Billy Hazelnuts

This saturday, I picked up the latest book by comic book genius Tony Millionaire (who, to quote Peter Bagge, “is so good he should be called Tony Billionaire”), Billy Hazelnuts. Billy Hazelnuts, like many of Millionaire’s books, leans heavily on old children’s books, and older literature in general, with its slightly horrid imagery and olden language. This, more than Maakies, would actually be possible to read for children, even though the book is likely to disturb them at least as much as the Grimm Brothers’ tales, or the scarier H.C. Andersen. Still, in the end, it is not the scariness that lingers but the insane inventions, the sweet melancholy and the spirit of forgiveness no matter what.