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Reviews
June 21, 2001
TheComicStore.com
Following the lead of other works such as the Monkeysuit and Hickee anthologies, Graham Annable's Grickle confirms that there's a current trend of animators doing print comics. In an industry that often loses good cartoonists to careers in animation, I find it encouraging that folks known mainly for moving pictures are beginning to devote more energy to print projects. Such is the case with Annable, who's worked for such companies as Chuck Jones Enterprises, Disney and LucasArts, and drawing comics in his spare moments.
And it's good stuff. Theoretically, animators should make great cartoonists. It seems to me that two major requirements in animation are good timing and characters that move. When animators have learned the trade and then take their knowledge to comics, it shows. For instance, most of Annable's panel-to-panel transitions are drawn so, in my opinion, that they suggest animation. And when the cartoonist manages to pull that off, you know he's doing something right.
Grickle is a really enjoyable collection of short stories. They range from absurd to surreal and from melancholic to hilarious. Annable seems to draw upon life experience to tell tales of love, regret, fear, inferiority, infatuation and enlightenment. A strange visitor, a scary grandfather, a narcissistic do-gooder, a pessimistic romantic, a guy who's at his best while on the toilet... These are some of the characters you'll encounter in Grickle. Although the book isn't explicitly autobiographical, it is full of human experience that all can relate to. Besides all that, of course, it's just good comics and I recommend it.
— Rick Bradford
Images, characters and likenesses © and TM Graham Annable