Review: ‘Walkies’ By David Ziggy Greene – Something To Put A Huge Smile On Your Face

David Ziggy Greene‘s first children’s book is so much more than that – it’s the perfect gift for anyone (and let’s face it, that should be everyone) who loves their good boys and girls.

Okay, not comics as much as a wonderful picture book, but David Ziggy Greene has been an artist, illustrator, comic maker, and comic reportage maker I’ve followed for many years. His Scene and Heard strips in Private Eye were always insightful, thought-provoking, and quite brilliant. We recently reported on his new book, Fritz & Kurtz, with Jeremy Dronfield – but Walkies is something absolutely completely different… and absolutely completely wonderful, something guaranteed to put a huge smile on your face, young and old.

It’s very simple. It’s about Dogs going on walkies…

Walkies is page after page of wonderful wonderful doggos going walkies in the park, all of them loving their lives and making their owners lives infinitely better in the process.

Through it all, Greene’s perfect caricaturing captures them just perfectly, absolutely perfectly. The really clever thing is that he doesn’t concentrate on showing you a picture-perfect image of any dog but instead does something so much better, finding the very essence of the dogs you know and love, whether you’ve been dog owners or not, and showing it to you on page after page. Yep, whatever dog you’ve owned, whatever dogs you love, Greene’s artwork manages to remind you of them at some point.

Walkies really is just a perfect little picture book that’s just going to absolutely delight young and old, as they get just a little idea of the sheer joy to be found when you take a dog walkies.

It’s got all the smells, all the sniffs, all the pooping, all the weeing, all the scratches, all the pulling, all the barking, all the meeting other doggos… every one of these furry friends is here to delight you and make your day so much better.

All the different dogs are here, there’s Rosie, of course, and she just loves walkies the most, but there’s also Milly who really loves walkies with her nose to the ground, all the better to find all the treats to eat. And then there’s Norman who loves getting all muddy, Toddy looking for the very best bush to knock out a nugget, there’s good old boy Charlie who takes it all at his own pace, very good girl Lola who loves walkies to guide her owner. Big softie Oliver is just here for all the scratches along the way, whilst Bella is all about tying herself up in knots with the lead. And of course there’s Duke, who really, really, really loves BIG sticks.

And then, our very favourites, Pixie and Petal… they love walkies and want EVERYONE to know about it.

Pixie and Petal are our favourites because, for the last few years until we had to say goodbye, we had Chihuahuas, a couple of them, along with a Parsons Terrier and a Jack Russell. I was also lucky enough to have a gorgeous Staffordshire Bull Terrier with me when I was a kid. And they were all beautiful, amazing, very very special boys and girls. Red, Mukka, Spotters, Jack, and Mopsa … all so very missed every single day.

Of course, that’s the wonder and the ever so sad thing about all these beautiful dogs going for walkies, they’re with us for such a short time and then we have to say goodbye to them. But while they’re here they make us all so much better – and I thank David Ziggy Greene so much for showing everyone just how perfectly pure, how simple, how essential dogs are.

You won’t find a more delightful book all year, a perfect little picture book about the world’s most perfect animals.

Walkies is by David Ziggy Greene and is published by Bog Eyed Books. Get it everywhere great picture books are sold right now and from the Bog Eyed Books site.

Find David’s links here, Patreon here, Twitter here, Big Cartel shop here, old blog with loads of great art here. And then go check out the rest of the great books that Bog Eyed Books put out right here.