Billy Hazelnuts
The Tony Millionaire who gives out drinking advice to his fans is the creator of Maakies, a strip that appears among other places in the Reader and has a huge Internet fan base. Each week’s installment usually ends tragically for the heroes–Drinky and a monkey named Uncle Gabby–due to their own ineptitude and drunkenness. It’s full of poop jokes, minority stereotypes, poetry, and endings that mock Henny Youngman-style punch lines as much as they revel in them. I keep a hardbound collection of strips on my coffee table, and visitors tend to read it front to back when they pick it up.
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As Billy and Becky travel further into the unreal, Millionaire draws the reader closer to the story’s heart. As the action piles up in increasingly fantastic ways (peaking in a battle on the open sea, one of Millionaire’s favorite subjects), Billy’s relationship with Becky, and with humanity itself, comes under attack. When the smoke clears and Billy finds himself lost, alone, and blinded, it’s hard not to feel more sympathy for a gross little trash man than you’d have thought possible.
