Billy Hazelnuts
By Henry Chamberlain
October 13, 2006 - 20:51
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
Writer(s): Tony Millionaire
Penciller(s): Tony Millionaire
Cover Artist(s): Tony Millionaire
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The Model T is to the hotrod what Little Nemo is to Tony Millionaire. He takes his source material, pumps it with adrenaline, and creates super-charged hybrids caught up in hallucinatory stupors that would make Hunter S. Thompson proud. For years now, Millionaire's alt weekly comic strip, "Maakies," has pitted a drunken gorilla against a drunken crow aboard a shipping vessel lost at sea. For fans, that seemed more than enough. But Millionaire is aiming higher.
With last year's book, "Sock Monkey," Millionaire is setting sail for books that attract both adults and children. His latest, "Billy Hazelnuts," starts out sweetly enough--at least as sweet as you could expect from a Millionaire comic. Billy seems to be just a poor little hobgoblin in need of guidance and understanding. He may not particularly care for these things but a little girl will not have it any other way.
Billy, it turns out, is more a creation of Becky Rimperton than Billy might care to admit--if he was prone to admit anything. Originally brought to life by resourceful and demented mice, Billy started out at a considerable disadvantage. All he knew, at that point, was to kill the house cat. But, soon enough, Becky steps into his miserable little life. She removes the flies installed inside his head by the mice. This blinds him. Then she places hazelnuts into his sunken sockets and he can see again.
The farther along you go, you get lost in the deadpan expressions, the blank stares, the pent-up desperation. These characters have a feeling of being traced from some musty old Sunday funnies and yet imbued with supernatural energy. They are not mere replicas. These are customized comix. These are hyperreal versions of bygone comics in the service of the Millionaire vision.
So, Billy is far from a mere hobgoblin. He is as much demon as potential little angel capable of giving a homicidal maniac a panic attack. And the story runs like a racehorse. It is quickly established that Eugene, a little boy scientist has the hots for Becky and is madly jealous of Billy. In no time, Eugene unleashes hell and fury in the form of his own creation, a mechanical alligator. Mayhem ensues resulting in some eye-popping fight scenes with planets colliding into each other in the background. Customized comix indeed. This one really belches fire.
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