Hog Hog: A Hedgehog Anthology comes to us via 2026 Broken Frontier ‘Six to Watch’ creator Skai Campbell, AKA Skhoshbell. Its origins lie in the artist’s recent fascination with hedgehogs, those distinctive spiny mammals that once felt commonplace in the UK but are now in serious decline and officially considered to be in danger of extinction. They are, of course, a visual treat for artists wanting to bring their unusual physicality to the page. Something which Campbell’s elastic cartooning captures to great effect here.
As a collection Hog Hog has something of a scattershot appeal. It’s an eclectic mixture of random facts about hedgehogs (they are lactose intolerant, for example, which is kind of horrifying for those of us who grew up in the 1970s and were told to put a saucer of milk out for any we spotted in our gardens), illustrations, and comic strips. Throughout it has a true DIY culture vibe. A feel of material being enthusiastically thrown together simply for the pure joy of creating it.
The comic strips, which make up the bulk of the zine, begin with ‘Love Hog’ which details the unlikely friendship between one hedgehog and a worm that was nearly its prey. What Campbell achieves so successfully here is to embed a story about hedgehog conservation within the trappings of slapstick humour. Their quest to find an environment free of pesticides takes in reflections on love and anthropmorphised animal humour but the real draw is the energy, motion and fun of Campbell’s visual storytelling.
The second strip ‘Hedgehog Dreams’ is in colour and takes the form of a monologue about the parlous state of the hedgehog population in the UK today. It’s a much shorter offering but its crammed pages have an irreverent charm as our hedgehog narrator talks about subjects like loss of habitat, with particular reference to the Great North Wood (for more on that see Tim Bird’s book here!) and again the threat of pesticides.
One of the reasons I picked Skai for this year’s ‘Six to Watch’ programme was the sheer vibrancy and immediacy of his cartooning. His pages feel very much as if they’ve been created in the moment and that gives them an undeniably kinetic feel. A fun read but also one with something important to say and a worthy addition to our BF comics resource list on the environment.
Skai Campbell/Skhoshbell • Self-published, £5.00
Review by Andy Oliver
