The Goldfish & Bob 25th Anniversary Edition. Todd Webb. Second House. 172pp. 2026. 170pp. $34.99.
Editor’s Note: This is an advance review. This book will be released in October at Second House. It will make its comics convention debut at Small Press Expo. If you are in the DC metro area, and indie comics are on your radar, then head out to SPX, next weekend, September 12-13.
First printing, 2001. Those were the days.
For starters, this graphic novella will strike a chord with any generation, with a special nod to Millennials. If you were a young person of around 20 years of age at the turn of the century, you were trying to figure things out in what had been a relatively simpler time, that now faraway time just prior to 9/11. Overall, the pace was still much slower than today, still marinating in the melancholic angst of the ’90s. A lot of young people felt sort of lost and ill-equipped for whatever the future might promise. This is the setting for Webb’s book, without ever explicitly referring to anything I’ve just mentioned. Webb pares it down to a guy who just wants to fit in until he doesn’t and occasionally will confide in his goldfish.
The Goldfish and Bob, 2026 edition compared to 2015 edition.
Todd Webb was one of these untethered or untested youths from this bygone grunge era. Maybe more untested than untethered since he always had his art to rely upon for a sense of purpose. “I was trying to do something I wasn’t fully capable of yet,” Webb explains in the notes to this book. Ah, an exciting prospect: to reach beyond one’s comfort zone, to attempt to express something significant in the comics medium which, at that time (late ’90s – early 2000s) was going through some major shifts in how it was being regarded by general readers, along with all the usual suspects in the media and academia. Ah, to say something, anything, that would strike a chord, show the world that a young working stiff, just starting out, had the right stuff! The Goldfish & Bob is about a little guy who needs to push back and find his way. Without coming right out and saying it, it was evoking the quiet rage of a generation.
Inside new edition of The Goldfish and Bob.
A quiet rage, one that became a productive fire. No sudden moves but steady progress would win out. Bob, our hero in this story, is not exactly built for speed. It’s going to be a methodical victory; but persistence will reward anyone who dares. Todd Webb, our cartoonist in this story, dares over and over again and, as this special edition makes clear, the results are their own reward. It was early this year that I got a copy of the 2015 edition of The Goldfish & Bob and was delighted with it. Sadly, my dear friend and cartoonist cohort, Dalton Webb, died late last year and it was during my collecting remembrances from friends for a memorial tribute that Todd Webb, also a dear pal of Dalton, got more on my radar.
What a long strange trip it’s been.
Bit by bit, I became more and more acquainted with the work of Todd Webb, all the way up to The Goldfish & Bob: 25th Anniversary Edition. It provides not only a window into how the original work was created but a treasure trove of turn-of-the-century insights along with an intimate look at one person’s creative journey. Webb brings the reader deep into the process with essential context. Webb was part of that first wave of alt-comics warriors who were aiming for the stars in a world populated by whimsy and cutie pie aesthetic. It was a more earnest and innocent way of looking at the world; a more pared-down and simple yet stylized look. The throughline runs from The Powerpuff Girls (1998) to Adventure Time (2010). That said, it is much more than just a house style and to simply ape that style is easy to spot. This is also a timeless endeavor going back generations. Todd Webb is one of those cartoonists who has approached the whole thing with nobility.
Craig Thompson sketch to Todd Webb from Small Press Expo, 2003.
The two big features to keep in mind about this edition: it’s truly a deluxe version presented for the first time with distinct color for each sequence of the story; and, with such a generous amount of extra material, it is also a combination of a work of history and a guidebook on how to make comics. In a very natural fashion, Todd Webb goes about explaining what happened to him on his journey to becoming an established indie cartoonist known for his comic strip, The Poet. First, you create your first long-form work of comics. Next, you find ways to bring it out into the world. Then you think of what you might do as a follow-up. Before you know it, you are no longer a novice but you are out at sea, on the big voyage of your life.
Suddenly, you’re an adult. Excerpt from The Goldfish and Bob.
You get older. You see patterns. In one segment where Todd is describing how his Bob character found himself in other projects, and evolved into more of a proper alter ego to himself, he makes this priceless summing up:
“Looking back now, what strikes me most is how similar the tone (and minimalistic artwork) feels to my later work. I seem to keep returning to the same idea over and over: slowing down, noticing small things, and learning to enjoy the moment. That theme has certainly worked its way through a lot of my comics and music over the years.”
Excerpt from The Corner Shop, shades of what was yet to come.
You just need to look at the above excerpt from The Corner Shop, one of Webb’s attempts to figure out a sequel to The Goldfish & Bob, to see shades of what was yet to come. For artists of all kinds, and in its own specific way for cartoonists, nothing created is ever a waste of time but part of a creative continuum. Today’s misstep will likely play a role of some sort down the line. So, there’s Bob musing over the wonders of nature and of existence. No way to know it back then but that whole vibe, that whole apparatus would find another way, another form, another format, as a poet in awe of life and its many wonders, always to be foiled by a pigeon.
