SIZE MATTERS: The Mini-Comics Blog

Hondle Special Edition by Matthew Craig

Tonight’s a quiet night. Kate is out at dinner with a couple of friends. I had some homemade pizza and fed the cats. I’ve been sitting here in front of the computer for about thirty minutes, sipping a dram of Lagavulin, and now I’ve got these damn tears in my eyes.

I just finished reading Matthew Craig’s devastating mini-comic, Hondle Special Edition: The Story of One Small Brown Dog and the Little Boy Who Loved Him . See, I know Hondle the dog a bit through some of Craig’s other mini-comics that he’s sent me. I knew that Hondle had died, but Craig had always had the little guy as the mock-hero of these weird made up adventures. Pretty light stuff really.

But for his Hondle: Special Edition, Craig has totally pulled the gloves off. He goes back to the beginning, telling the reader of how he and Hondle met when Craig was just a little boy.

“When I was a boy. I had a dog. He was small and brown, and had green eyes and a little white beard. He had ticklish paws with long claws that clicked and clacked when he walked. He had terrible breath, but he was my very best friend, and I miss him all the time.”

Each page of this mini is a story about Hondle and the crazy things he used to do. If you’ve let an animal into your life, you’ve got similar stories. We all do. I don’t give a fuck what scientists and experts say, animals have personalities. They have weird little habits and quirks. One of my cats pukes almost every day and it drives me crazy, especially when I’ve ran out of paper towels, but if one day she was gone, I’d probably give anything to clean up her puke one more time. Life’s funny like that.

Never at any point do you feel like Craig is trying to tug on your heartstrings. He’s sorting out his own feelings and memories about his pal and saying goodbye, because he didn’t really get to say goodbye in person. Craig was twenty and away at school when Hondle passed away. They were lucky enough to spend seventeen years with each other though and that’s pretty damn special.

Here’s the link to Matthew’s page for this mini-comic. It’s 20 pages and only costs $1.75 US. On this page, scroll down, there are eight Hondle webcomics you can enjoy for free.

Thanks for making me cry, Matthew. You bastard.