Review by Roy Boyd
Scurry is a debut graphic novel that started life as a “smash-hit web comic”, written and illustrated by Mac Smith. The Scurry is a 2024 horror movie about spiders, and it has nothing to do with this book.
The story has shades of Watership Down, but set in a dystopian world that’s more akin to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road with its oppressive and ever-present sense of danger, whether it’s wolves, cats or the plotting of animals that are supposed to be on the side of our brave mouse protagonist, Wix. However, it’s certainly more colourful than the movie version of the latter book. Whereas that was uniformly grey and unremittingly bleak, this looks instead like something Spielberg filmed for IMAX.
Because it’s that type of story, a fair amount of Scurry consists of quests, whether to search for food, to find and rescue a damsel in distress, or to locate new places to live. Needless to say, political machinations on the part of the ‘good’ animals complicate matters, as does the fact our heroes – like most wild animals – spend a fair amount of time trying to avoid becoming dinner for predators.
Smith also ticks many of the boxes you’d expect, with an assortment of vividly depicted animals filling roles familiar to any fan of Joseph Campbell (or Star Wars). While it may be at the other end of fantasy from Tolkein, many plot beats remain the same, despite the trappings being different.
The artwork is superb, a beautiful combination of photo-realistic and cartoony, with all the animals anthropomorphised to some degree, but still looking like real animals (if you can ignore the facial expressions no mouse was ever capable of). It’s also incredibly dynamic, with excellent application of effects like blurring to convey a real sense of movement. The colouring is gorgeous too. Smith is a self-taught artist, which makes it even more impressive. Full-page chapter headings for all ten chapters are works of art worthy of hanging on any wall, but it’s not just smith making extra effort, as the story pages maintaining that high standard.
Extra content includes a reading guide, detailed cast of characters, bonus chapter (a short prequel) and more, it’s really quite an impressive package for readers eight and older.
A very imaginative and delightful blending of animal story with dystopian sci-fi of a type that’s never been more popular than it is now. The real selling point is the art, and Smith will never want for work as a storyboard or concept artist. Unfortunately both these jobs usually pay more than a comic artist, and comics could certainly be doing with more creators who want to produce stories about something other than superheroes.
Scurry ends on “to be continued…” Here’s hoping.
