Lovely art work, but then I'm constantly fascinated by the ability of artists to conjure up graphic novels with so much talent.
However, for me, something just didn't click, and I'm at a loss to put my finger on it. Maybe I just didn't connect - there wasn't anything I didn't like, but then afterwards I came away not really remembering anything.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. I struggled to finish this. I think that says more about my tastes than the quality of the writing or art. I guess I just don't like Hamsters. I just found the aesthetics unsightly. The art when the heroic hamsters are not on the page is good. The writing was assured and everything from the dialogue, character, and world-building were well executed. I just did not like the hamsters which is a problem when they are the heroes.

This was way more gruesome than I had expected from a Middle-Grade book. But I did find the story somewhat interesting.
I did enjoy the diversity in personality and character style.

In my mind, I have this book classified as Planet of The Apes, Except with Cats and Hamsters.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a complimentary eARC for review purposes*

Set in a world where humans are gone we follow genetically mutated hamsters who run a rescue team for all the other animals in the area.

Overall this was an okay comic. The art style was different to the cutesy style that is so popular at the moment. I felt that there were too many characters to follow which effected my overall enjoyment but i did like that between chapters you got a bio for the characters.

Thanks to NetGalley for making this review possible

This is a pretty good book, where it shows us the life of beavers and wildlife. I saw this as a fable, that together they have to recruit the animals to defeat the giants and fight the times of flooding.

I saw the giants like the humans because of the such characteristics that they gave us.

The truth was there were many sad moments that made you want to cry.

Who would have thought a hamster could be a hero? A super fun adventure with great character design.

i opened this book when i noticed the brilliantly done cover,

then the graphics, the character, the design, the story everything was so good you cannot put down this novel. there were some notions to the giants to their old myths and believes and boy do i love and devour the whole novel in 2 hours.
i wanted the next novel at the instant i finished reading this one.

i may or may not have even cried at the end of this book.

We follow a post-apocalytic, intelligent hamster clan -- some with extra-sensory powers - (bring in hamsters with powers to me i will take it and laugh like a maniac)- as they struggle to survive in the Great Wide, aka, outside their burrow in the real world,
but the burrow has electricty run by glowing mushrooms, and all the Giants-that-Were are dead or missing. So the hamsters must do what they can to survive, and that means fighting fin and scale and flat-tails to attempt to blow up a beaver-dam to try and save their home from flooding waters. It isn't entirely clear. But there's an X-Men type hamster school, and lots of conflicting hamster lore, and just when you think you're getting a sense of who's who in this big cast of hamsters. (cause swear to god even with great memory i was getting confused for a while in there). . more and more hamsters keep showing up. And even more conflicting lore.

Other than a few major players, the cast is too big to really get to know any of the little furry guys that well and to relate or get attached to them very quick, but still my stupid heart got attached to HAP.
The story is focusing more on the world-building than the character work, which, fine, because there's a lot going on here,

But it is endearing and I'm going to move onto volume 2 as im way too excited to start it allready

•Character development- 4.5☆
• Story Plot- 4☆
• Side characters- 4.5☆
• Flow of the story- 4.5☆
• Overall - 5☆

Review covers vol 1 & 2.

The Underfoot is a complex very detailed story with a lot of characters and worldbuilding. Each chapter has more story background hidden within the “human” excerpts of emails, photos, clippings, etc. that are easily overlooked as they are almost hidden in the background of a new chapter heading.

Each page is full of panels and text, you can see how much work went into this. That said I don’t always think it balanced as well as it could have. As reader I found myself loosing interest from time to time because there was just so much to take in and it became distracting from the central ‘adventure’.

'The Underfoot Vol. 1: The Might Deep' by Ben Fisher with art by Emily S. Whitten is a graphic novel about intelligent animals surviving in a world vacated by humans.

A groups of hamsters and other small animals go on a mission to save the badgers from flooding. There are grizzled and scarred old hands and some fresh recruits. The different team members bring their own specialties and talents. There are dangers all around and lots of strange relics left behind by the Giants-That-Were.

I felt like the story started out weak but got better as it went along. I did end up liking what I read. The art is not the strongest, but I think it could develop as the series progresses. I think this would be a good series for a younger reader.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Oni Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

A fellow librarian had told me this book is good. I was skeptical, especially has she put this in the teen section of the library, but I trust her opinion, so I decided to give it a try. This book, even though it is about animals, is much darker than expected and there is an mystery somewhat underneath about what happened. I thought this would be a fantasy book, but it is more sci-fi, post-apocalyptic as the animals are mostly lab animals, tested on by scientists -- scientists and humans who are now missing.
So, what happened to the humans? What happened to the world? Will they be back? All of that going on while the main story is as well. I ended up being hooked and desperately involved with the characters. I am so worried about all of the characters and hoping things turn for the better for those I think are getting the short end of the stick.
It is an adventure story, sci-fi, and also quite funny! There is a good balance to the book and I look forward to recommending this to people once my library's copy comes in.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

A fun rodent adventure! I enjoyed the name references of the characters and the concept of H.A.M. I look forward to seeing the combined adventures of all versions of H.A.M. I can't wait to learn more about this world and their next adventures in the next volume.

Thank you Netgalley and Oni Press for providing me an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

"The Underfoot" is set in a dystopian world where the humans are gone, and genetically-modified animals (including hamsters) have found a way to survive. It was very intersting, and I must say that this whole background and atmosphere was my favourite part of the whole comic. I feel like we only got to know a little bit about the hierarchy of this specific hamster group, but I liked the little that we saw and want to get to know more about it. Their lore was interesting, and specific to each group, which is very interesting.

I'm going to be honest, the plot was hard to follow. There was too much going on, and I understood the hamsters' main goal, but then the sub-plots happened and stuff started to happen and I was lost. Maybe it was also a issue with the pacing, but I had to reread a few pages because there was too much going on the page, and although I'm intrigued about what's going to happen, I don't really care about what happened, if you get what I mean.

I did like the characters, though. I thought they were interesting, and they have diverse personalities and some banter, which was really nice to read. Ruby is my favourite so far, and it kills me how much she is underappreciated it and underestimaded becaue she's small and not really a good swimmer.

The art, although not my favourite, was good, very detailed and I liked the color scheme. LIke I said before, I feel like sometimes there was too much going on the page, which made following the plot difficult. Nonetheless, the art is good, and it works with the whole atmosphere of this dystopian world.

Overall, I enjoyed this graphic novel. The art is good, the characters as well, and although I was lost with the plot, I'm very intrigued about what's going to happen next.

3.5 stars

Dude, warrior hamsters!

In a post-apocalyptic world, genetically modified hamsters live in a compound awaiting the return of the Giants. They are the H.A.M. - Hamster Acuatic Mercenaries. They are of various physical types, of different races. (The author claims to have a hamster and to have been based on them for his comic)

For years their youngsters have been training to be part of a kind of elite aquatic commandos, who carry out missions for their neighbors, but not for money or species, but the leader is accumulating "favors" for when the time is appropriate. To leaving ?, of the return of the giants? we don't know. Yet.

So when badgers ask them for help against beavers, they decide to go with the best recruits. (And it gives me the impression that they have had a problem having offspring with powers especially) It is then that we learn that their den has a problem with its existence, and that there are other intelligent animals (birds, and reptiles) that are their adversaries, with an unknown objective.

Here we have the usual tropes of post apocalyptic fictions where the past life has become myth, and the few surviving things have become relics, where they believe they are the only possessors of its truth.

I'm not entirely thrilled with the drawing, so that took away points. However, the colors are deep and vibrant.


The volume ends when they meet another group of hamsters, unknown to them, and the adventure continues.

+My thanks to Netgalley and publishers for the eARC+

This was a fun adventure. The artwork was stunning. The plot was there. Who would have thought there could be warrior hamsters of so many breeds. Definitely a great read for children.

This was such a cool read! First I wasn't sure they were hamsters because of what they looked like, but it becam very clear afterwards. I never knew hamsters could look so different, but it was a really fun way to make sure you could identify each character. The story was great, I'm an ecologist so I know that nature not always works in everybodies favor, but to see it from an animal point of view was really interesting. I'm hoping there will be many more novels!

I am writing an honest review after reading a digital ARC (advanced reader copy) I received from Netgalley.

This comic book was very entertaining. I really liked the art, story, and tidbits of scientific information. I even looked up some of the things they mentioned like Whitley Park, which is very interesting. The world building was excellent and I'm excited to read the next book. Even though I am an adult I really liked this book and think a lot of children will enjoy reading it. My only issue is that some of the characters and terminology are difficult to keep track of, but that is common in books from animals' points of view.

Was ok but not my favourite graphic novel series. May be that I'm not the target audience. I found it a little... trite...

In a desperate post-apocalyptic society, a colony of superintelligent hamsters struggles to survive and grow amid the turmoil of other creatures both wild and genetically enhanced. When the flat-tails build a dam that threatens the entire valley, a team of professional H.A.M. members needs the aid of one rookie to complete the mission and save the countryside.
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🌼A clever and exciting graphic novel of the post-apocalyptic adventures of a group of genetically enhanced hamsters. The Underfoot is a cute, but violent graphic novel so i think the age group targeted wasn't actually suitable.
🌼 The artwork in this graphic novel is simply beautiful. The story is a heartwarming epic adventure.
🌼 I am so happy I picked up this graphic novel.

I thought the book was decent. The art work was really well done. I enjoyed the story but it was not always clear what was going on. All in all, a decent graphic novel in the style of Secret of NIHM.

I enjoyed this graphic novel, the science notes between each chapter were a really cute touch. I would be a bit wary of recommending this to a younger child as the images can get a bit gory at times, so depending on how exposed a child has already been to cartoon violence would impact whether or not I would recommend this book to any specific child. As the story progressed, I found myself eager to find out what happened next, and grateful that I had access to Vol. 2 on NetGalley as well. I wish the worldbuilding outside of the H.A.M. headquarters, and the events of the past were a little bit more fleshed out but overall it was an enjoyable read, and I would recommend it to those that like graphic novels or post-apocalyptic stories.