The Tale of One Bad Rat

AUTHOR: Talbot, Bryan

ARTIST: Bryan Talbot (illustrator); Ellie DeVille (letterer)

PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1994-1995

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1995

Publication History

The Tale of One Bad Rat, written and illustrated by Bryan Talbot, was initially published monthly as a four-part series from October, 1994, to January, 1995, and issued in a collected edition exactly one year after the appearance of its first issue. Both the series and the graphic novel were published by Dark Horse Comics, with the latter appearing under the Dark Horse Books imprint. The graphic novel was published by Titan Books in the United Kingdom. Within a few years of its publication, the book was translated into several languages, including French, Spanish, and Swedish. In addition to receiving American and British awards, both the book and Talbot have obtained recognition on an international scale.

Plot

The Tale of One Bad Rat is a nongenre graphic novel originally stemming from Talbot’s desire to create a book set in England’s Lake District. Instead of creating a documentary comic, Talbot chose to present a story connecting one of the many artistic personalities who settled in the region, the writer Beatrix Potter, with a parallel, modern character, the sixteen-year-old Helen Potter. Initially included as the reason Helen ran away from home, the issue of child sexual abuse eventually became the book’s chief focus. Divided into sections titled “Town,” “Road,” and “Country,” the book narrates Helen’s journey from London to the Lake District, punctuating it with some of her key, most painful memories of home and school.

The book opens with an almost suicidal Helen and her pet rat begging at a train station. When a preaching Christian touches her, she violently pushes him away and runs out. The Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square reminds her of the Christmas her aunt gave her a set of Beatrix Potter books. Another flashback hints at an incestuous relationship with her father and the tension between her parents. Four boys save her from a harassing, drunk man but rob him in the process. Lacking alternatives, she eventually moves into an abandoned house in Kensington with them. A friendship develops between Helen and one of the boys, Ben, who plans on starting his own band. Nonetheless, she remains a recluse, detests human contact, and leaves the city when a cat kills her rat.

The second section opens with a flashback to when she adopted the rat at school. Nightmares and flashbacks continue to plague her as she hitchhikes northward. The first person to offer her a ride tells her about the significance of rats in Hinduism. Panicked by a pass another driver makes at her, she forces the car to crash into a tree; she runs away, only to faint from hunger and fatigue behind a house.

The third section begins with a contrasting, bright depiction of Helen working as a waitress in a country inn. Its owners, Sam and Ruth McGregor, offer her a place to stay and encourage her to explore the area. Aware that she is troubled, they provide support without forcing her to voice her problems. Through reading and musing, Helen eventually finds the strength to talk about her disturbing experiences, invites her parents for lunch at Herdwick Arms, and confronts her father. Though her relationship with her parents does not change, Helen feels liberated and is content to remain with the McGregors. Later, she visits Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s home, and imagines discovering a manuscript titled “The Tale of One Bad Rat.” Unfolding in a visual and literal style identical to Beatrix Potter’s, this story-within-a-story mirrors Helen’s experiences and has a happy ending, as does the graphic novel, which ends as Helen paints the breathtaking scenery with her massive rat beside her.

Characters

•Helen Potter, the protagonist, is a blond and blue-eyed teenager whose life roughly follows that of Beatrix Potter, her source of inspiration. Unloved by her mother and molested by her father, she is distant, distrustful, and artistic. Over the course of the graphic novel, she comes to terms with both her past and herself.

•The Rat is a two-year-old hooded rat adopted by Helen after she frees all the rats in school from their cages. Dying toward the end of the first section, the rat becomes Helen’s imaginary, larger-than-life pet. The rat is a constant companion of Helen, except during her brief emotional release in the third section, and their closeness is highlighted by Helen’s identification with rats as misunderstood creatures.

•The Potters are Helen’s parents. Unable to get along, they are too occupied by their own problems to realize the effects of their behavior on their daughter. Maintaining a middle-class, unhappy household, Mrs. Potter never hesitates to remind Helen that she is unwanted, while Mr. Potter uses his daughter for pleasures missing from his marriage. Both are heavy smokers and drinkers.

•Ben is one of the boys who prevent a man from harassing Helen. A lanky, bespectacled teenager wearing torn jeans, he looks out for Helen and takes a keen interest in her artwork and knowledge about rats. He tries to kiss her, but he is pushed away. Ultimately, he fulfills his dream of becoming a famous musician by starting a band called “Rat Kings,” a name alluding to one of his conversations with Helen.

•Sam and Ruth McGregor are the childless, cheerful, middle-aged innkeepers who offer Helen a job and the same room that Beatrix Potter once occupied in Herdwick Arms. In complete contrast to the Potters, both are sensitive and accommodating. While Sam provides facts regarding the countryside, Ruth gently encourages Helen to confront the roots of her sadness.

Artistic Style

Talbot’s art is characterized by his attention to detail, which persists despite the diverse stories and styles of his works. Although the harsh realism discernible in many underground comics is preserved, The Tale of One Bad Rat is devoid of the travestying features that also prevail over many underground works. Because of the book’s topic, extra effort is put into achieving accuracy, and the characters and settings are based on real-life models and locales. The rat, for example, emerged from sketches of Talbot’s own pets that were rendered in a manner akin to Beatrix Potter’s affectionate delineations of domestic animals. In addition to the recurrent references to Beatrix Potter’s settings and drawings in the book, her style of art and page layouts are closely impersonated in the imaginary Beatrix Potter manuscript.

While Talbot regards Alfred Bestall’s Rupert Bear comics as having the greatest impact on The Tale of One Bad Rat, the book also displays the influence of comics such as the cartoonlike works of Leo Baxendale and Dudley D. Watkins. Aspects of the book, including its grand landscapes, moments of expressive emotionality, and nightmare sequences, recall superhero comics by such artists as Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, and Jim Starlin.

Although the panel transitions are kept simple, the arrangements of the panels are varied and subtly sophisticated. The consistently quadrilateral frames appear in different sizes and frequently overlap or are superimposed and function as partial backgrounds for the pages. Visual symbols are used to indicate Helen’s inner state; these include dandelions, which allude to her changing emotions, and shattering glass, which appears during her outburst in the third section. In order to make The Tale of One Bad Rat accessible to a broader readership, Talbot claims to have employed a clear-line style. However, in accordance with his literary inclinations, the significance of the clear line for Talbot comes not from Hergé but from William Blake.

Themes

The nature and effects of child sexual abuse and the ways of overcoming it are the book’s main concerns. Related problems include coping with fighting parents, living in dysfunctional families, and believing oneself to be different and bad. Given its focus on a teenage protagonist who succeeds in demonstrating her maturity and independence by freeing herself from her childhood issues, the book is similar to a coming-of-age novel. The matter-of-fact tone imbues the book with realism, making it easier for readers to identify with the story. Helen is not a victim but a survivor. Since her strength calls for admiration instead of pity, the story is affirmative and inspirational. Moreover, by tactfully avoiding a moralistic edge, Talbot enhances the possibilities for reader empathy.

In addition, an atemporal dimension is included through the interweaving of Beatrix Potter’s life and stories. This intertextuality emphasizes the darker elements of her childhood and work, including the serious difficulties that all of Beatrix Potter’s animal protagonists must overcome. Furthermore, these intertextual references exemplify Talbot’s attempts to incorporate specifically British features into his works.

The soothing, inspirational characteristic of the Lake District and nature in general is an auxiliary theme. The importance of art as an expressive outlet is also underscored. Like many underground comics, The Tale of One Bad Rat explores a taboo topic. However, unlike many underground works, the book has a serious tone generally free of underlying jibes.

Impact

Regarded as one of the leading figures of the British underground comics movement, Talbot is known for experimenting with the potential of sequential art. His literal and visual innovations in cross-genre and nongenre storytelling make him one of the earliest, most significant graphic novelists, particularly as a representative of the British underground scene, which is often overshadowed by its American and French counterparts.

Appearing in 1995, The Tale of One Bad Rat heralded the boom in adult-oriented, powerful graphic novels. The nonautobiographical nature of The Tale of One Bad Rat exemplifies the ability of fictional graphic storytelling to be equally moving and effective. The praise that it attracted in spite of its atypical subject matter was indicative of the increasing critical interest in graphic novels tackling serious issues and frequently featuring ordinary but disturbed or marginalized protagonists.

Though occasionally erroneously placed in the children’s section of libraries, the book nonetheless deals with a child’s story with regard to both narration and illustration. Consequently, the book is also found in the libraries of counseling centers in the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries, where it is used to spread awareness of child sexual abuse. As noted in its afterword, The Tale of One Bad Rat is an unusual graphic novel, even for Talbot, but he regards it as his most meaningful book because of its successful thematization of a problem that requires attention but is rarely discussed due to social taboos.

Further Reading

B., David. Epileptic (2005).

Burns, Charles. Black Hole (2005).

Talbot, Bryan. Alice in Sunderland (2007).

Bibliography

Huxley, David. Nasty Tales: Sex, Drugs, Rock ’n’ Roll, and Violence in the British Underground. Manchester, England: Critical Vision, 2001.

Sabin, Roger. Adult Comics: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 2011.

Sorensen, Lita. Bryan Talbot. New York: Rosen, 2005.

Talbot, Bryan. The Art of Bryan Talbot. New York: NBM, 2007.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Engraving the Void and Sketching Parallel Worlds: An Interview with Bryan Talbot.” Interview by Roger Whitson. ImageTexT Interdisciplinary Comics Studies 3, no. 2 (2007). http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3‗2/talbot.