Webcomic Review
Gilbert and the Grim Rabbit
"Tightrope Dancing"

Of course, it's tempting to make the tagline "Chibi Jack". Tempting, because it's a cute comic about a Grim Reaper bunny- but totally wrong on a deeper level.

You see, "Jack" isn't trying to be friendly. It's all manner of things and surely deserves a review of its own but the bottom line is, it's not trying to be friendly, it's trying to hit you upside the head and make you think.

And this is about Gilbert and the Grim Rabbit- which is trying to be friendly, and on the whole succeeding.

Everything's so cute it makes you want to bite the internet, and pretty crudely drawn but brightly colored. It's childlike- and yet, no child would pick some of these camera angles. No child would make the line weight of the character much less in a long shot. This is NOT as naive as it appears to be- though these things aren't controlled with as much authority as they could be, they're evidence of some real planning and intention behind the comic. The line weight thing is a great, great trick because it doesn't violate the simplicity of the character designs at all, but it gives the comic space and totally prevents it from seeming flat- an amazing result in this style of artwork.

And these character designs! Wow- they are arguably MORE primitive than stick figures, because stick figures have elbows, most of the time! "Gilbert" characters don't even have arms and legs- it's like they have nothing but enormous cute paws. It's even rounder and softer than teddy bears. There are bunnies, kitties, a turtle, demons of some sort (though they seem to exist in the world alongside the bunnies and kitties without anyone batting an eyelash) and all of them have circles for arms and legs. Just a circle. I think the only way you could get more round and cute than this is to make a comic about eggs- and it would fail, because it would become too abstract to be cute.

And what is done with all this cuteness, in this strangely three-dimensional yet flat world?

Someone's invented a weather-predicting radio. "There will be a light rain in the morning, followed by a North-Easterly breeze."

"Then fire will fall from the sky and the seas will boil." And Gilbert, not knowing how to handle this, goes "Um..."

This is how Gilbert and the Grim Rabbit plays with tone- and it's worth noticing, and it works (most of the time). The strip is cute. It knows it's meant to be cute. But every now and then something peeks through that crosses a line, that isn't cute or nice- and the thing is, the line-crossing thing doesn't ever step across that line, it basically leans across the line and goes 'ooga booga! boo!' and the characters in the comic, aware that they're looking at something that isn't really part of the comic, sort of riff on it, or do a take.

This happens even with stuff that's pretty annoying. This is a cute charming comic, yet it has a library consultant who's coming in wanting to install Windows Vista. Now, we know that you can make jokes about Vista being terrible, but Vista does NOT belong in this comic. The comic doesn't want to become a tech-support comic and the intrusion of jokes like that feels totally wrong- but just as the word is being said, a cute pink kitty comes swinging in on an inexplicable vine like Tarzan and clobbers the consultant with a brightly colored 'thwack'!

"Yay!" says a librarian, and so do we.

We have a debriefing- what are you told about attacking government consultants? In a normal cute comic, you're presumably told "Don't attack anybody", but this is Gilbert we're talking about, and the pink kitty was instead told, "Make sure they never see your face". Again, the cute is subverted so deftly... again, if we think it through, that's a little dark, but the surface tension of the cuteness is never, never broken. Again, the writing of Gilbert and the Grim Rabbit is leaning over the line, making faces.

This is called TONE, and it's a wonderful example of how that's done. That line is so palpably there that half the fun is watching it be played with. All dark manifestations are just hinted at, sort of looming. Cursing and invective stays on a pretty innocent level. The blog posts also maintain the tone, and are open and friendly in the manner of a Dave Kellett. The whole thing is welcoming, charming, yet there's always that element of line-crossing...

But the thing is, there's the element of line-crossing without ever having to deal with any actual line-crossing. This is important. I have seen so many comics that glory in line-crossing, especially with the intention of crossing a line even for the desensitized. That's a foolish pursuit, because either it's possible or it's not, and you cannot devote your efforts to crossing a line for any particular reader. The line isn't really for them- it's for you, the creator.

The reason that's important is as follows- the reader's line is strictly about whether they are uncomfortable or not, and there's no reward to crossing it. You only turn them off, or spoil their day, or possibly make them cringe and laugh, very much like getting zapped with a joy buzzer. The recipient is sort of obligated to laugh, but it's not the funniest joke in the world.

But if you set up a line in the comic, as Gilbert so effectively does, and then play with it without blurring it, there's a whole level of entertainment that's produced because it's as if the reader gets to assume that line in fun- their expectation is more and more clearly defined, and then when you flirt with crossing the line the reader can go, ohhh! Are they gonna cross it? and then cheer when the comic balances on the edge of its line without stumbling and falling over.

In doing this, the comic itself develops a personality just like the characters within it. In the case of Gilbert, the comic's personality is at least as strong or stronger than that of the characters, partly because it's built on knowing that we won't see some behaviors or actions or attitudes from any of the characters.

They are cute and saccharine, but the comic TEASES us about being cute and saccharine, and teases us so deftly and artfully that we become fans of its playfulness. The cuteness is just a vehicle, but the real payload is the kittenish, wicked-yet-playful writing which can be trusted to not get nasty, but expected to flirt with it as hard as possible while not ruining the fun.

Gilbert and the Grim Rabbit won't pull a Cerebus Syndrome on us- it's just too good at being playful to blow it in a bid for grueling, depressing drama. It will continue to be incredibly cute, charming, and endearing.

And there shall be a great storm and the dead shall rise from the sea and outnumber the living.

So wrap up warm!