The Abominable Charles Christopher
By Karl Kerschl
Adorbs from the start, this webcomic immediately gives one the squees due to his simpleton nature and ability to understand the animal kingdom. Chuck minds his own business from the start, attempting to take cover for rain, getting peckish, annoying a bee to the point of getting told off, then being invited to Vivol the bear’s party later, he revealing to his party-ers of the forest being in trouble. Chuck defends a bunny from a trap and as he’s running around like a madman in the middle of the night, also happens to be an example for the owl’s son of what stupidity looks like. Chuck runs into a spirit of the forest looking like a big bear, the creature changing his scenery by putting him in a snowy area.
He ruins a meal for another family of creatures, then a fox decides he’ll escort Chuck up the hill, even though he warned of the danger up there. The fox’s backstory is cute because he’d obv been separated from his bros and couldn’t locate them, then a change of scenery back to Vivol and “Moon Bear”, the spirit of the forest. Then a sad flashback of Vivol as a cub and his mama, both circus bears and this somehow connecting to Moon Bear, as well. A bird hubby gets therapeutic help from a bug, due to his unhappiness even though life was technically good right now.
Meanwhile, Chuck is climbing up the mountain with the fox, they unnerved by the wind sound, and when they get to the top, they meet a lion, and when Chuck defends himself, he’s blasted in the face with snow. There’s many moments with animals in the forest showing their personalities and odd quirks. The lion wakes Chuck and shares their reason for coming there, he telling of his job being guardian of the forest and whatnot, Chuck and the fox playing with snow for a bit in between, and how the lion wished them to convince some lady she was wrong to choose the “suitor” she’d fallen for most recently. The lion expected Chuck to collect some personal items off the King, some hair, a religious token, and what he was called.
The fox, after being berated and Chuck is sent off, reveals his name to be Townsen. It’s also revealed the lion is definitely not a lion (I suppose this very well could be, Lovecraftian.) Meanwhile, the owls can see from their vantage, Chuck walking off with Townsen, he getting his gears ground because of how Chuck seemed to only get lucky surviving the way he has, and they needed to actually work it out and plan ahead, the owl’s son giving Chuck props. When Chuck and Townsen go to sleep later, Townsen is wakened and sees his sibs, running off after them, and when he catches up, sees they aren’t quite right, his mother then getting the feeling something was wrong, and when Chuck wakes to rain, and finds Townsen, he’s not conscious. Then more of Vivol’s story and the forest creatures, who also have theatre, some animals getting way too emotionally involved.
Chuck is now throwing crow feathers off a drop, some tricksters messing around about he should go collect them for being worth something, Chuck running off. He catches a couple, and then sees the other feathers had been landing on a tree. Then, as a beaver is tour guiding some other animals to a pond with yummy fruit flavored water, Chuck interrupts with a head dunk, and as he’s drinking he sees the lion again, reminding him to get to it, the beaver noting how odd Chuck was acting and inquiring to his health. The other animals who arrive think Chuck is there for the game, they getting ready to watch, but as this goes on, Chuck biffs off down a river on a log.
He also gets a philosophy lesson from a crab, then when he sees crows sitting around above them, quickly makes a farewell, since he’s a wuss. Chuck walks the rest of the way to the tree, the birds watching him as he stepped on bones, scaring him, he grabbing another feather, then being called out by a crow for having kept something of his. He demands his feather back, then relenting to a trade, Chuck asking for something which the crow agreed to, the tree bursting into light. The crow mentions the lion being his bro, and how Chuck made a dumb move by exchanging the feather, it having the power to protect him, but he does leave him some advice.
After he leaves, Chuck digs a bit under the tree and discovers Townsen’s sibs, they asking where their bro was, Chuck giving them a cuddle. He returns them to their mother, then discovering sap, eating a bunch and a skunk calling him a thief. A protector of the forest calls foul and allows Chuck to be on his merry way, skunk still upset, of course. Chuck recovers consciousness and then is told by some ducklings to get in the pond, due to stinkery, he then smelling better upon full dunking.
After he plays with them for a bit, and they remind him of Townsen, he leaves. Bird fella runs into Chuck as he’s leaving, saying how he needed space from his hubby, sometimes, believing Chuck understood, since he didn’t bother hanging around to listen to the bird. So this is from the first book and the story is up to Chapter 4 and is ongoing and the author states it will remain free and offers to buy copies as well. I’m enjoying the hell out of it. Cute characters and aesthetically pleasing, makes me want to know more about certain mysteries and I’ll definitely be following as the story continues.
