"Happy!" by Grant Morrison

BOOK TITLE: Happy!

AUTHOR: Grant Morrison

YEAR: 2017

GENRE: Graphic Novel

SUBGENRE: Crime Fiction

GRADE: Pass

Disgraced detective turned contract killer Nick Sax completes an assassination of mob boss Mr. Blue’s sons. During the final moments of the confrontation, one of the sons tells Nick the password to a bank account full of laundered mafia money. Just as Mr. Blue’s henchmen are about to extract the password from him via torture, an imaginary blue unicorn haunts Nick’s psyche and agrees to help him out dangerous situations on the condition that he rescues small children from a porn studio. Will Nick Sax become the hero he was meant to be or will he selfishly reject Happy the horse every step of the way?

This graphic novel is incontrovertible proof that not all protagonists have to be saints in order for the audience to cheer for them. Nick Sax is a vulgar, selfish, negative alcoholic who would rather waste his life away than use it for good causes. Seeing as how this is a redemption story, Happy the Horse has a long way to go in order to convince Nick to see the light. The two of them get into schizophrenic arguments that make outsiders feel uncomfortable and downright frightened to death. When the big payoff finally happens, it feels right. Some would criticize Nick’s newfound reasons as being selfish yet again, but that just goes to show how stonehearted a broken man like him can be. To me, that’s gritty and realistic, which is what all detective novels should be like, imaginary horse aside.

Speaking of Happy, I enjoyed his characterization as well. He’s a goofy, lovable, lighthearted ray of sunshine in a world covered in darkness and beer. Sometimes the reader needs a break from all of the R-rated horror and Happy will provide that relief through his personality alone. In truth, Happy is the last line of defense for childhood innocence since he was one of the kidnapped children’s imaginary friend at one point. Once he’s gone, the whole world turns to poison. Imagination is the most powerful tool we have and it took a lot of it to incorporate Happy’s character in a believable way. Good job in that department, Mr. Morrison!

I don’t have many complaints, but I do have one about Nick Sax’s back story as to why he acts as coldly as he does. While it is a tragic story about his family that would make any reader tear up, it seems forced and cliché, like it somehow excuses Nick’s behavior by virtue of its mere existence in the storyline. I’ve seen this trope used many times before and it only numbs me to the real tragedy of the much larger story. But as I said, this is a minor complaint since it didn’t actually derail the story in any way. It’s just a flaw that needed to be pointed out, that’s all.

All in all, this was a fun little graphic novel and I can easily see why Syfy would want to make a TV show out of it. Sometimes it’s fun to root for the antihero, especially when a magical flying horse evens him out. That’s the trick with the antihero: he can’t be worse than the villains he’s fighting. Otherwise, there’s nothing to believe in. Nick Sax’s redemption story is believable to me and that’s why I’m giving this graphic novel a passing grade despite his clichéd character history.

"The Filth" by Grant Morrison

Remember an old 1999 classic called “The Matrix”? You know, where the real world is an apocalyptic, dystopian hell and the fake world is a beautiful paradise? Apply this theory to “The Filth”, but make the dystopian hell a trashy world where the ground is covered in feces, skin flakes, urine, semen-covered pornography, snot, and pretty much anything else that would make Grant Morrison gag at his own work. This is the world of the appropriately titled “The Filth”. Ned Slade is an agent of a top secret organization called The Hand, whose sole purpose is to keep the gut-wrenching trash from contaminating the beautiful real world. You’re probably wondering to yourself why exactly these people call themselves The Hand? Well, when giving a wad of toilet paper after dropping a deuce in the toilet, what do you think hands do afterwards? Exactly. Cleaning up contaminations is a lot like wiping a dirty asshole in the world of “The Filth”. If this sounds like nightmare fuel that the main character wishes he could wake up from, it’s because it is. Whenever he’s not being a cleansing agent, Ned Slade leads an ordinary life as Greg Feely. Well, ordinary isn’t quite the word to describe it. As Greg Feely, people mistake him for a pedophile due to his porn-watching tendencies in a neighborhood full of playing children. All Greg really wants to do is take care of his sickly kitty cat Tony. The more people try to interfere with saving Tony’s life, the more combative Feely becomes, especially when he’s called into action as Ned Slade. Sounds like an…interesting storyline to say the least. But unlike the much cleaner “Matrix”, “The Filth” goes far beyond an ordinary R rating. Even with the censored addition I accidentally bought where the genitals and black semen were blurred out, it’s still going to haunt your psyche for many years to come. Definitely keep this book out of range of little children, lest you become a carbon copy of Greg Feely. A potential X rating is enough reason to buy this graphic novel, but if you’re a literary nut who loves symbolism despite its disgusting nature, you’ll appreciate this book too. Believe it or not, I actually had to read this book for a college class at Western Washington University. Maybe that’s by design since college students don’t gag and shiver whenever they see pee-pee parts, especially at the school I went to. If you’ve got a strong stomach and a smart mind all wrapped into one, buy this book. Don’t wait for it to become available at your local library or Christian book store, because it’ll never happen. Ever!

　

***RHETORICAL QUESTION OF THE DAY***

If your Lipchitz, what does your ass do?