Further Grickle

by Graham Annable

Graham Annable's follow up to his Harvey-nominated Grickle, further Grickle collects beautiful stories in which devilish comedy and eye-watering art enclose a rich, chocolaty center of sad poetry and bruised but intact innocence. Annable has been creating these stories for his own satisfaction concurrent with his commercial animation work, and it shows in their intimate, conversational tone and wholly personal outlook. The skills honed at his day job are just as evident in the deft, fluid way he puts his stylish figures through their paces - it's like listening to the eloquent solo improvisations of a jazz musician who has sharpened his chops playing every night in the band. Even several panels of an Annable character just sitting still at a table practically glitter with life and cartoon joy.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Oscar-nominated director Graham Annable is a cartoonist and animator living just outside of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with his wife and two boys. Mr. Annable's unique voice has been consistently recognized in the mediums of film, games, and graphic novels throughout his career, garnering numerous awards and nominations along the way. When he's not taking his pugs on a walk in the woods he can usually be found doodling ideas for his latest project in the studio.

Reviews

[Raj Bowers-Racine]

Fantastic cartooning. Interesting vignette structure that varies from hilarious to tragic. Terrible early-2000s cover design.

[Jenn Mattson]

So odd, but I love his drawings he posts on social media so much that I couldn’t resist when I saw this for sale from a second hand dealer.

[D.M.]

I feel pretty sure that any book that could work in the line 'husbands and wombats just aren't for me' would be a winner with me, but that it's in the longest story Graham Annable's done in these books certainly doesn't hurt.
This is another wonderful collections of bits and pieces from the warped but wonderful imagination of Annable, and stands just as tall as the first book, Grickle, in my estimation. Further Grickle has a marked difference in that it's got several longer narratives taking up much of the space, and only a few shorter ones (with only one one-pager). For someone with such a penchant for the immediate appeal of well-drawn animation-style illustration, a longer story would seem like a strange avenue to take, but he makes it work. Most of what makes these longer pieces work is that it gives him more spaces for the frame-by-frame nuances that make his strips so successful to begin with. Perhaps the best example of this is (my favourite) 'Walk-In,' which shows us one man's trip to a new doctor in hope of help for his cough. In this story, entire pages (of 12-panel layout!) are devoted to the passage of a minute, and it's wonderfully funny.
If there's one story that doesn't really do it for me, it's got to be 'A Saturday Afternoon,' giving us a weird uncle telling of 'the children of the gases.' It's still got great illustration, and it is uniquely Annablesque, but fart humour will rarely appeal to me. But that's my only issue with it, and everything else is gold.
I might even say that this would be a better place to start with him than the original Grickle, but ideally newbies would just go check out some of his brilliant actual animation on YouTube via the Hickee Hub. It's a safe bet any viewer will want more.

[Sam Quixote]

I read "The Book of Grickle" several months ago and felt a hankering for some more of the interesting antics of Graham Annable's characters recently. I saw "Further Grickle" and thought it was a companion piece to "The Book of Grickle" not knowing that "Book" is more of a best of, of all Annable's Grickle stories and that a lot of "Further Grickle" is in "Book of Grickle". The strips that weren't included in the best of were ok, featuring a curious cat doing silly things but the best work was stuff I'd already read. So this is a friendly warning to any Annable fans out there that if you're looking for more of what you read in "Book of Grickle", then this contains slim pickings to supplement that.

[Raina]

I think I'm ODing on graphic novels. I keep waiting for one that I love. This one, a collection of unrelated stories, was intriguing, but it didn't stand out in a crowd. I did particularly enjoy his longest story "By Necessity" about a scuffle with a neighbor. There's a certain charm to his very simplistic illustration style.

[J]

I LOLED AS NEVER BEFORE!! PERFECT COMIC TIMING!! I LOVED EVERY PAGE!!

[Beth]

Review: https://hiplibrariansbookblog.com/201...

[Megan]

The first part before the wombat story is pretty great. Especially the cat that eats the stuff of sad people.

[James]

Cute, and occasionally sad.

[Mickey Bits]

Weird comix. A quick read. Good for three or four (ahem..) sits.