Review by Frank Plowright

Wagnificent isn’t the most obvious all-ages graphic novel demanding a sequel. In The Adventures of Thunder and Sage Bethanie Murguia explained much about the way a dog behaves and feels, showing how young Sage wasn’t always attuned to Thunder’s perception. However, the idea of Thunder among other dogs wasn’t greatly explored.

New readers will be able to pick up what’s happening easily enough, although it pays to know that Thunder has a form of spirit avatar, a wolf representing his distant ancestors. Thunder is domesticated, but some instincts remain those of the more feral wolf, and she’s sometimes tempted into less desirable behaviour.

A lot of what was previously covered is provided again here via shorthand methods such as signs pointing at objects, while the Wagometer indicating a state of happiness is retained. So are the strips separating the chapters, this time given over to why techniques seen as friendly by other dogs don’t apply to humans, and vice versa.

The crisis point is reached via the arrival of another dog in the house, the much smaller Byron, and Sage expects Thunder will now share everything. Byron may be smaller, but he’s a rescue dog and used to scrapping for necessities, so isn’t intimidated by Thunder’s size, and it turns out his wolf avatar is far larger also. Byron hasn’t been trained either, so lacks domestication and has naturally wilder inclinations when it comes to survival.

Murguia includes more story than last time, introducing new characters, making Sage seem older than she was before and eventually successfully immersing readers in the world Byron came from. Once again, young readers will learn about dog behaviour, and once again there’s a lot of extra information at the back of the book. Cheery, informative and delightfully drawn, A New Dog in the Den makes for pleasant and painless learning.