viz.

Cartoons—your everyday, old-fashioned ones—are one of my true loves. I haven’t studied graphic art theory, I don’t get into manga, I have no idea who the radical artists are out there. I think it’s a great medium, full of possibilities for telling stories, presenting viewpoints, making people laugh and think. Heck, I learned most of my Vietnam-era US political history from reading old Doonesbury books. Graphic novels? I’ve read two (V for Vendetta and Fun Home) and loved them. But let’s just say I’m a casual but enthusiastic lover of the comics.

This one is called Spot the Frog by Mark Heath. I learned about it from another website, where someone who follows these things more actively said this was one to check out. So I did. I loved it—but couldn’t quite pinpoint why. There’s always been something about its cuteness that’s more than just cute. And then I saw the first panel of this strip. I was immediately homesick for Maine’s winters, for the beauty and quiet that lie all around, even surrounding our largest cities. I know this snow, I know that sun. I can tell you just about what month it is, and the temperature; I know what I’d be wearing if I were there. The simplicity of Heath’s two lines for snow covered hills not only allows me to fill in the scene with my own memories, but it is the scene. The simplicity is there in real life—those hills are just two lines, no detail, no movement, absolute silence.

Except for the frogs. They’re just silly.

[Mark Heath stopped the strip this past July, but they’re still running old ones at comics.com. You can find the one above here.]