Ever since I Hate Fairyland wrapped up this year (with what I thought was a pitch-perfect ending) I’ve been waiting to read Skottie Young’s next big thing, wondering if it was going to be as nuts as a psychopathic 30-something trapped in a child’s body trapped in Fairyland.
Turns out Skottie’s newest main character is also an adult stuck in a child’s body, only because he’s had to grow up way too fast, but he’s not a psychopath (…not yet at least, though he’s certainly flawed in other ways.) And he’s also gotten sucked into a magical world against his will, but unlike Gertrude I think he knows right from the beginning that things are going to, well, suck. (Also I think his buddy the fox is going to be way more fun than Larry the Fly, but I like foxes better than bugs.)
(Warning, some spoilers below.)
The lands between the coasts are vast, slow to change, and full of hidden magics. Mistakes have been made, and in this new ongoing series, an unwitting adventurer searches for answers to quell a coming storm that knows his name. MIDDLEWEST is the tale of Abel, a young boy who must navigate an old land in order to reconcile his family’s history.
You know there’s something mystical going on from the moment Abel, late for his paper route, starts talking with a fox. Except, nobody else seems to notice, and everything else in Abel’s life seems pretty grounded in reality. For a while anyway.
Granted, it’s a reality Abel would like to get away from, but in the normal, teenager, I-hate-my-life way. He’s pretty unhappy, and it’s either because of the bleakness of the midwest scenery, or missing his absent Mom…or maybe it’s just his Dad. My money’s on his Dad. His Dad can’t really be called “strict” or “tough” because he blew past “hardass”a while ago and went straight on to “abusive, messed-up bully.” He throws things, yells, and (though we don’t see it till later) says some pretty unforgivable stuff.
Abel’s done a pretty good job of keeping his head down, but it’s not surprising that eventually he shrugs and figures he’ll get yelled at no matter what he does, he might as well blow off work and go hang out with his friends, including the idiot who convinces him that shoplifting candy from the corner store isn’t going to hurt anybody this one time.
I’ll be honest, scenarios like the above freak me the hell out. It goes exactly as badly as you’d imagine.
But remember when I said his life was pretty grounded in reality? This would be the moment where it goes off the rails, very quickly and spectacularly.
The official PR for the series mentions it was influenced by Return to Oz and Don Bluth animation (the director of The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, and Land Before Time) and you can really see that both in the story and in the style of the artwork.
I can definitely see why Jorge Corona and Skottie Young wanted to work together: Jorge’s expressive, over-the-top imagery reminds me a lot of Skottie’s signature style (or rather the style you see in Skottie’s Oz books, not the X-Men Babies style.) It’s a style that works really well both with the everyday parts of the story (cowering from an abusive father) or the more fantastic parts (running from….something in the Midwest skies.)
I always rooted for Gertrude over in I Hate Fairyland, but I never really liked her of course. I’m looking forward to a main character who’s more likable (but not perfect by any means) and seeing what a normal kid is going to do in a situation as abnormal as this one. (Plus I really do like his friend the fox.)
Middlewest #1 will be available from Image Comics on November 21.