I Hate Fairyland creator Skottie Young has detailed his future plans for the comic, which he wrote and drew from 2015 to 2018.
Those plans include a new artist, Brett Parson, for the ongoing series, plus a series of short stories by various artists that he plans to post for premium subscribers to his Substack mailing list.
“In 2015 I launched my first creator owned book at Image Comics called I Hate Fairyland,” Young wrote. “I was nervous that something as wacky and over the top as IHF wasn’t going to find a place with readers but man, was I wrong! Over the next few years, the book sold really well, I received tons of fan art, photos of tattoos and a wild amount of IHF cosplay. I was blown away!”
If you aren’t familiar with the series, I Hate Fairyland stars Gertrude, or Gert, who as a child became stuck in the magical world of Fairyland. She’s been there for 30 years, trying to find her way home, and hasn’t aged on the outside in all that time. And she’s developed quite the attitude about being stuck — “homicidal” may be the best way to describe her. Suffice to say, it’s a black comedy series that “Baby Covers McYoung” was born to draw.
I Hate Fairyland ran for 20 issues, with colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu and letterer/designer Nate Piekos working with Young, who handled everything else — the writing, artwork, editorial and project management aspects. He said after 20 issues, he needed a break.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t love telling stories in the fun world I created, because I did. I adored it,” Young said. “I just felt like I was missing out on telling some other stories because so much of my time was being taken up by the green haired terror that was Gert and the gang. So I made the hard choice to push pause on IHF so I could go see what other trouble I could get into.”
When Young first announced his premium Substack content, he also announced the return of I Hate Fairyland through the service. But it doesn’t sound like the new content he’ll share with email subscribers will replace the ongoing series. In fact, Young said that the ongoing story of Gert would continue at Image Comics, with Parson joining Young on art duties.
Substack subscribers, meanwhile, will receive new short stories written by Young and drawn by a variety of artists, including Greg Baldwin, Joverine, Rachelle Aragno, Dean Rankine, Aaron Conley and Scott Brown. Those stories will fall under the mouthful of a title The Unbelievable, Unfortunately Mostly Unreadable, And Nearly Unpublishable Untold Tales Of I Hate Fairyland. And despite the title, Young said they would eventually be published in print as well.
I should also note: Even if you aren’t ready to sign on as a paid subscriber, Young has been posting plenty of free content to make it worth your while, including sketches and news about his other work. You can sign up for it here.