Digger is nothing short of a true epic of mythology, gods, and a wombat. Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels, or Digger to her friends, becomes disoriented from noxious fumes and subsequently very lost underground. She ends up stranded far from home in a distant and strange country where the statues talk, the slugs are prophets, and the squash thirst for the blood of the living. The practical and courageous Digger, who has no use for either gods or prophecies, is the reluctant and unlikely heroine in a short chapter of an ancient battle between good and evil. She may not be happy about it, but if she has a job to do, she’ll do it right!
Digger is complete as of March 2011, and won the Hugo award for best Graphic Story in 2012. It was part of a paid subscriber collective for most of it’s run, but it is now available in it’s entirety for free. It was originally a short story of just the first five pages which then grew into six volumes. It is also entirely in print with bonus short stories in the print volumes. While Vernon’s incredibly fascinating world of multicultural legends and bizarre creatures will draw you in, it’s Digger herself who really holds everything together. Her practical and genre-savvy nature and her deadpan wit give you a heroine who won’t put up with any nonsense from demons, trigger-happy monks, or packs of hungry hyenas. She will introduce them to the business end of her pickaxe if necessary.
I must warn my readers of two things: Do not read the comments on the archived pages as many previous readers have left spoilers. Also, there are scenes of domestic abuse.
The Author and her Other Works
Ursula Vernon is an award winning painter and children’s book author. She’s the author of the children’s series Dragonbreath, where a young dragon will teach you about biology and myths, and had a big hit on the message board 4chan and subsequent memedom with The Biting Pear of Salamanca. She also illustrated the game Black Sheep. Almost every single painting on her website and Deviant Art also has a bit of back story and flavor text, so those are definitely worth a browse through.
Please let me know what you think of Digger in the comments area below! Did you enjoy it? Do you hate it? Is it just… meh?
Aren’t the trolls are just the cutest? There’s an extended feature about them in volume 3 of the printed comic.
