Digger-Mousie has Stolen My Heart

This was going to be a quick intro to my actual blog today, but then it got really long. So then I thought I’d do it as a bonus blog on Friday. Then I decided I didn’t have anything of great importance (besides whining about not drawing enough) to blog about today, so we’re back to posting this right now. *sigh* That was unnecessary. Anyway, here’s my love letter to review of “Digger” by Ursula Vernon. You can read the entire run at diggercomic.com.

If you’ve been following me on twitter (shameless plug: @ejmorrell), for the past week or so I’ve been gushing almost every day about how much I love the web comic, “Digger” by Ursula Vernon. I don’t remember how I found it - possibly a link on Fleen? - but it was definitely a random “I’m bored so I’m going to go find something that interests me on the interwebs.” Well, to say I found a gold mine would not only be cute and on topic (It’s about a Wombat who, logically, comes from a culture of excavators, minors and geologists), but 100% correct in the metaphorical sense as well. This comic is brilliant.

[A quick aside: for those of you who don’t know, I work full time as a receptionist. This position is great: the people are really nice, it doesn’t take much brain power, and allows me nights and weekends free. It also allows for some internet surfing since it is pretty slow. They don’t really care what I do online as long as it doesn’t interfere with doing my job. Thus, in the doldrums of the afternoon I like to beat back the boredom monster with a healthy dose of blogs and web comics. So imagine my delight when I found such a gem that had nearly 4 years of archives to read through.]

Not only is her story telling fabulous - because it is - but what really drew me in to keep reading was her art. (Sorry about the bad puns. It’s in my blood.) This comic is stunning. It is in black and white, with a rare grey here and there (I audibly gasped when the ghosts showed up. EXCELLENT use of transparency). Unlike some other black and white comics I’ve seen, this one is clean and easy on the eyes, but definitely not lacking in detail. The beginning of the comic has more of a woodblock print feel to it (my guess is because she did the first handful of strips as white-on-black). She then relaxes into a style that feels natural to the story line. The thing that I love most is her use of (what I assume to be) a brush that looks like hatching, adding finer texture than a single line can. The way she adds and subtracts using black over white and vise versa really adds a depth hard to achieve in simple monotone. She portrays excellent facial expressions, beautiful detail in scenery (the random mouse who seemingly has his own plot line popping up here and there in the background cracks me up) and genius layout. As far as comics go, she uses the format very creatively branching across panel borders and even illustrating in the negative space. All this creates a rich setting for these characters that don’t take very long to fall in love with.

Her story, as alluded to above, is really sweet. Digger the wombat finds herself lost while tunneling and comes up in a temple of Ganesh in a world very different from hers. Along the way she meets a mysterious (and HILARIOUS) little fellow she calls Shadow Child, a hyena-type animal with no name dubbed Ed, a “chosen one” who is on the verge of insanity, and lots of other great characters. The story seems to be well thought out and not written spur of the moment (however she could just be a genius), which is nice to feel like it’s going somewhere when it has called itself a “peculiar epic”. Also, something I desperately respect in Vernon’s comic is that she has an end in mind. This isn’t a gag-a-day, or even a story that will go until she gets bored. She has a story to tell and when it’s over, it will be over (and the end is nigh, unfortunately).

I am not ashamed to say that I almost burst out in tears the other day while reading the past month’s work. So this is a warning to everyone else: unless you’re prepared to open a new browser and do something else for an hour, don’t read this in public. It will tug your heart strings. (Ha, that was a pun if you’ve heard the story...kind of a gross, dark pun...) But in all seriousness, this story will at least cause a catch in your throat, if you’re not a crier like I am.

All this to say: I love Digger (and think “Digger Mousy”, as she is dubbed by Ed, is the cutest nickname ever). And I think you will, too. Go check it out. There are almost 4 years of twice-weekly updates, but it’s a beautiful story in all aspects, so I highly suggest it. They’re also in book format in volumes. If she ever releases one big volume, I’m buying that thing faster that you can say “Blood and shale!”.

But who am I kidding? I’ll probably buy it before then.