I Hate Fairyland

I Hate Fairyland is about a ten year old girl named Gertrude who gets sent to a magical fantasy land for an adventure that should take about a day. But she can't figure it out, and has been stuck there for 27 years. So now she's a 37 year old in a 10 year old's body on a bitter quest to escape Fairyland.

For context, she blows the brains out of the narrator-moon and murders all the stars in the sky who witnessed it in the first 5 pages. She gets drunk, robs casinos, talks to decapitated heads, etc etc.

It's a REALLY bitter quest.

Gert's main flaw is she is a terrible listener. She frequently does not actually pay attention to the directions she's given, and her propensity for getting obliterated and murdering people means she's her own worst enemy and the only reason she hasn't succeeded already in her quest to get home. She is unabashedly human in an inhuman world, and somehow she's still the biggest monster in it, which I think is what makes her so goddamn likable.

Despite this being a hilarious comic that can totally be enjoyed as just that, I've come to believe that I Hate Fairyland is a story about the growing frustration that comes with getting older. The aspects of your life that started out as colorful and fun become absolutely grating as you struggle to interpret the litany of confusing messages around you. The world(and your perception of it) becomes warped and distorted, and your inability to get where you want to go can seem like an insurmountable nightmare. What was once a fun progression has become a terrifying slog through a world you no longer recognize.

The lesson I've taken away from I Hate Fairyland is while the logical solution to your problems is to listen to the world around you more carefully and act with more consideration, sometimes it feels way better to say "Fuck that, Fuck this, and Fuck you," and raise as much hell as humanly possible. But if you do, realize that there is a cost that comes with the satisfaction of lashing out.