Review by Frank Plowright
Gussy knows a dog biscuit shop he runs is slowly dying, and as Dog Biscuits opens he’s also coming to terms with the fact he loves his younger employee Rosie. She feels the same, but the age gap yawns between them with each thinking it can’t be breached.
Over a dozen opening pages set during covid times, Alex Graham firmly establishes the characters, their feelings and their situation while also delivering a comedy sequence featuring an entitled and ignorant customer. It’s precision storytelling that instantly connects and it’s easy to see why people rapidly started following the webcomic version of Dog Biscuits as it uploaded a page at a time.
With the primary characters introduced, Graham widens their circle of connections, with Hissy, Rosie’s bisexual room-mate important to events as they play out. Graham has obviously thought about the primary cast and their wider place in the 21st century. Gussy is particularly strong in wanting to do the right thing, but holding entrenched attitudes of the era he grew up in, so at times transmitting as patronising or condescending, yet the younger Hissy’s lack of consideration is because he’s self-absorbed. The exception to three dimensional personalities is the police department, where Graham throws all nuance out of the window, opting for slapstick caricature with violent tendencies. It distracts from the fine jelly of misunderstandings and possible misinterpretations otherwise served up.
Hanging over everything is the pandemic. Post-vaccine the fears of 2020 have faded, but Dog Biscuits was produced as covid spread and filters in both fears of a killer disease and of it all being a government-perpetuated conspiracy. It’s frequently mentioned, but as with other aspects while there’s moralising on the part of the characters there’s never a sense of judgement beyond. People are who they are and do what they do, and they frequently regret it, which is a theme throughout.
Masks are ever present and add to the disconcerting effect of Graham’s art. The main cast are forms of animals, but the TV they watch features humans, and some known names make some bizarre cameos. However, there’s nothing cosmetic about the art, which is resolutely flat and off-kilter, as if part of Graham’s process in producing a page a day to upload was to reflect covid by presenting an ugly world. Within the instant underground style, though, there’s detail and precision.
For a story produced on a day by day basis Dog Biscuits is astonishingly coherent. It’s also true to life in presenting people flaws and all, and despite misgivings about the artistic style the drama is enough to pull you through.
