Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Happy #4

Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Darick Robertson

Happy has been one of the stranger Grant Morrison comics I've ever read.  I can see how a statement like that may lead many to believe that this book examined drug-fuelled surrealism in a way that books like The Invisibles or Filth couldn't, but that's not the case at all.  What makes this book so strange is that Morrison wrote this like he's Garth Ennis.

There are so many aspects of this book that read like Ennis at his crime-comic best (his war books are very different).  Nick Sax, the ex-police detective, has eczema and is always in a bad mood.  There is a child-porn ring that are planning on featuring a Christmas-themed live event on Christmas Eve.  Toss in the liberal use of the C-word, and you'd swear this was an Ennis book.

Regardless of whose voice Morrison chose to write this in, this has been a decent little mini-series.  Sax is a mess, but through the faith and support of a little girl's blue flying unicorn imaginary friend, he is able to pull his act together.  Robertson is brilliant at this kind of thing, and he juxtaposes the ridiculously cartoony Happy with the dishevelled and scabrous Sax in a way that makes this book really stand out.

It's not very ground breaking, but it's good stuff.

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