The Comic Critic Reviews Little Fugitive

With little dialog, Little Fugitive is a simple story that captures a guilt-ridden child’s view of a world in which he suddenly finds himself completely on his own. It was a coincidence that caught me at nearly the same age as the hero when I saw it. And thinking about running away from home is something that every little kid fantasizes about. Little Fugitive was a good decade ahead of its time in capturing the feel and message of a television after-school special. The movie’s extremely real perspective of how empty the world can be without family or friends threw a wet blanket on my fantasies—and probably helped to make my own “running away” thoughts very short-lived. Still, use of handheld hidden cameras did capture an era in a special location that has more than slightly changed over the ensuing sixty years. I wanted to capture that “way-back-machine” feel in my strip.