A tiny badger in a tiny apartment, complete with a tiny heater, a minuscule couch and a wee murphy bed, waits for his phone to ring. When it doesn’t, he decides to turn in.
The next day brings a slightly brighter routine: some chores, a trip to the coffee shop, lunch in a park, food shopping, and more, all done by bus or roller skate skateboard. But don’t be fooled by the momentary upswing. Just because badger’s going through the motions of life doesn’t mean that he won’t be lured by the tantalizing, garbage-strewn alleys and human-less haunts of rock bottom!
Hardiman’s badger is cute but sad as advertised, and the brushwork used to make him is lush and juicy. Sometimes though, the gray tones of the work conspire with tiny panels to make some hard to read, and that interrupts the flow of this wordless work. This could be the fault of my reader’s copy, though. And while the charms of badger’s mini knapsack and fishing pole go very far, Hardiman’s human characters look distractingly flat and poorly drawn, making badger’s world not as lively as it could be.
Buuuuuut, this is badger’s melancholy tale and lovers of anthropomorphism will definitely dig it.
Hi there,
Just thought you’d like to know I’ve re-launched Badger as a web-comic that tells the story of him growing up in the countryside as well as showing what happens after the book. I’ve taken on board the feedback about the artwork and hopefully it should be much clearer from here on in.
Thanks for posting the review; you might want to update the link to http://www.cutebutsad.co.uk where the new strips go up.
Howard