Nobody Likes a Goblin (review)

Geez, no one ever thinks about things from the goblin’s perspective. Sure, adventure gamers (whether they are using a video game, board game, or dice and story-based format) know that you’ve got to level up to get to any real excitement, and you level up by taking out a bunch of low-level guys, like goblins, to gain XP. Fantasy buffs will also understand the reference, as goblins repeatedly turn up there as one of the lowest forms of life, seeming to be present only to serve as a way to provide the gamer with experience and to steal from to amass your questing materials. Which is exactly what happens in this picture book, except this time we are seeing it from the point of view of the wronged goblin.

Even for little guys who don’t know the tropes, it’s impossible not to instantly empathize with the little, round-eyed goblin who is just minding his own business before his life is upended. Goblin’s got boots to gnaw on, a skeleton friend, and an all-around good life, until the adventurers come. The D&D-inspired invaders plunder and wreck, leaving peaceful Goblin with no belongings or friend (they even took Skeleton). Off Goblin goes to save his friend, and after some near escapes he finds him, piled onto a cart with typical bonus items in any fantasy adventure game: gold, a goose, treasures, a cranky woman who was probably in the wrong place at the wrong time. Goblin also has picked up a sturdy number of allies along the way, and the bunch of tiny, determined guys make quick work of the human-sized adventurers, arriving back home in time for an inclusive, giant feast.

Young viewers will cheer heartily for the triumph of the little over the big, and for the clear suggestion that goodness, fairness, and justice win out. Adult participants, or older kids who know the games, may even feel a twinge of guilt for how many notches on their belts they’ve amassed from tiny creatures like this, never giving a thought to how those beings were probably just running around, doing their own goblin-y thing, before their fictional existences were ruined.

Creamy watercolors mix with scratchy line drawings to offer intriguing details set against a warm, cozy palette. Liberal use of black backgrounds reinforce the dark of the dungeon scenes, creating vignettes that show highlights of Goblin’s happy life; the depiction of this existence contrasts sharply with the pages that follow, where it’s clear he has no routine, safety, and not even much of a plan other than “save my friend.” The wider world also emphasizes Goblin’s diminutive stature, with our hero barely knee high to those who consider him expendable and occupying a tiny portion of the page against sweeping landscapes.

Hatke’s got an impressive gift for capturing the forlorn with little to no words, as in his recent gem of a graphic novel, Little Robot (BCCB 11/15), and he does so again here, as brief, simple descriptive sentences are paired with quiet but powerful visual representations of Goblin’s heartbreak and fear. This is a book where viewers will be fiercely on Goblin’s side from the first page, and they’ll fervently hope he can recapture his quiet cheer of the beginning before the “heroes” ruined the day. (See p. 469 for publication information.)