The 1990s were rife with heavy-handed anti-drug messages. Many of them rang false because they didn’t connect with kids or simply went too over-the-top in their presentation. The message of “don’t do drugs” even landed in the pages of the Forgotten Realms comic, but I feel it’s more effective here than in many ad campaigns.

Perhaps it’s because the Forgotten Realms is already filled with over-the-top situations, or perhaps it’s because the story focuses on an addict’s perspective, but “Head Cheeese” works pretty well as an exploration of addiction and recovery. Don’t let the goofy title fool you–this is a pretty serious story that has a lot of heart.

Foxy is Strung Out

After an exciting battle against a giant squid in the last issue, the Realms Master pulled into port and something happened. Whatever that something was, we begin this issue with Foxy wandering through a black void.

A door appears, and when Foxy opens it, he finds out what’s happening in the real world: he’s passed out with the crew around him. Vartan’s curative spells have no effect because he’s not diseased but rather intoxicated. Very, very intoxicated.

The thing Agrivar holds is “cheeese,” an addictive substance that only affects halflings. Foxy hasn’t had it in quite a while, but he apparently slipped up and fell off the wagon.

The hallucination is a mysterious cloaked figure who pulls Foxy into the past for a flashback.

Incidentally, this synopsis doesn’t do justice to the layout of this issue, which uses panels very well. Many of them are full-page spreads, which I try to avoid copying here, but they use the black void in which Foxy finds himself very well. There’s a sense of depth as he moves from panel to panel, despite him being mostly alone with no background. Similarly, his fall into the past shows several panels that reflect his past adventures falling across the page like playing cards. It’s very well-done, and I highly recommend tracking down the story (which can be found in Forgotten Realms Classics volume 2) to see it in all its glory.

A Window to the Past

As he tumbles through the panels that form his memories, Foxy finds himself back in Luiren, the land of the halflings. Looking into his past, he sees a man called Joribel, whose actions would lead to Foxy’s current condition.

Joribel appeared to the halflings as a friend and invited them back to his castle for a feast. However, when the feast was over, he gave Foxy and his friends a “dessert” of cheeese. This got them addicted, and he used that addiction to exert influence over them.

But Foxy got clean and broke the hold that cheeese had on him…right?

Well, he did…but not due to his own strong will.

When a new halfling that Foxy thought he recognized came to Joribel’s castle, he tried to rescue her by starting a fight. He stabbed Joribel, toppled a cheeese tray, and made for the door. The bully who had taken his cheeese didn’t make it.

By pure coincidence, the fleeing halflings came across Dwalimor Omen and Minder. It helps to plead your case to a powerful wizard, and Omen chose to take matters into his own hands.

As for the girl Foxy thought he recognized? A complete stranger. The halfling was simply out of his head due to the cheeese and mistook her for someone else.

End of the Trip

The hooded figure who guided Foxy’s flashback taunts him that, after all this time, a single piece of cheeese was enough to make him pass out again. Foxy knocks back its hood expecting to see himself, but instead gets a terrible surprise.

Given the setting, it’s really hard to figure out if Foxy was simply hallucinating the giant drug-spider or if it was a real extraplanar entity. The multiverse has a demiplane of ooze…why not a demiplane of addiction?

Whether the spider is real or just a hallucination, it’s enough to snap Foxy out of his stupor. He grabs the cheeese and throws it into the sea.

Recognizing addiction from personal experience, Agrivar talks to Foxy about his own struggles with alcohol.

Agrivar adds, “If you’ve slid downhill a little, you can climb back. But you need help to do it. You need friends.”

That message, in my opinion, is what separates this issue from the ineffective lectures that plagued most of the 1990s when adults tried to talk to kids about drugs. The “don’t do drugs” message doesn’t work very well for anybody who has actually done drugs–it just makes them feel guilty, and like they’ve failed. The message that you can recover and move on from an addiction is a good one, and emphasizing the importance of a support network has much more impact.

Whatever I might think about the moral of the story, though, Vartan doesn’t share my sentiments.

And thus ends “Head Cheeese.” Next time we go back to multi-issue arcs, but it’s great to see one-shots like these that tell a powerful story in a short period of time while letting us better understand our ensemble cast. This is the type of storytelling that modern comics and their film adaptations tend not to tell, and I think that’s to their detriment.

_{Images: DC Comics}