9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful tale, 15 Jan 2001
This review is from: The Tale of One Bad Rat (Paperback)
One Bad Rat is a beautiful comic, entirely unlike anything I have seen before. With no fantasy elements (well, apart from the giant imaginary rat) the story stands on the telling and the art. A young girl escapes her abusive father and unloving mother, running first to London and then the Lake District, where she finds a surrogate family. It all sounds like a TV movie, but is far superior to subject of the week fodder. The story is less melodramatic, the detail better observed, the colour more vivid and (yes) the acting is more believable.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ratus Graphicus, 8 Aug 2008
This is a very nicely produced hardback edition collecting together the whole story.
I ordered it based on the reputation of the book from blogs and the like and I was not disappointed. In fact, I sat up late to read all the way to the end.
First published in 1995, the plot is now perhaps a little less surprising and shocking than it was back then, but it remains a very moving story, with characters that feel real and that you care about.
Like a good thriller you find yourself hoping the story will go in a certain direction while simultaneously fearing the opposite. It is highly effective and moving stuff.
By mistake I ordered two copies, but in fact that has turned out to be a good thing because it is one of those books you will want to pass on to others.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic. Beautifully written and drawn, but never shying away from the task in hand., 11 Jan 2012
Bryan Talbot's name is most associated with 200AD comic, as he provided strips for Blaine, Nemesis The Warolck and Judge Dredd. But after several years of superheroes and the supernatural, he wrote and drew The Tale Of One Bad Rat, a beautifully scripted and rendered voyage of a young girl doing battle with the spectre of sexual abuse.
The story starts with Helen homeless on the platform of Tottenham Court Road tube station, begging for change and being harangued by an over-zealous Christian crusader. After encounters with a trio of prostitutes and an amorous and sleazy MP, she falls in with some well-meaning but occasionally volatile squatters. Events take a sudden turn for the worse, and she hitches out of London when her recent past starts catching up with her. From this point it's a visual and personal tour-de-force, as Helen begins to work on the source of her demons against the stunning backdrop of the Lake District.
As Alice In Sunderland (one of Bryan Talbot's later books) focused on the links between Sunderland and Lewis Carroll, One Bad Rat ties itself with the life, works and movements of Beatrix Potter. The title and cover both pay homage to the range of books penned by Potter, and Helen has a long-standing obsession them. Furthermore, a series of enounters and locations in the Lake District echo her life and movements through that part of the country, which is where she drew a lot of her inspiration.
The Tale Of One Bad Rat is still in print, and is a comic I can't recommend enough. It's wonderfully written, with a good deal of research into and, more importantly, sensitivity to the obviously charged subject matter. The characterisation is strong and Bryan Talbot made a point of drawing from life models, which adds the grit and emotion necessary to the proceedings.
Visually it hits the right notes all the way, from the gaudy neon-dappled drizzle of East End London to the epic vistas of the Lakes. Comic books are by nature static in their presentation, but The Tale of One Bad Rat feels very much like a moving road trip.
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