like the behind the scenes stuff. If so, then this is a BIG yes. If you don’t care about the behind the scenes stuff (like the script and the process sketches) then you can just flip through this one at your local comic store to see the couple extra pages of the story. Personally, I love the behind the scenes stuff. The original FCBD issue was great, and this one is even better. Easy five out of five metal bikinis.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.