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Graham Annable Reviews
October 6, 2001
SpinnerRack.com
The Wound and Wound Toy Company on Melrose in Los Angeles often puts sample animated flip books out for patrons to try before they buy. Inevitably, these books are dog-eared and filthy from countless hands flipping through them countless times. Why are they so addictive? How is it that one tiny book documenting three hops on a pogo stick by a cartoon bear demands to be flipped again and again and again?
It's easy to ask a similar question of Graham Annable's Grickle, partly because of its animated style and partly because you feel compelled to read it over and over. Grickle exhibits an almost literal devotion to sequence, as we follow its characters from frame to frame, from standing to walking to opening a door. In "Slight Aberration," we watch a stick figure rummage for a cassette tape in the glove box of his car, completely unaware that he has hit a pedestrian, then we follow him home, watch him play with his dog, enjoy some television, eat dinner, then finally go to bed, only to finally suffer the realization of what he has done. Amazingly, Annable carries all this off with a chuckle, thanks to his spot-on visual comic timing and whimsical renderings.
And that's the real explanation for the book's creative success. Annable reveals the absurdity of everyday life, but he does it simply, without conceit. Though many will take note of his animated style, what he really captures is the pacing so crucial to humor. It's not so much that his characters travel through the book in strict sequence, it's that they're given the time and space to live a little through that journey.
As for the stories themselves, well, they're surprisingly varied. From a hilariously agonizing attempt to put a wounded frog out of its misery to an ice fisherman's matter-of-fact journey to another dimension, each vignette is self-contained while still remaining faithful to the tone of the book as a whole. In short, they're funny, sometimes even poignant little tales that demand (quietly) second, third and fourth reads.
So, the next time you pick up a toy-store-counter flip book, imagine an entire comic that provides the same effortless entertainment value, then go out and get yourself a copy of Grickle.
— Bronwyn Jones