Written by W. Maxwell Prince
Art by Vanesa R. Del Rey, Zoe Thorogood
Published by Image Comics
I haven’t seen the recent Joker movie but I can’t help but think that W. Michael Prince, creator of the new Image series entitle Haha did and was really inspired by it. In fact, all through the first issue of Haha I was reminded of the trailers for The Joker.
I liked the first issue better than the second. It tells the story of a particularly bad day for a clown named Bartleby who works at a low-rent amusement park called Funville that’s going out of business.
The second issue introduces us to a female clown determined to start a new life with her daughter on the way to Funville, unaware that it has closed.
Each of the two issues is self-contained and with the exception of the vague Funville connection, the stories have nothing in common. Is this an anthology series about clowns, then? Is it going anywhere? Is it supposed to spotlight the bleak hopelessness of life no matter how optimistic one gets? I couldn’t tell. And at least in my review pdfs there’s no kind of introductory material.
Since both issues are depressing, I suppose the title is supposed to be ironic.
Vanesa del Rey is the artist on issue one, Zoe Thorogood on issue two. Both are drawn well, each in a different but fairly straightforward style. Both stories show down on their luck clowns getting into bad situations, both are well-written, and both have odd little endings.
I’m just not sure what any of it is supposed to mean or why I should care.
Looks like next issue has a mime.
