A thank you letter to Bryan for writing The Tale of One Bad Rat

I received the following email from a fan of Bryan's called Marko in Finland about One Bad Rat, and found it so heartwarming that I immediatley put it up here on the site (with Marko's permission of course) And if I might add - this is the kind of thing is what makes it all worth while for me.

Dear Bryan,

My wife, Annu, works at a psychiatric hospital for children. A few of their young patients are incest victims or have been otherwise sexually abused.

We're both long-time fans of quality comics and graphic novels, and we picked up One Bad Rat immediately when we saw it (and Bryan's name on the sleeve). We didn't know what it was about, but after reading it we surely did. Annu was very impressed, both from artistic and professional points of view, and she borrowed it to a collague of hers, who in turn spread the word. The reaction from their professional community was enthusiastic.

Now that One Bad Rat is about to be published in Finnish, it seems quite possible that some hospitals and care centers will use it as an "alternative handbook", just like in the US, as Bryan wrote in "The Rat's Tail". It is a much needed work and we believe that it will serve its new purpose here as well as in America.

We would like to send our deep gratitude to Bryan for "Rat" - it's an amazing graphic novel, but more than that, he has accomplished something altogether bigger: he has created a fictional work that can help people in this very real world. Art can rarely do that much, but it's being done with "Rat"...so, thank you, Mr Talbot!

With warmest regards,

Marko Latvanen

Helsinki, Finland

Please note: Marko wants me to make it clear that One Bad Rat's use as a therapeutic tool is still uncertain and that it's being only loosely discussed at the moment......

........but it still makes you feel good, don't it?

Also: the Rat's Tail mentioned by Marko is the Afterword to One Bad Rat.