When DC announced Harley Quinn Fartacular: Silent Butt Deadly #1, I groaned alongside some if not all of y’all. Sure, I love it when someone lets rip a really good fart joke, but surely there’s not enough gas in the world to make a 40-page special truly sing? But then I started seeing early reactions like this guy — feckless comics dudes who’d rather be stuck in the past with their third-rate Spider-Man rip-offs than do anything new. And right then and there I knew I had to go out of my own way and give Harley a chance to cut loose.
And, boy oh boy, did it come out smelling like roses.
It helps to know that this book is, clearly, something of a gimmick. But then so is reading every new Punisher book hoping it’ll make you feel like you did when you were 11 years old. (Spoiler: it won’t.) But writer Joanne Starer still manages to make something with a lot of emotional resonance as Harley has to figure out how to win back Ivy when a tiny fart results in a relationship-shaking fight.
Courtesy of DC Comics.
And, sure, along the way there’s a veritable Hindenburg of fart jokes — one page in particular featuring a deluge of clever fart euphemisms is a proper gas — and lots of visual gags courtesy of the art team (Ted Brandt and Ro Stein). But what we get is actually an earnest story about what we all do for love, the value of communication, and why we shouldn’t be afraid to be ourselves. It’s a dumb book for sure, but then comics is a dumb medium, and embracing that is how we have fun and learn about ourselves and how to live imperfectly but joyously with others.
It’s the art style and aesthetic that really does a lot of the heavy lifting. It’s a dash more cartoonish than you’d expect in a mainstream DCU story, but it’s also a way to contextualize the farts of varying size and better manage other hijinks (which in addition to some hilarity around a famed author also includes a bonkers and disgusting cameo from a B-tier DC hero). It creates a bit of distance and a specific kind of context — a perfect bit of contextualizing so that what you see is meant to be dumb and weird and perhaps you’re willing to engage with it a little more sincerely.
Courtesy of DC Comics.
From the comical faces Harley makes mid-toot to the inventive use of gas as a propulsion system, you’re meant to laugh in a way that reminds us that comics can be like extra cheesy nachos — we’re meant to enjoy them for what they are (and not always what we think they ought to be).
That whole dynamic sets the stage for the larger end goals of this book. As mentioned, it’s actually another truly endearing look at comics’ true greatest couple, and Harley and Ivy get a chance to work out important communication issues that seemingly plague all lovebirds everywhere. But that’s only the feel-good surface, and like a silent but deadly fart, the issue’s larger purpose waits to strike.
The creative team knew that everyone would turn their noses up at a book about women farting, and they tackle these notions head on. The Fartacular is, at its core, a solid way to dismiss the stigma of farting because it’s dumb and sexist. Everyone farts all the time, and the fact that it’s a pleasant or disgusting thing isn’t the point — the point is that we should all feel free to to laugh at it so we don’t feel shame. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just trapped in a stupid, archaic system, and we should all be free to celebrate or even just be comfortable with the best and worst parts of our bodies. Men get to fart as much as they want — see Terrance and Phillip, damnit — and to deny anyone else feels rather mean-spirited and regressive.
Courtesy of DC Comics.
But luckily, the story doesn’t exactly bash you over the head with this point. Rather, it sort of makes the idea known and then gets right back to ::checks notes:: farts that seemingly melt wallpaper or smell like fast food. And that’s the way it ought to be: Comics is one of the best mediums for sneaking in big ideas (either visually or with other subtle techniques/creative decisions). It’s a medium made for making us think and still entertaining us regardless.
Guys like Mr. TikTok from the intro forget that tidbit, and assume that there’s only one story to tell. The Fartacular reminds us there’s room at the table for things that are dumb and transcendent, and in telling all of these tales we are better, more well-rounded people overall.
So, no, you don’t have to like The Fartacular. But my question is why not? Do you think farts are dumb? Maybe ask yourself why that is. Are you ashamed to laugh at yourself? Again, it seems like you’ve got some deep introspection to mull over. Maybe you think comics ought to be more serious? Isn’t a story about making love work and dismantling needless gender stereotypes serious enough?
Open your heart and mind, take a deep, deep breath, and really take this one it. That resulting smell? Why, it’s the sweet perfume of a great story.
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