- The tale of one bad rad. Bryan Talbot. Helen is a teenage runaway. Fleeing her sexually abusive father and her uncaring mother, she finds solace in memories of Beatrix Potter. It is these memories that give her the strength to survive the cold cities and the road, until she finally finds her desired land, then slowly gains the strength to confront her abusers.
A moving comic book tale about the healing power of art and stories, and about the mechanisms of abuse. According to Talbot’s notes, this comic started as a tribute to both Potter and to the English Lake District. But as he researched abuse, which was part of his protagonist’s backstory, the theme became far too important to trivialize. Thanks to this, however, the tale of a survivor became the heart of this comic. So much impact it had that, unusually for a comic book, all of the characters are directly based on real people (that is, used as models by the artist) and all of the locations are real (aside from some requisite ‘touching up’ for dramatic purposes).
Very much recommended.
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