The celebrated and multi-award-winning creator Ursula Vernon first came to most people’s attention through her black & white web comic called Digger. Now, a decade later, Grim Oak Press gives us Digger Unearthed: The Complete Tenth Anniversary Collection. “Digger Unearthed is the story of a shrewd, sensible wombat engineer named Digger-of-unnecessarily-convoluted-tunnels, who finds herself stranded in a fantasy world that is far from logical. Thrust into the middle of a puzzling and often perilous situation involving gods, demons, destiny, and redemption, she finds her way based on a pragmatic honesty and the sincere belief in doing the right thing… To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Digger Unearthed offers the complete web comic collection in a single volume that can be fully enjoyed by young adult readers, yet also contains layers of sophistication that become deeper and more meaningful with age and experience.” Which we have. It’s available now in both paperback and hardcover.

image c. 2024 Grim Oak Press

Australia today is not what it used to be. Civilization has settled into the southeast of the country, roughly from Adelaide to Sydney. Imported animals like sheep, foxes, and rabbits have replaced the older native animals. Kangaroos and wallabies are tolerated as “cute”, but other native animals have been relegated to zoos where they are penned in and stared at by humans. But there is a legend that somewhere in Australia, far from the human-settled southeast, isolated in the vast desert, there is a place where things haven’t changed and the original animal inhabitants live freely.

In the early morning of a day long after the war, a small figure walked slowly along one of the winding tracks somewhere to the east of Tennant Creek. On close examination, the figure didn’t look any different from most of his kind. He was about two feet tall and covered with short brown fur. He had a short, thick tail that dragged the ground when he walked upright and a ducklike bill where any other animal would have a nose.

The only thing that set Albert apart from any other platypus was that he was carrying an empty soft drink bottle. It was his possession of a bottle, coupled with the fact that he was hundreds of miles north of any running water, that made him different. (p. 2)

Hachette Book Group/Twelve, July 2012, hardcover $24.99 (viii + 225 pages; map by Jim McMahon), Kindle $12.99.

Ursula Vernon's Digger has won Best Graphic Story at the 2012 Hugo Awards, as decided by by members of the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention (ChiCon 7). [tip: dronon; nomination story]

The series about a tunnelling wombat received more than twice the first-preference votes (p. 8) of the next-highest nominee, Fables Vol 15: Rose Red, with Locke & Key Volume 4, Keys to the Kingdom, Schlock Mercenary: Force Multiplication and The Unwritten (Volume 4): Leviathan taking subsequent places.

Ursula Vernon's Digger has been nominated as Best Graphic Story for the 2012 Hugo Awards. [tip: Schreibergasse; Ursula's announcement]

Digger has been collected in a series of six volumes. The first volume was published in July 2005; the story concluded March 2011 at 759 pages.

Digger won the Web Cartoonists' Choice Award for Outstanding Black and White Art in 2005-6, and Outstanding Anthropomorphic Cartoon in 2006, and has been nominated for several other awards, including the 2005 Ursa Major Award.

The Hugo Award will be decided by members of the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention (ChiCon 7). Per the WSFS constitution, sec. 3.3.6, the entire run of Digger is eligible this year.

Ursula Vernon's 'Digger of Unnecessarily Complex Tunnels' has completed her 759-page journey. [tip: chelImQo']

For the last six months or so, I have been very focused on finally finishing Digger’s unexpectedly epic journey (some of you undoubtedly remember those first five pages, and my constant refrain that I was just doodling and not to get attached!) but I didn’t actually spend much time thinking about what to say once I did.

I guess the only thing to say is “Thank you!”

Digger won the 2005 Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards for 'Outstanding Black and White Art', and was nominated for 'Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic' in 2005 and 2007.

Recent strips will be collected and published by Sofawolf Press as vol. 6 in the series.

Read more: Past reviews of Digger from The Webcomic Overlook and Terrouge

Among the newly revealed images are fantastic images of half human/half animal creatures, a rare rendering of a wombat and numerous birds, lizards and marsupials. The find also includes stenciled images of arms and boomerangs. Full article is here.