“The Story of the Bad Egg,” by Emily Ryan

Reviewer: Emera
Date read: Summer 2012, and again this week
Read the comic online here.

The Story of the Bad Egg: cover image

“Once upon there lived a prince in a palace.

This morning the prince was in the twelve-acre pool. He had just received a call saying that the flood in Hampshire was not as serious at it had first seemed and had in fact done wonders for agriculture. The royal visit to share in the local suffering was thus cancelled and the prince had a blank in his calendar …”

… and that blank ends up being filled by an ill-tempered dragon, who in turn yields up four eventually voracious dragon children. The Story of the Bad Egg,” a 34-page comic by Swedish illustrator Emily Ryan, is very droll and a touch morbid. Its finely inked art is a fun mix of airy, geometric, and quietly kinetic (I like all the curves made in space when the characters go into motion), set off by visual gags and verbal irony polished to a gleam. And the “bad” egg, who is accidentally allowed to sate her appetite with books and promptly transforms into a stubby, walking representation of written knowledge, is one of the most lovable characters I’ve run into in a long while. (Watch out for the scene where she asks her foster father to chalk her pool cue for her.)

comic badegg

Go to:
Read “The Story of the Bad Egg” online

3 thoughts on ““The Story of the Bad Egg,” by Emily Ryan”

  1. Although I’m not sure that was an accurate summary of existentialism, it was a good story.

    I read the Bad Book Covers feature. You should bring it back; your wit is delightful.

  2. Thank you for pointing me to that! It’s a completely delightful story and I loved the way it echoes the real world (William/Kate, and Harry) without becoming a simple 1:1 analogy.

  3. Aaron: Perhaps the dragon just didn’t finish digesting yet…
    Yoicks, thanks for the ego stroke! I do still have a very, very small backlog of covers I’d picked out for BBCF, but my interest in the feature waned as I found I didn’t particularly enjoy trying to be meanly funny on a schedule. Lately I’d entirely forgotten about it. I’ll post some more as the mood strikes, though!

    Maureen: Yes, she does a wonderful job of creating a space where the real-world parallels and magical logic are equally convincing!

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