The Tale of One Bad Rat
Bryan Talbot
Dark Horse Comics
$14.95
01324V
I recall back in the hazy days of the early nineties when there were
no fewer than four comic shops along Main Street, and Capital was
not yet a part of Diamond. I used to purchase Previews to get
the scoop on what was going to be happening two months down the line,
which was unusual at the time and not a necessity. It was in that
catalogue I first saw the title The Tale of One Bad Rat. I
was intrigued ... but not enough to ever get it. Besides, the store
I went to at the time did not like getting much of Dark Horse's product-the
licensed comics (Aliens, Predator, etc) and Dark Horse Presents.
Needless to say, I never ordered the then serialized three issue series.
Eight years later, I found myself interested in the work of Bryan
Talbot. His presentation of the factors and influences that went into
Heart of Empire at last year's San Diego Comic Convention
immediately impressed me. Afterward, I picked up The Adventures
of Luther Arkwright and finally read The Tale of One Bad Rat.
I wonder if I would have appreciated it eight years ago.
The story follows a (for lack of a better term) wanderer named Helen.
Her hold on reality appears to be slipping. She has visions and talks
to a rat. Her only points of reference within reality are the books
of Beatrix Potter. This eventually leads to a journey from London
to the North where Potter lived. While on this trek, Helen learns
about herself and the past that led her undertake the trip (more on
that below).
Now, the book features amazing, photo-realistic art from Talbot. The
use of models and the amazing colors only make Talbot's considerable
skill all the more amazing. The expressions of the characters faces
are honest and real. Their movements are subtler than even the characters
of Arkwright. The most amazing use of the style is the growth
of Helen's hair. It slowly gets longer as the story goes on, and in
fact keeps time for the story-almost imperceptibly.
The colors, a first for Talbot here, are used as though he always
had been working with them. Characters are expertly coded. Helen is
always seen in orange and blue, though orange becomes the dominant
color as the story progresses. Her father is seen as being lifelessly
pale or in shades of red thought the story. Talbot's switching from
expressionist color schemes and the stark reality of life is also
handled well. All of Helen's flashbacks begin with the entire panel
washed in tones of one specific color. The longer flashbacks eventually
take on the representative schemes to remind us that though this is
Helen's remembering, they are part of the live, real, past for her.
This is in contrast to her visions, which are nightmarish and remain
washed in color.
All this use of art is, of course, in service to Talbot's story, which
deftly handles a very difficult issue: sexual abuse at the hands of
a parent. We first meet Helen in a tube stop in London, after she
has run away from home. As she goes further north, we are given more
and more of the reason why she left and the extent of her father's
abuse. It is treated with respect and reserve. Helen's situation is
never illustrated so much in specifics, but in her general apprehension,
sadness, and refusal to trust anyone for most of the story. Instead
of addressing the act itself, Talbot reveals the much harder to accomplish
details of living with that kind of abuse. In one of the flashbacks,
a teacher calls Helen's behavior "autism." Thought it is
a misdiagnosis, it not far from the truth. Helen has retreated from
the world, which is a very real consequence of sexual abuse.
An amazing part of the story happens at the end, when Helen finally
confronts her father. This is a situation where the reality could
easily be lost. Helen screams and yells, but her father is unresponsive.
He makes a move to hit her, but does not ... acknowledging, however
briefly, the violence he is capable of inflicting. Though he really
does not change, Helen has grown beyond her self-hatred. Talbot's
treatment rings with truth.
Though Talbot considers the subject the "raison d'être"
of the book's existence, it goes much further than a book about the
effects of sexual abuse. Here, Talbot enters the realm of a proper
novel. The story is layered with Helen's love of Beatrix Potter. She
copies the paintings in Potter's books. When Helen's rat is killed,
she uses her visions to create a giant rat companion. When the time
comes to confront her father, she dispels the rat. After the confrontation,
Helen learns her visions are part of a powerful creative spark within
her. A second theme emerges: how creativity can be blocked by trauma
and the effect of that on a person.
There is a third theme that makes the book universally appreciated,
even when its major theme of abuse is hard to take. The Tale of
One Bad Rat is about growing up. This is both a function of the
story and art. In the flashbacks, Helen's hair is long and very childish.
In London, it is cut short with teenaged rebellion and anger. By the
time Helen reaches the valley where Potter lived, her hair is given
a mature length and style. Within the story, Helen is the center of
the world in the flashbacks. Once she runs away, she begins the trials
of life: food, housing, etc. When she reaches the valley, the practical
matters of life are dealt with. She has a job and a warm place to
sleep. Though this theme is not as major or shattering as the first
two, it does provide a point of entry for a person who could otherwise
find a story about sexual abuse difficult to even read the first page.
So why call it a proper novel? A novel is never about any one thing.
It may have a major theme, but there's always something else underneath.
It may be the history of the characters or the time it takes place,
but an amount of texture that gives the story more than depth-it gives
it a place within a shared reality. It is this texture that makes
The Tale of One Bad Rat a proper novel and essential reading.
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The Tale of One Bad Rat is in print and is available from the
wonderful people at Dark Horse Comics with the order code of 01324V.
Finer retailers everywhere are findable at
www.the-master-list.com
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