Review by Frank Plowright

If the cover isn’t a giveaway, then describing the story as one told in eight partings shows where this slim graphic novel is pitched. It’s a wildly experimental collection of creatively unfeasible situations, witty wordplay and cultural surreality, and for all the popularity of Tank Girl, Jamie Hewlett’s best comic art.

When psychiatric patient Hewligan cuts his resolutely upstanding hair the resulting coiffure has a large hole, yet despite this and without being cured, he’s deemed fit to be released for care in the community. At this point the strip switches to colour to reflect the miasmic disorientation Hewligan experiences. Peter Milligan makes sense of it by having it explained to Hewligan that some people are out of touch because they’re more attuned to other dimensions, and that results in a madcap chase through them and a budding romance.

In case you’ve not figured it out, Hewligan’s name merges that of his creators, and other self-indulgence occurs, but only as minor elements. It’s best to view what plot there is as an enabling coat peg, as it’s there for Milligan to feed in astonishingly high end concepts and jokes, and to let Hewlett channel the spirit of Leo Baxendale in serving up gloriously bright anarchy. Almost every panel’s a t-shirt. And whereas Hewlett previously pleased himself, working for 2000AD meant there was a minimum of editorial control ensuring his anarchic visuals supplied some form of conventional storytelling. Milligan feeds him artistic cues, and he duly delivers imaginative renderings of cubism, the stone monuments of Easter Island or a brief Prisoner pastiche. At times it resembles the manic scribblings of a 1970s schoolboy on their school exercise book, but it’s always eye-catching.

The haircut for most of the strip is just a nice visual motif, but toward the end Milligan reveals the suitably silly significance.

If you’re happy to follow two inventive creators on a wild ride Hewligan’s Haircut is still a treat, but if you expect narrative structure and explanations maybe some of Milligan’s other work is a better fit (see recommendations).

Each of the options for buying Hewligan’s Haircut has something to recommend it. The 1990s edition is album sized complete with a hole cut out of the cover. The 2003 publication includes a mad Judge Dredd story pairing Hewlett with Brendan McCarthy, while Best of 2000AD Volume 4 contains several other strips living up to the title.