The Tale of One Bad Rat

(Dark Horse, 1994-1995)
™ and ©1994 Bryan Talbot

Helen has not lived a happy life. Her home situation, never exactly ideal, got worse when her parents began to have marital problems. And it became much, much worse when her father began sneaking into her bedroom in the dark of night…

She fled, at the too-young age of thirteen to London where she and her pet rat try to survive on the mean streets. Homeless, hungry, and alone, she fantasizes about throwing herself beneath oncoming subway trains and jumping off bridges. For her, the world is a horrific fairy tale, a bit like the Beatrix Potter “Tale of Two Bad Mice,” she had read as a younger child.

Bryan Talbot’s award-winning mini-series is a moving and powerful tale of child abuse, and the will to survive. As the introduction from Neil Gaiman says, “the work—and fine work it is, and I do not flatter—speaks for itself.”

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