Scurry

By Mac Smith

Published by Image/Skybound’s Comet

pub date: 21-Feb-2023

Publisher’s Summary:

The humans are gone, the sun is rarely seen, and a cold, dark rain befouls everything it touches. 

As a group of house mice struggle to survive a long and strange winter, they stubbornly cling to their old ways, looting the abandoned homes nearby for any scraps they can find.  

While food is scarce, danger is everywhere–from mousetraps and poison to feral cats roaming The Neighborhood–and the colony is becoming desperate.   

But when the rumors of a wrecked truck filled with food gives the mice newfound hope, the colony’s best scouts, including the brave Wix, embark on a perilous journey beyond the fence. For outside The Neighborhood lurks creatures much more dangerous than stray cats, and a world much larger than they know…  

Acclaimed webcomics creator Mac Smith presents his stunning series in a single volume for the first time ever. 

Review:

Humans set off a nuclear weapon and the animals who were far enough away have survived and gained some skills. The story is filled with action and tension. Scurry is a bit like fan fiction of The Secret of NIMH, but I don’t mean that in a demeaning way. NIMH is one of my all-time favorite movies and if you’re going to pay homage to something, it should be something stellar. Plus, that movie and book are considered old now. There are tons of comic readers who have never seen nor read it. That makes a story like Scurry fresh for today’s young audience.

There’s also the incredible works of art in every single panel. Beautiful art with attention to making each character unique in appearance which isn’t easy with nests of mice and rats, a murder of crows, beavers, packs of wolves and feral colonies of angry cats.

There are three fox sisters who are oracles to the forest animals. The animals pass down the prophecy that the Guardian won’t return until Erebus the Shadow Wolf dies. Two tiny little young mice, Pict and Wix, heroically suss out betrayals, take epic journeys, make new friends and enemies, and eventually save their colony though after many animal deaths.

Mac Smith corrals nature’s elements to make them characters themselves—antagonists of course. It’s an animal versus nature plot. The caveat is that it’s all humankind’s fault which we can relate to today! Fire comes in the form of a nuclear bomb which the animals see as a godlike Fire Wolf out to cleanse the world they know. The Fire Wolf is followed by Darkness as the ash hides the sun. The Air itself is poison. Water is either scarce or flooding neighborhoods. Many of the underground Earth burrows for animals also flooded. The only safe places they can find are in the ruins of houses left by the humans. Depending on a reader’s belief and culture, these elements can be deities to placate, honor, and appease. For the animals, their survival comes down to finding balance which is a hopeful feeling as all of them keep waiting and waiting for the long winter to end.

Content Note: the animal on animal violence is graphic and sad.

For fans of: The Secret of NIMH, The Underfoot, and Squarriors

Rating: 5 stars

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.