I Hate Fairyland: Skottie Young Homages Marvel’s Oz With New Cover

Image Comics’ fan-favorite series I Hate Fairyland is about to have a major full circle moment. Earlier this week, Image Comics revealed a new cover for the forthcoming I Hate Fairyland #17, which will be released wherever comics are sold in November. Skottie Young’s cover intentionally mirrors his illustration for 2009’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz #1, the first issue in his and Eric Shanower’s adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s iconic novel of the same name. 

Given the narrative similarities between The Wizard of Oz and I Hate Fairyland — albeit, with the latter series taking a darker and more violent twist — this cover is particularly clever. It has also been teased that the “Happy Ending” arc that I Hate Fairyland #17 is a part of will directly include characters from The Wizard of Oz, so it will be interesting to see how that story arc develops.

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What Is I Hate Fairyland About?

I Hate Fairyland follows Gert, a six year old girl who has been stuck in the magical world of Fairyland for thirty years and will hack and slash her way through anything to find her way back home.

“It’s amazing,” Young told ComicBook in an exclusive interview at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. “Just the fact that I’m publishing a book at Image comics, being an Image kid myself, buying Spawn #1 on the shelf, buying WildC.A.T.S. #1 on the shelf, Savage Dragon #1 on the shelf. So the fact that I have Image Comics #1’s that people buy is amazing,” Young said. “The idea that it’s lasted 10 years blows my mind. I feel like I’m living out my childhood dream… We are cooking some fun things up. We have some pretty big things that we were just talking about before stepping in here. I think everyone will have lots of fun, us most of all.”

What Is I Hate Fairyland #17 About?

“HAPPY END GAME,” Part Two of Five
Happy leads the army of dead Gerts from Hell, through the Inferno and into Fairyland. Gert needs allies, so the King summons a legend from Kansas who’s pretty familiar with fighting off WICKED forces! Who could it be? Maybe someone who’s into glittery footwear? Yellow Bricks? Any guesses?

I Hate Fairyland #17 will be available wherever comics are sold on November 6th.