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Digger #1-6
Digger Unearthed: The Complete Tenth Anniversary Collection
The story of a wombat on an incredible journey of discovery Kurt Busiek calls "utterly charming with a delightful (and refreshingly practical) hero."
Digger Unearthed is the story of a shrewd, sensible wombat engineer named Digger-of-unnecessarily-convoluted-tunnels, who finds herself stranded in a fantasy world that is far from logical. Thrust into the middle of a puzzling and often perilous situation involving gods, demons, destiny, and redemption, she finds her way based on a pragmatic honesty and the sincere belief in doing the right thing.
This tale manages to be both serious and light-hearted: it explores complex themes of honor, responsibility, and the gray areas between right and wrong, but it does so with a frequent application of humor, wit, and absurdity that makes the journey fun.
To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Digger Unearthed offers the complete webcomic collection in a single volume that can be fully enjoyed by young adult readers, yet also contains layers of sophistication that become deeper and more meaningful with age and experience.
Digger Unearthed is the story of a shrewd, sensible wombat engineer named Digger-of-unnecessarily-convoluted-tunnels, who finds herself stranded in a fantasy world that is far from logical. Thrust into the middle of a puzzling and often perilous situation involving gods, demons, destiny, and redemption, she finds her way based on a pragmatic honesty and the sincere belief in doing the right thing.
This tale manages to be both serious and light-hearted: it explores complex themes of honor, responsibility, and the gray areas between right and wrong, but it does so with a frequent application of humor, wit, and absurdity that makes the journey fun.
To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Digger Unearthed offers the complete webcomic collection in a single volume that can be fully enjoyed by young adult readers, yet also contains layers of sophistication that become deeper and more meaningful with age and experience.
800 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2013
66 people are currently reading
1153 people want to read
About the author
Ursula Vernon
75 books1,489 followersUrsula Vernon, aka T. Kingfisher, is an author and illustrator. She has written over fifteen books for children, at least a dozen novels for adults, an epic webcomic called “Digger” and various short stories and other odds and ends.
Ursula grew up in Oregon and Arizona, studied anthropology at Macalester College in Minnesota, and stayed there for ten years, until she finally learned to drive in deep snow and was obligated to leave the state.
Having moved across the country several times, she eventually settled in Pittsboro, North Carolina, where she works full-time as an artist and creator of oddities. She lives with her husband and his chickens.
Her work has been nominated for the Eisner, World Fantasy, and longlisted for the British Science Fiction Awards. It has garnered a number of Webcomics Choice Awards, the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story, the Mythopoeic Award for Children’s Literature, the Nebula for Best Short Story, the Sequoyah Award, and many others.
Ursula grew up in Oregon and Arizona, studied anthropology at Macalester College in Minnesota, and stayed there for ten years, until she finally learned to drive in deep snow and was obligated to leave the state.
Having moved across the country several times, she eventually settled in Pittsboro, North Carolina, where she works full-time as an artist and creator of oddities. She lives with her husband and his chickens.
Her work has been nominated for the Eisner, World Fantasy, and longlisted for the British Science Fiction Awards. It has garnered a number of Webcomics Choice Awards, the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story, the Mythopoeic Award for Children’s Literature, the Nebula for Best Short Story, the Sequoyah Award, and many others.
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September 2, 2014A practical, determinedly atheistical wombat stumbles into a world filled with the supernatural. Adventure, tension, hints of the numinous and humor abound. The pacing is a bit iffy (it reminds me of nineteenth century serials, as it was a web comic) and the end is so very dry it almost misses . . . but doesn't. All in all a magnificent epic.
December 28, 2015
Redwall meets Lord of the Rings meets Discworld, with the virtues of all three and almost none of the vices. Digger ought to be roughly a thousand times more popular. I'd be happy to live in a world where every geeky teenager reads the whole series at some point.
What are the virtues of the comic?
*The titular protagonist is one of my favorite characters in any book. I want to marry her and be her best friend and take a geology class with her all at once. I'm not someone who normally crushes on fictional animals, but... wow.
*Most of the other characters could also fight for that title. With the possible exception of the humans, every single speaking role in Digger is filled by someone with a story to tell, and a life outside the story, and a deep concern for their own goals and well-being. (How often do you see a side character abandon a quest because "I like you guys, but I actually have other stuff to do"? Not often enough.)
*It ends exactly soon enough, after just enough pain and loss and victory and hope.
*It helps you fall in love with wombats, who by all rights ought to replace dwarves as the default underground fantasy creatures.
*You can read it for free (and should start right away -- Google it, right now).
What are the virtues of the comic?
*The titular protagonist is one of my favorite characters in any book. I want to marry her and be her best friend and take a geology class with her all at once. I'm not someone who normally crushes on fictional animals, but... wow.
*Most of the other characters could also fight for that title. With the possible exception of the humans, every single speaking role in Digger is filled by someone with a story to tell, and a life outside the story, and a deep concern for their own goals and well-being. (How often do you see a side character abandon a quest because "I like you guys, but I actually have other stuff to do"? Not often enough.)
*It ends exactly soon enough, after just enough pain and loss and victory and hope.
*It helps you fall in love with wombats, who by all rights ought to replace dwarves as the default underground fantasy creatures.
*You can read it for free (and should start right away -- Google it, right now).
January 6, 2014
If you haven't read Digger yet, you can can go here and do it for free. And you should, because it's fantastic. It didn't win a Hugo for nothing.
It's a bit hard to describe the plot of Digger in a way that sounds remotely comprehensible to anyone who isn't familiar with it. It's about a child with a destiny and her animal sidekick who dispenses practical advice, except from the perspective of the animal sidekick and maybe the destiny isn't quite what everyone thinks. It's about the reason why hyenas are matriarchal and have so many stillbirths. It's about how difficult it is to teach morality to someone who doesn't have any cultural framework at all to hang any of the teachings on. It's about how most conflict doesn't come from people who are innately evil, but merely from good people who have conflicting motivations and goals. And it's about proper tunnel bracing, structural integrity, and always, always remembering Tunnel 17.
Or as the top of the comic webpage says, "A wombat. A dead god. A very peculiar epic," which is as good a summary as any.
Since it was originally a webcomic, the pacing is rather odd in some places. While Vernon did plan out a lot of the comic, and some of the plot points had been coming for years, there was also a lot that was made up as she went along. The comic was originally just a doodle that was supposed to be seven pages long. Then maybe a hundred. Then two hundred at most. It eventually grew to around 750 pages taking eight years to play out, which goes to show either the importance of forward planning or how great things can get if you just wing it. Take your pick.
Digger the character is...well, hmm. I was going to say she's Pratchettian, but that's not really true. Pratchett's signature method is having characters treat what from our perspective are ridiculous situations as being deadly serious or as simply the way the world works. The biggest example of this is the explicit codification of the Law of Narrative Causality. Digger doesn't really do that, since Digger spends a huge portion of her dialogue wondering why people are acting the way they are or just facepalming--over 100 times, according to one count--but it never tips over into pontification. Digger is just so likeable in her complaining about the way all these non-practical humans and hyenas do things that the comic is a joy to read.
Since it's a comic, it's worth talking about the art. It's all monochrome, without even any grey, and shading being the only thing to alleviate the somewhat harsh color scheme. Many of the panels have backgrounds that are entirely black or entirely white. Despite that, Vernon has an amazing capacity to convey expression and character using that minimal color palette. If you read the website, a lot of the comments point out how amazingly evocative the art is, and how much emotion the characters show. Vernon even manages to convey emotion and expression in one of the characters who is a statue and is drawn the same way in every panel, just from the way the panel is blocked and some of the shading.
Speaking of the comments, that's one disadvantage of this collection. I read about half of Digger online before this book arrived (hence the "started" date that's earlier than the publication date of the book) and then much of the last half in dead tree form. The book is certainly a quicker read, but I did miss some of the context. Many of the seemingly ludicrous moments or characters, like the vampiric vegetables, are based on real myths or legends, and the commenters on the comic would hunt down everything and post explanations or links in the comments. You don't get any of that in the print edition.
One thing Digger: The Complete Omnibus does have to recommend it is the extras. There's an epilogue in the form of a short story, another comic about the sculptor of the statue of Ganesha in the temple, some documents kept by Librarian Vo about varieties of moles or troll physiology. All of that is great, and is definitely something to recommend the print version as a supplement to the online comic.
There are few webcomics that I'd describe as a classic, and Digger is definitely on that list. Quite possibly at the top of that list. My recommendation, without reservation, is: read it. It is absolutely worth your time.
It's a bit hard to describe the plot of Digger in a way that sounds remotely comprehensible to anyone who isn't familiar with it. It's about a child with a destiny and her animal sidekick who dispenses practical advice, except from the perspective of the animal sidekick and maybe the destiny isn't quite what everyone thinks. It's about the reason why hyenas are matriarchal and have so many stillbirths. It's about how difficult it is to teach morality to someone who doesn't have any cultural framework at all to hang any of the teachings on. It's about how most conflict doesn't come from people who are innately evil, but merely from good people who have conflicting motivations and goals. And it's about proper tunnel bracing, structural integrity, and always, always remembering Tunnel 17.
Or as the top of the comic webpage says, "A wombat. A dead god. A very peculiar epic," which is as good a summary as any.
Since it was originally a webcomic, the pacing is rather odd in some places. While Vernon did plan out a lot of the comic, and some of the plot points had been coming for years, there was also a lot that was made up as she went along. The comic was originally just a doodle that was supposed to be seven pages long. Then maybe a hundred. Then two hundred at most. It eventually grew to around 750 pages taking eight years to play out, which goes to show either the importance of forward planning or how great things can get if you just wing it. Take your pick.
Digger the character is...well, hmm. I was going to say she's Pratchettian, but that's not really true. Pratchett's signature method is having characters treat what from our perspective are ridiculous situations as being deadly serious or as simply the way the world works. The biggest example of this is the explicit codification of the Law of Narrative Causality. Digger doesn't really do that, since Digger spends a huge portion of her dialogue wondering why people are acting the way they are or just facepalming--over 100 times, according to one count--but it never tips over into pontification. Digger is just so likeable in her complaining about the way all these non-practical humans and hyenas do things that the comic is a joy to read.
Since it's a comic, it's worth talking about the art. It's all monochrome, without even any grey, and shading being the only thing to alleviate the somewhat harsh color scheme. Many of the panels have backgrounds that are entirely black or entirely white. Despite that, Vernon has an amazing capacity to convey expression and character using that minimal color palette. If you read the website, a lot of the comments point out how amazingly evocative the art is, and how much emotion the characters show. Vernon even manages to convey emotion and expression in one of the characters who is a statue and is drawn the same way in every panel, just from the way the panel is blocked and some of the shading.
Speaking of the comments, that's one disadvantage of this collection. I read about half of Digger online before this book arrived (hence the "started" date that's earlier than the publication date of the book) and then much of the last half in dead tree form. The book is certainly a quicker read, but I did miss some of the context. Many of the seemingly ludicrous moments or characters, like the vampiric vegetables, are based on real myths or legends, and the commenters on the comic would hunt down everything and post explanations or links in the comments. You don't get any of that in the print edition.
One thing Digger: The Complete Omnibus does have to recommend it is the extras. There's an epilogue in the form of a short story, another comic about the sculptor of the statue of Ganesha in the temple, some documents kept by Librarian Vo about varieties of moles or troll physiology. All of that is great, and is definitely something to recommend the print version as a supplement to the online comic.
There are few webcomics that I'd describe as a classic, and Digger is definitely on that list. Quite possibly at the top of that list. My recommendation, without reservation, is: read it. It is absolutely worth your time.
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April 5, 2024
What a fucking masterpiece in storytelling.
Never did I ever think that I would be so enthralled by a story about a wombat of all things, but this webcomic-turned-graphic-novel is incredible.
A quest to kill a dead god that's filled with complex creatures, new friendships, lots of digestible talks on philosophy, morals and ethics, and also a main character chock-full of common sense?
I loved it.
Never did I ever think that I would be so enthralled by a story about a wombat of all things, but this webcomic-turned-graphic-novel is incredible.
A quest to kill a dead god that's filled with complex creatures, new friendships, lots of digestible talks on philosophy, morals and ethics, and also a main character chock-full of common sense?
I loved it.
April 5, 2023
Ah, Digger. My first taste of either sea witch or fisher of kings and not soon a taste forgotten. Where else will I laugh at wombats and coo over shadows? There is nothing else quite like you, you beautiful, absurd, unsettling story.
October 14, 2015
First of all, as with much of Vernon's writing, I feel totally unworthy to review it: youthful writers of unique vision who weave such extraordinary tales have that effect on me. I hope to live long enough to read what she's writing in 20 years because what she's written as a young woman has fulfilled such promise that what she writes in the power of her years will be breathtaking indeed.
Stumbling along: Digger is about being human even if Digger herself is a wombat. Maybe it's easier to write about humanity when they're wombats, hyenas, odd little lizards, shrews, trolls & whatever-the-hell-Shadow-is. The plot encompasses life, fate, trying to do the right thing, dealings with other 'people' as they are & as they're not. It's exciting, it's scary, funny, poignant, sad, rewarding, thoughtful and weird. There are smaller tales within the main story that will break your heart while validating life & making you smile all in the same moment. Digger will stay with you forever: Ursula Vernon is possibly the most gifted young writer I've had the privilege of reading. That she wrote Digger as a colossal, multi-year undertaking makes the entirety of the result all the more impressive.
Do not let yourself be dissuaded by the graphic novel/web comic format: this is Literature, and it is Important (also, frequently sidesplittingly funny which no one has ever said about Dostoevsky or Hemingway)
Really recommend you read the omnibus edition to avoid waiting between volumes.
I honestly haven't the review abilities necessary to do justice to Digger. READ IT!
Stumbling along: Digger is about being human even if Digger herself is a wombat. Maybe it's easier to write about humanity when they're wombats, hyenas, odd little lizards, shrews, trolls & whatever-the-hell-Shadow-is. The plot encompasses life, fate, trying to do the right thing, dealings with other 'people' as they are & as they're not. It's exciting, it's scary, funny, poignant, sad, rewarding, thoughtful and weird. There are smaller tales within the main story that will break your heart while validating life & making you smile all in the same moment. Digger will stay with you forever: Ursula Vernon is possibly the most gifted young writer I've had the privilege of reading. That she wrote Digger as a colossal, multi-year undertaking makes the entirety of the result all the more impressive.
Do not let yourself be dissuaded by the graphic novel/web comic format: this is Literature, and it is Important (also, frequently sidesplittingly funny which no one has ever said about Dostoevsky or Hemingway)
Really recommend you read the omnibus edition to avoid waiting between volumes.
I honestly haven't the review abilities necessary to do justice to Digger. READ IT!
September 3, 2016
Adorable, hilarious, and delightfully feminist.
The main character is a wombat named Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels. She's very logical, find magic tiresome, and is obsessed with geology (apparently like all wombats). Magic (aggravatingly) sucks her into an epic adventure when all she wants to do is go home. The book has fantastic discussions about morality and good behavior.
The enormous number of major female characters in this book is remarkable (and apparently unintentional on the author's part). There are different groups with remarkably different cultures (which of course is mined for humor). It's a well thought out universe.
The art does a good job of matching the story. If you look carefully, sometimes you can spot lizards or bugs doing goofy things in the foreground. And there are some lovely back stories or histories done in a beautiful cave painting style.
It's such an awesome book and all I want to do is shove it in everyone else's faces and make them read it.
edit: It re-reads wonderfully. And apparently Vernon has a background in anthropology, which explains a lot.
The main character is a wombat named Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels. She's very logical, find magic tiresome, and is obsessed with geology (apparently like all wombats). Magic (aggravatingly) sucks her into an epic adventure when all she wants to do is go home. The book has fantastic discussions about morality and good behavior.
The enormous number of major female characters in this book is remarkable (and apparently unintentional on the author's part). There are different groups with remarkably different cultures (which of course is mined for humor). It's a well thought out universe.
The art does a good job of matching the story. If you look carefully, sometimes you can spot lizards or bugs doing goofy things in the foreground. And there are some lovely back stories or histories done in a beautiful cave painting style.
It's such an awesome book and all I want to do is shove it in everyone else's faces and make them read it.
edit: It re-reads wonderfully. And apparently Vernon has a background in anthropology, which explains a lot.
October 24, 2024
I laughed a lot. Digger is a great character. So nicely exasperated. And Ed is lovely. And this is so cute sometimes. And then a little sad. And then funny. And then cute again and exasperating.
I really liked the white sketches on a black background. Nice effects with light. Great perspectives. Priceless facial expressions.
Originally this is a webcomic. The fun part about that seems to be Vernon‘s footnotes. I caught some of them in the first issue of the webcomic, but I eventually switched to the 10-year anniversary edition without those notes. I might have to revisit the original at some point.
I was a little underwhelmed with the ending, the epilogue and the additional story. But the way there was great.
The webcomic can be read for free here.
🐘🐘🐘🐘½ rounded up.
I really liked the white sketches on a black background. Nice effects with light. Great perspectives. Priceless facial expressions.
Originally this is a webcomic. The fun part about that seems to be Vernon‘s footnotes. I caught some of them in the first issue of the webcomic, but I eventually switched to the 10-year anniversary edition without those notes. I might have to revisit the original at some point.
I was a little underwhelmed with the ending, the epilogue and the additional story. But the way there was great.
The webcomic can be read for free here.
🐘🐘🐘🐘½ rounded up.
January 19, 2024
“DU” is a unique and very spunky fable that follows a female wombat who digs herself into an obscure but spiritual adventure where she’ll meet different creatures and learn what her destiny is. It’s a very somber story that’s well told with a cast of colorful characters that keep it so lively, and being the best of it all. An amazing yarn that you won’t stop digging in. A- (91%/Excellent)
Want to read
October 15, 2021Omnibus is OOP, and was $70 then! No ebook, and no library copies. Former online copies of the original webcomic are gone, too! So, not anytime soon. Sob.
If you come across an archive link to the original, please post a comment!
If you come across an archive link to the original, please post a comment!
February 4, 2017
The problem with reviewing this is that I don't know where to start....
Digger is one of those rare things from the world of webcomics: A small project that bloomed into a larger story, and then came in for a successful ending. (Projects that don't successfully do this aren't rare in any medium, but only webcomics let you see the process of wandering around trying to find the plot. In other mediums, failures don't get published very often.) This process took a mere eight years and ~760 pages, collected into six volumes.
I jumped in the deep end with the full collected omnibus. It is now the largest graphic novel I own (yes, beating those legendary Cerebus 'phone books'—those are only ~500 pages).
Digger echoes Bone in its use of a variation of the Visitation Fantasy where the start of the story is the main character wandering into a new and strange locale, and you never see the character's original home. Unlike Fone Bone, Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels talks about her home quite often, and it helps provide defining contrast to what the setting of the story is like.
The central plot structure is The Big Quest, but it takes some doing to get there. In the meantime, the small little area Digger is in provides for more than enough conflicts, and Newhart-style comedy to be going on with.
I'd certainly like to see more of this world. We get an idea of what wombat burrows are like, we see a hyena tribe, we meet a god or two, we see... almost nothing of a human village that's in the middle of the geographical area the story is in, though we do meet a few humans (including one that currently has a deer head). We hear of dwarves, but don't see any. There's a lot of very dangerous territory between Digger and her home, and it takes a lot of arcane knowledge to travel much of the distance safely. It's a world filled with potential stories.
And a good amount of anthropology (furry-pology? zoopology? eh, heck with it), with the origin myth of hyenas explaining why females are bigger and the first child often dies. Fumbling attempts at ethics. Fortune-telling slugs.
It's big, and it rambles, and the end is slightly disjointed, and it's still an excellent story.
Digger is one of those rare things from the world of webcomics: A small project that bloomed into a larger story, and then came in for a successful ending. (Projects that don't successfully do this aren't rare in any medium, but only webcomics let you see the process of wandering around trying to find the plot. In other mediums, failures don't get published very often.) This process took a mere eight years and ~760 pages, collected into six volumes.
I jumped in the deep end with the full collected omnibus. It is now the largest graphic novel I own (yes, beating those legendary Cerebus 'phone books'—those are only ~500 pages).
Digger echoes Bone in its use of a variation of the Visitation Fantasy where the start of the story is the main character wandering into a new and strange locale, and you never see the character's original home. Unlike Fone Bone, Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels talks about her home quite often, and it helps provide defining contrast to what the setting of the story is like.
The central plot structure is The Big Quest, but it takes some doing to get there. In the meantime, the small little area Digger is in provides for more than enough conflicts, and Newhart-style comedy to be going on with.
I'd certainly like to see more of this world. We get an idea of what wombat burrows are like, we see a hyena tribe, we meet a god or two, we see... almost nothing of a human village that's in the middle of the geographical area the story is in, though we do meet a few humans (including one that currently has a deer head). We hear of dwarves, but don't see any. There's a lot of very dangerous territory between Digger and her home, and it takes a lot of arcane knowledge to travel much of the distance safely. It's a world filled with potential stories.
And a good amount of anthropology (furry-pology? zoopology? eh, heck with it), with the origin myth of hyenas explaining why females are bigger and the first child often dies. Fumbling attempts at ethics. Fortune-telling slugs.
It's big, and it rambles, and the end is slightly disjointed, and it's still an excellent story.
October 1, 2025
1 October, 2025
This is very much an Ursula Vernon book, as a decade's worth of award-winning webcomic, that doesn't have an 11 year old protagonist, but eschews a lot of common fantasy plot elements. It is also a very T. Kingfisher book as typified by an uncommon sort of hero: Digger-of-unnecessarily-convoluted-tunnels a wombat engineer of a pragmatic nature with a sardonic sense of humor. Digger has had a weird experience and gotten lost in a tunnel far from home. All she wants is to go home again, but of course that's not so easy.
Digger makes some unusual friends because she is a kind person with a keen sense of justice. And in this she is somewhat similar to Granny Weatherwax and Tiffany Aching.
Anyway, it's chock full of goodness that isn't simmering and doesn't rely on the hero being Schwarzenegger or a charming rogue or the greatest in the world at everything. I have enjoyed all those sorts of stories, too, mind you, but this isn't one of those.
Fair warning: it weighs about as much as a moose. Plan accordingly.
Library copy
This is very much an Ursula Vernon book, as a decade's worth of award-winning webcomic, that doesn't have an 11 year old protagonist, but eschews a lot of common fantasy plot elements. It is also a very T. Kingfisher book as typified by an uncommon sort of hero: Digger-of-unnecessarily-convoluted-tunnels a wombat engineer of a pragmatic nature with a sardonic sense of humor. Digger has had a weird experience and gotten lost in a tunnel far from home. All she wants is to go home again, but of course that's not so easy.
Digger makes some unusual friends because she is a kind person with a keen sense of justice. And in this she is somewhat similar to Granny Weatherwax and Tiffany Aching.
Anyway, it's chock full of goodness that isn't simmering and doesn't rely on the hero being Schwarzenegger or a charming rogue or the greatest in the world at everything. I have enjoyed all those sorts of stories, too, mind you, but this isn't one of those.
Fair warning: it weighs about as much as a moose. Plan accordingly.
Library copy
January 8, 2023
How can a book this big still be too short?? I loved Digger, her kind practicality, and her many strange friends. I wanted more trolls, more oracular slugs, and more thoughts on strange onomatopoeia.
November 17, 2025
A practical, no-nonsense, Bilboesque wombat accidentally digs her way up into a temple of Ganesh. She meets fascinating--and often dangerous--new creatures and goes on adventures. She is befriended by a talking god-statue, an exiled hyena, a bridge troll that's really a shrew, and an innocent shadow creature, and opposed by malevolent hyena warriors, a demon named Sweetgrass-Voice, and an authoritarian temple guard. This book is an absolute delight.
Vernon has riddled Digger's speech with tunneling idioms, it's adorable. Her hyena friend has a distinct mode of speaking that fumbles for words and lacks articles. The statue of Ganesh is clear and elegant in its speech; her shrew-troll acquaintance loud and earthy. All of these personal styles ring true. As do the cultures Vernon builds: Digger, like all wombats, is relentlessly pragmatic. The hyenas are warrior-like and--like real hyenas--hyper-matriarchal. The book sings with unlikely verisimilitude. I loved it.
Plot points:
Grim Eyes the hyena, trying to understand wombat courtship:
"Let me get this straight. You go to the camp of your beloved--"
"Burrow."
"--and you take your blushing lover in your arms--"
"Well not in PUBLIC."
"--and you whisper in his ear, 'My darling, let us enter into a binding legal contract together, until the stars fall from the sky, as determined in Subparagraph F, Section 12--"
"Blood and shale, NO. ......The contracts are for one to five years, tops. With option to renew."
Vernon has riddled Digger's speech with tunneling idioms, it's adorable. Her hyena friend has a distinct mode of speaking that fumbles for words and lacks articles. The statue of Ganesh is clear and elegant in its speech; her shrew-troll acquaintance loud and earthy. All of these personal styles ring true. As do the cultures Vernon builds: Digger, like all wombats, is relentlessly pragmatic. The hyenas are warrior-like and--like real hyenas--hyper-matriarchal. The book sings with unlikely verisimilitude. I loved it.
Plot points:
Grim Eyes the hyena, trying to understand wombat courtship:
"Let me get this straight. You go to the camp of your beloved--"
"Burrow."
"--and you take your blushing lover in your arms--"
"Well not in PUBLIC."
"--and you whisper in his ear, 'My darling, let us enter into a binding legal contract together, until the stars fall from the sky, as determined in Subparagraph F, Section 12--"
"Blood and shale, NO. ......The contracts are for one to five years, tops. With option to renew."
June 1, 2022
One of the best things I've read this year.
When wombat engineer Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels is magically and rudely transported to an unknown land, she finds herself caught up in strange happenings with stranger people. What's an eternally pragmatic wombat to do when confronted with gods living in statues, prophetic snails, destiny, and a small being that may or may not be a demon? The best she can.
Digger is an epic fantasy of gods and magic. It's also a thoughtful and kind story of decent people doing the best they can to navigate uncertain situations. Fantastic and exciting, philosophical and achingly human, Digger is a remarkable work of graphic storytelling brimming with humor, heart, and a richly detailed world and characters I'm sad to leave behind.
When wombat engineer Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels is magically and rudely transported to an unknown land, she finds herself caught up in strange happenings with stranger people. What's an eternally pragmatic wombat to do when confronted with gods living in statues, prophetic snails, destiny, and a small being that may or may not be a demon? The best she can.
Digger is an epic fantasy of gods and magic. It's also a thoughtful and kind story of decent people doing the best they can to navigate uncertain situations. Fantastic and exciting, philosophical and achingly human, Digger is a remarkable work of graphic storytelling brimming with humor, heart, and a richly detailed world and characters I'm sad to leave behind.
November 26, 2025
Am I really giving one of my vanishingly rare five star ratings to a fantasy webcomic about a wombat? Why yes I am. And never has a comic deserved it more.
Every aspect of Digger is genius. From the concept (who couldn't love it?) to the simple-yet-expressive art style, to the creative use of panels and speech bubbles, to the unique and loveable characters, to the surprisingly in-depth worldbuilding, to the perfect balance of epic and cosy, humour and heart, I adored every second of reading this.
I could break all of this down and tell you exactly what was so brilliant, or I could simply encourage you to go and read it for yourself. You can. For free. Here: https://diggercomic.com/blog/2007/02/...
I have been hearing a lot recently about Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher. This is my first experience of her work. I am excited to say, it will be far from my last.
Every aspect of Digger is genius. From the concept (who couldn't love it?) to the simple-yet-expressive art style, to the creative use of panels and speech bubbles, to the unique and loveable characters, to the surprisingly in-depth worldbuilding, to the perfect balance of epic and cosy, humour and heart, I adored every second of reading this.
I could break all of this down and tell you exactly what was so brilliant, or I could simply encourage you to go and read it for yourself. You can. For free. Here: https://diggercomic.com/blog/2007/02/...
I have been hearing a lot recently about Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher. This is my first experience of her work. I am excited to say, it will be far from my last.
January 3, 2015
I was going to go into my somewhat complex introduction to Digger, but you don't actually care about any of that, so let me sum up: READ THIS RIGHT NOW.
Warnings: Digger, and Ursula Vernon in general, do not shy away from the tough things in life. There are large portions of this story that will make you sob like a heartbroken child. Even thinking about some of them makes me well up. To balance that out, you will probably also laugh out loud a whole lot, and, if you don't, I worry about your sense of humor.
Highlights: Well-written, entertaining characters, including, but not limited to, a wombat, an assortment of smart-assed hyenas, an oracular slug, vampiric vegetables, demons, monks, a talking statue, and some underground lizards who are simultaneously adorable and DEEPLY CREEPY. The story is also wonderful, and I never felt like Ursula was taking the cheap way out.
I was a Kickstarter backer for the Omnibus Edition, and I have to say, Sofawolf repaid my donation tenfold. The book is high-quality and goes with me pretty much everywhere, because I am never NOT in the mood for a bit of Digger. If you buy this, you also get to see the covers to the original six books, plus some entertaining notes and miscellany.
Also, due to an unfortunate accident, I can also attest that it stands up reasonably well to arterial spray. No one was killed in the writing of this review, I promise.
Warnings: Digger, and Ursula Vernon in general, do not shy away from the tough things in life. There are large portions of this story that will make you sob like a heartbroken child. Even thinking about some of them makes me well up. To balance that out, you will probably also laugh out loud a whole lot, and, if you don't, I worry about your sense of humor.
Highlights: Well-written, entertaining characters, including, but not limited to, a wombat, an assortment of smart-assed hyenas, an oracular slug, vampiric vegetables, demons, monks, a talking statue, and some underground lizards who are simultaneously adorable and DEEPLY CREEPY. The story is also wonderful, and I never felt like Ursula was taking the cheap way out.
I was a Kickstarter backer for the Omnibus Edition, and I have to say, Sofawolf repaid my donation tenfold. The book is high-quality and goes with me pretty much everywhere, because I am never NOT in the mood for a bit of Digger. If you buy this, you also get to see the covers to the original six books, plus some entertaining notes and miscellany.
Also, due to an unfortunate accident, I can also attest that it stands up reasonably well to arterial spray. No one was killed in the writing of this review, I promise.
October 21, 2017
You can also read my review of Digger by Ursula Vernon on my scifi & fantasy book blog, Bastian's Book Reviews.
Digger is a graphic novel that started life as a webcomic. Unlike many webcomics, this was not merely a short strip of cartoon humour. Instead, Digger is a long form fantasy epic, told through the medium of a serialised comic strip, almost right from the start. And so Digger - the complete Omnibus Edition is absolutely the best way to read the story.
Digger is a wombat, from a world where wombatkind live in warrens and where wombats are a no-nonsense, practical and deeply unspiritual species, concerned primarily with feats of civil engineering. Or so we are told by Digger herself, whom we meet elsewhere.
When we first meet Digger, she's in the process of accidentally tunnelling into a different world, through sinister, magic-infested caves that induce hallucinations (and which may contain monsters who want to skin her), and out through the floor of a temple dedicated to an elephant God of compassion and peace and stuff. This is a world where no one has ever seen a wombat themselves (though the species is not unheard of, merely semi-mythical and rumoured to be extinct).
Being an atheist in the temple of a God can be a bit awkward. It's even more awkward if the statue of the elephant god in question starts having conversations with you, probing why exactly you breached the temple, through a troublesomely semi-metaphysical hole which doesn't quite seem to be part of the world, and what exactly your intentions are...
What follows is a story that finds its feet by improvising, introducing this strange world and its inhabitants to Digger, before deciding that it was meant to be a tale of epic fantasy all along, and developing a plot to suit. Except, this is an epic fantasy starring a hero who really doesn't like gods, or prophecies, or magic, and who deeply distrusts anyone who foolishly messes around with such unpredictable things.
Digger is a refreshingly different hero. She's tough, a builder (with the mannerisms and working class attitude that entails), and primarily concerned with a desire to return home. She doesn't have an ounce of nambypamby romance in her heart. There's no romantic interest, no desire to start a family or have children, and we even find out that wombat marriages are arranged through medium term contracts, a few years in length. Digger herself is often rude (especially to oracular snails) and generally selfish (quests to save the world from unspeakable evil are only of any interest if they further her goal of returning home)
The humour in Digger ranges between wry wit, subverted expectations and slapstick. However, despite plenty of chuckles, Digger is not a work of comic fiction in my mind. Humour serves and enhances the story from time to time - but the story does not serve the humour.
In her adventures, Digger encounters joy, triumph, heroism, tragedy, innocence, atrocity, wisdom and stupidity. She may have no stomach for spiritualism or romantic notions of heroism and valour, but she always has time for people (no matter what shape, species or gender those people may have). Digger is one of those works which have a certain kindness at their heart. Often in the course of the story, Digger starts out at cross purposes with a character, but eventually grows to know them. Some become friends and allies. Others don't, but are generally understood by Digger (and the reader) to be decent enough people in their own way (or at least, to be following their own moral logic), even if they happen to be trying to do evil things to Digger and her friends.
What really makes Digger work is that it's filled with show-stealing characters. Digger herself is a great centre of gravity for all the others to circle around, but those others are largely outstanding in their own right. There's tragic Ed, a male hyena expelled from his matriarchic tribe, there's the innocent but frighteningly powerful Shadowchild, and there's the very very young Hag, and perhaps most showstealing of them all, there's Sorka the Bridge Troll...
Digger is a wonderful book.
If you took Labyrinth and The Princess Bride and substracted the romance / teen notions of love, but left in everything else magical and wonderful and added a prosaic, impatient wombat civil engineer to the mix, you might - just might - end up with something a little bit like Digger. But you'd have to be a bit of a genius - and Ursula Vernon, it seems, is definitely that.
Rating: 5/5.
Super highly recommended.
PS: I am selling my copy (with a heavy heart) as I will be moving house soon. Interested in buying it? Get in touch!
Digger is a graphic novel that started life as a webcomic. Unlike many webcomics, this was not merely a short strip of cartoon humour. Instead, Digger is a long form fantasy epic, told through the medium of a serialised comic strip, almost right from the start. And so Digger - the complete Omnibus Edition is absolutely the best way to read the story.
Digger is a wombat, from a world where wombatkind live in warrens and where wombats are a no-nonsense, practical and deeply unspiritual species, concerned primarily with feats of civil engineering. Or so we are told by Digger herself, whom we meet elsewhere.
When we first meet Digger, she's in the process of accidentally tunnelling into a different world, through sinister, magic-infested caves that induce hallucinations (and which may contain monsters who want to skin her), and out through the floor of a temple dedicated to an elephant God of compassion and peace and stuff. This is a world where no one has ever seen a wombat themselves (though the species is not unheard of, merely semi-mythical and rumoured to be extinct).
Being an atheist in the temple of a God can be a bit awkward. It's even more awkward if the statue of the elephant god in question starts having conversations with you, probing why exactly you breached the temple, through a troublesomely semi-metaphysical hole which doesn't quite seem to be part of the world, and what exactly your intentions are...What follows is a story that finds its feet by improvising, introducing this strange world and its inhabitants to Digger, before deciding that it was meant to be a tale of epic fantasy all along, and developing a plot to suit. Except, this is an epic fantasy starring a hero who really doesn't like gods, or prophecies, or magic, and who deeply distrusts anyone who foolishly messes around with such unpredictable things.
Digger is a refreshingly different hero. She's tough, a builder (with the mannerisms and working class attitude that entails), and primarily concerned with a desire to return home. She doesn't have an ounce of nambypamby romance in her heart. There's no romantic interest, no desire to start a family or have children, and we even find out that wombat marriages are arranged through medium term contracts, a few years in length. Digger herself is often rude (especially to oracular snails) and generally selfish (quests to save the world from unspeakable evil are only of any interest if they further her goal of returning home)
The humour in Digger ranges between wry wit, subverted expectations and slapstick. However, despite plenty of chuckles, Digger is not a work of comic fiction in my mind. Humour serves and enhances the story from time to time - but the story does not serve the humour.
In her adventures, Digger encounters joy, triumph, heroism, tragedy, innocence, atrocity, wisdom and stupidity. She may have no stomach for spiritualism or romantic notions of heroism and valour, but she always has time for people (no matter what shape, species or gender those people may have). Digger is one of those works which have a certain kindness at their heart. Often in the course of the story, Digger starts out at cross purposes with a character, but eventually grows to know them. Some become friends and allies. Others don't, but are generally understood by Digger (and the reader) to be decent enough people in their own way (or at least, to be following their own moral logic), even if they happen to be trying to do evil things to Digger and her friends.
What really makes Digger work is that it's filled with show-stealing characters. Digger herself is a great centre of gravity for all the others to circle around, but those others are largely outstanding in their own right. There's tragic Ed, a male hyena expelled from his matriarchic tribe, there's the innocent but frighteningly powerful Shadowchild, and there's the very very young Hag, and perhaps most showstealing of them all, there's Sorka the Bridge Troll...
Digger is a wonderful book.
If you took Labyrinth and The Princess Bride and substracted the romance / teen notions of love, but left in everything else magical and wonderful and added a prosaic, impatient wombat civil engineer to the mix, you might - just might - end up with something a little bit like Digger. But you'd have to be a bit of a genius - and Ursula Vernon, it seems, is definitely that.
Rating: 5/5.
Super highly recommended.
PS: I am selling my copy (with a heavy heart) as I will be moving house soon. Interested in buying it? Get in touch!
December 21, 2015
(Copied from Digger #1 rating)
Maybe this is a 5-star? I guess I'll find out if I re-read it. It won a Hugo for best graphic novel. It's available online. You should check it out.
Maybe this is a 5-star? I guess I'll find out if I re-read it. It won a Hugo for best graphic novel. It's available online. You should check it out.
March 22, 2023
"Life changing" isn't a term I use loosely, but this story will stick with me for years to come. One of the most thoughtful, witty, and beautiful works I've had the pleasure of reading.
July 3, 2023
Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Complicated-Tunnels is a sensible, pragmatic wombat engineer, who is hard at work when she discovers she has broken through into an unfamiliar cave system.
A cave system where magic is at work. Digger, and wombats generally, have no use for magic. It only makes trouble.
She finds an interesting stone (she, like apparently all wombats, is heavily into geology, and not just for practical reasons), puts it in a pocket, and starts looking for a way out. No, the way in isn't available anymore.
She hears and sometimes sees strange things, some of which may be ghosts, or may be hallucinations from the physical stress of a quite long journey through caves and tunnels. Eventually, Digger comes to a place where she can break through to the surface, again, and finds she is in a temple of the god Ganesha.
Wombats, and Digger in particular, have no use for any gods. But she's in a temple, and the statue of Ganesha is talking to her. The news isn't good.
There's something very dark associated with the tunnel she just came out of. Trying to go back home through the tunnel would be disastrous. Also, no one here has ever heard of wombats, or anything like a wombat warren. The Temple librarian, Vo, is very knowledgeable, kindly, and helpful, but in the end he can find nothing useful, and suggests that she might want to talk to a traveling merchant who passes through the village periodically. So she starts walking...
Along the way, Digger meets veiled priests who are quite well-trained in the martial arts, including one who is mentally unstable but otherwise quite nice; hyenas, including one who is outcast from the tribe; slugs who can prophesy but not in enough detail to be helpful; the Shadowchild, who might be a demon, and the servants of a dead god. Oh, and the ghost of one of her ancestors.
Her wanderings and adventures are not safe, but they are entertaining. On the whole, Digger would rather be in her home warren, near her family, and digging good and useful tunnels.
For the reader, though, both the story and the art are a lot of fun.
In addition, there's an excellent introduction by Patrick Rothfuss, a charming epilogue, and an original short story, about the building of the temple of Ganesha, about a thousand years earlier than Digger's story.
I backed the Kickstarter for this 10th Anniversary collection.
A cave system where magic is at work. Digger, and wombats generally, have no use for magic. It only makes trouble.
She finds an interesting stone (she, like apparently all wombats, is heavily into geology, and not just for practical reasons), puts it in a pocket, and starts looking for a way out. No, the way in isn't available anymore.
She hears and sometimes sees strange things, some of which may be ghosts, or may be hallucinations from the physical stress of a quite long journey through caves and tunnels. Eventually, Digger comes to a place where she can break through to the surface, again, and finds she is in a temple of the god Ganesha.
Wombats, and Digger in particular, have no use for any gods. But she's in a temple, and the statue of Ganesha is talking to her. The news isn't good.
There's something very dark associated with the tunnel she just came out of. Trying to go back home through the tunnel would be disastrous. Also, no one here has ever heard of wombats, or anything like a wombat warren. The Temple librarian, Vo, is very knowledgeable, kindly, and helpful, but in the end he can find nothing useful, and suggests that she might want to talk to a traveling merchant who passes through the village periodically. So she starts walking...
Along the way, Digger meets veiled priests who are quite well-trained in the martial arts, including one who is mentally unstable but otherwise quite nice; hyenas, including one who is outcast from the tribe; slugs who can prophesy but not in enough detail to be helpful; the Shadowchild, who might be a demon, and the servants of a dead god. Oh, and the ghost of one of her ancestors.
Her wanderings and adventures are not safe, but they are entertaining. On the whole, Digger would rather be in her home warren, near her family, and digging good and useful tunnels.
For the reader, though, both the story and the art are a lot of fun.
In addition, there's an excellent introduction by Patrick Rothfuss, a charming epilogue, and an original short story, about the building of the temple of Ganesha, about a thousand years earlier than Digger's story.
I backed the Kickstarter for this 10th Anniversary collection.
June 13, 2022
A charming, slow-burn epic in the vein of stories like Bone or a less florid Redwall tale. A lone wombat accidentally digs herself a long way from home, and meets a strange and fun cast of friends and foes as she gets roped into dangerous quests with deadly stakes. Vernon has a great sense of character voices, and builds a vibrant but lonely-feeling world around Digger without getting too bogged down in grand worldbuilding or capital-L Lore. Isolated and displaced in geography and maybe in time, a lot of the narrative features clashing cultural norms and how to navigate them. I enjoyed this a lot, and it has made me want to properly explore the rest of Vernon's work. I also know a good number of people I'd recommend this to - in the canon of modern graphic novels it feels like a hidden gem.
May 24, 2023
Digger thrives on the strength of the voice of Digger, the main character. Not quite a snappy quip machine, but nevertheless a real, grounded figure set off by the craziness all around her. There are some deeper themes of loss and duty and home, but the story reads well at the surface level. Overall, it’s a solid and enjoyable work.
November 17, 2017
LOVED THIS.
March 14, 2023
So bizarre and heartwarming and unexpected and funny. Loved everything about it.
June 9, 2023
Really fun read, even though it is huge in size it reads very fast - mostly because it is that fun!
November 12, 2024
This was the perfect comfort read after last week. Loved this so much.
dnf
December 9, 2024DNF at p275, halfway through Ch5
Nothing wrong with it, but I’ve had it checked out from the library for 3.5 months and clearly I’m not going to finish.
12.9.24
Nothing wrong with it, but I’ve had it checked out from the library for 3.5 months and clearly I’m not going to finish.
12.9.24
March 4, 2025
Literature is surprisingly lacking in wombat protagonists. Equal parts endearing, practical, righteous and imaginative.
If you like Bone and Cerebus, you'll love this.
If you like Bone and Cerebus, you'll love this.
April 21, 2025
I giggled so often while reading this and also nearly cried at parts. Loved it. A million stars. Go read it.
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