The Boys: Highland Laddie by Garth Ennis, John McCrea and Derrick Robertson

Book Review by Keir Hind | 26 May 2011
Book title: The Boys: Highland Laddie
Author: Garth Ennis, John McCrea and Derick Robertson

 

After the events in the last collected edition of The Boys comic, our sort-of hero, Simon Pegg lookalike Hughie, retreats to his home town for a break. Since he’s from Scotland, he returns to the comic stereotype town of Auchterladle, and we’re treated to not a few references to The Broons and Oor Wullie – the most blatant being Hughie sitting sulking on a bucket. God alone only knows how this appears to the American readership. But this is still The Boys, Garth Ennis’ self-styled attempt to “out-Preacher Preacher” – and given the mayhem in that title, that’s saying something. Here, this means there’s a drug running plot playing out in the shadows of this sleepy town (readers may sometimes wonder if anything but plotting goes on in small, remote towns by the sea, but that’s kind of the point here) and Hughie is, of course, drawn in to foiling it. And so the graphic violence common in The Boys finds a way in here – though much of Hughie’s general background is pretty disturbing too. This isn’t for the faint hearted, or even the reasonably strong hearted, but if you can stomach some horribly disturbing aspects here and there, Highland Laddie is a very entertaining collection. [Keir Hind]

 

Out now. Published by Titan Books. Cover price £12.99