Ladies and Gentlemen!

Please be so kind as to allow me to bend your ears- Ears? Your eyes.. But can you bend an eye..

*thinks*

Let me come back on that one. At any rate, I would like to- once again- take a bit of your attention away from your regularly scheduled wastes of time and present to you two very rodentine diversions. They are both fan-freakin-tastic web comics and both feature a Rat as a prominent, main character.

However, this is where the similarities end. One is funny and happy and silly and fun, and the other.. Well, it ripped my heart out, threw it into a box of rusty thumbtacks, sent it through the spicy mustard factory, dusted it with fresh wasabe, an then tossed it into a brick pizza oven.

I can hear the question echoing over the Texas hills now:

“But, Nick, Why would I WANT to have my heart ripped out and yadda yadda yadda?”

Because this story will open your eyes. It’s beautiful in an agonizing sort of a way, and it might just wake you up a bit. Make you feel a whole lot more human. Funny, that coming from a rat, Huh?

So, let’s start with Grimal’s Deo: The Claw. There are a few story lines going on in this one, and you really gotta be kinda.. .. heartless to miss the hope and beauty drawn into these pages. The style is kinda’ abstract, and in the case of Deo, kinda’ cartoony in some places, but this only lends to it’s impact. The moment you accept these often cute critters as characters, and put yourself in an open mindset to receive their story, you let in all of the emotions, empathy, pain, hope and joy- the love, the need, the yearning, the agony and desperation.. everything that makes the sweet moment in life worth experiencing.

It’ll make you love, it’ll make you hate, and it might even make you bawl your eyes out a bit.

WARNING.. there is some .. VERY adult and alternative content on the site, which is why I will make you type it in yourself so there’s no accidental scare. Okay, Grimal’s website can be found at:

** http://www [dot] blackstains [dot] com **

You can order the graphic novel at Amazon.

I looked at the comic on a lark, and spent the entire night reading the whole damn thing from the beginning, and then I pretty much cried myself to sleep that night. The following morning, I went ahead and stopped talking to some of the people in my life who treat me like crazizzle, and bought myself a print copy. If it doesn’t move you, then you’re a freakin’ robot and you’re here to destroy the earth.I hope you’re happy with yourself.

Anyway, the next Comic is Doc Rat by Jenner.

Now THIS one is just fun. And a lot of cute. The MC is another rat, but this one is a doctor in Austrailia. And he’s got a lot of wacky, crazy patients and stuff. Now, unlike many of my favorite webcomics, this one updates pretty much daily, so there’s pretty much an IV drip of critter medical mayhem.

And AH HAH! Yes! I am sending you WAY back in time to start this one from the beginning, cause one of the story arcs is wrapping up right about now and it’s AWESOME and I don’t want you ruining it for yourself by starting at the end. So there!

Jenner’s got a clean art style, and a pretty classic, one, two, punchline layout. They are quick strips and just a lot of fun. Now, I got to reading this one a while back, and have been keeping up with it pretty devotedly, and noticed after a while that there was a plot arc or two starting up.

One recently got rolling and, dude, I ain’t messin’ with you, it had me concerned. I was all like, soap opera queen here! Had to see what’s happening day to day. **YOU** are lucky, cause you get to begin at the beginning and read through to the resolution of this plot.. so.. thank the good things in life for that.

I’m usually not one for romance. But.. No- I’ve said too much. YOU go read!

Oh, and, seriously, take a second or two and donate to these writer / artists. I mean, they put a LOT into these works and deserve a bone or two here and there, right? Share the love, seriously. Rats gotta eat, too.

Ooh ooh, here. Buy one of these and ship it to me! I wanna whole serving set of them >:)

Go ahead and get one for yourself too.

Happy Slacking!!

Nicholas