Gronk – A Webcomic Review

By: Katie Cook (writer, illustrator)

The Story: A cute, harmless monster goes to live with a woman and her pets.

Review: What a cute and touching webcomic!  This comic is all roses and valentines and feel-good.

Gronk is the story is that of a young monster named, Gronk.  He starts out living in the forest with the other big, scary monsters but runs away from “home” because they are unaccepting of his cute/sweet demeanor.   This leads to him being taken in by a nice young woman and zany stories of Gronk’s acclimation to a human household and the pets therein.  In some ways, parts of the story seem somewhat autobiographical.  If you follow Ms. Cook on Twitter, it is no secret that she is currently pregnant and owns pets, and bringing a new baby into a house that is dominated by “pets as children” is certainly very much like adopting a monster.

I think there are two basic types of webcomics: Those that aspire to be comic books/graphic novels and those that would have been newspaper strips (if newspapers weren’t dead).  This is very much the latter.  It has been released once per week since launching in June 2010, so we are still fairly early in the run but you get the sense that Ms. Cook could write this comic for as long as she desires.  It has Garfield-level longevity potential, but is way more endearing and funny than Garfield ever way.  A bonus is that it seems to be a comic that could be shared with a child.  I recollect that the word “crap” may have found its way into a strip earlier, but that is the high water mark for vulgarness and if that bothers you, you probably aren’t going to be into webcomics anyway.

The real highlight of Gronk is Ms. Cook’s art.  She just has a wonderful, whimsical style of art that makes you want to smile when you look at it.  But, before any of it is dismissed as “light”, remember that any art that connects on an emotional level is demonstrating a keen knowledge of anatomy, facial expression, lighting, etc.  Ms. Cook has all of those basics, but her art also has “it,” or that little bit of charisma that makes it stand apart from scads of others.

Conclusion: Even a person who enjoys things like The Walking Dead and Scalped needs some happy fare and Gronk is a great place to find a few smiles every week.

– Dean Stell