The story is about a victim of child abuse. It makes heavy reference to the works of Beatrix Potter.
Although it was first published in four comic books, The Tale of One Bad Rat is divided into three sections. Its heroine is called Helen Potter; Helen was Beatrix Potter’s first name.
One Bad Rat is the most mainstream of Talbot’s works and is drawn in a simple, naturalistic style with painted colors. Unusually for Talbot (and the comics industry in general), all of the characters were drawn from life, and the locations from photographs of real places.
EHT Comics 