By Thea Srinivasan

Honest children are easy to come by. But blunt children are the rarest of them all.  This child has a breadth of knowledge to the point she knows how to blend her knowledge with reality. It’s very rare to see anyone be able to speak the truth with eloquence and be able to open anyone’s eyes to what needs to change. It’s very rare to find a girl who is a revolutionary set against the world.

Little Apple is about a blunt girl named Apple. She has the ability to speak about the realities no one knows nor wants to face. Due to her cynical and realistic view of the world, she often presents a new light about reality to whomever she speaks to, and this often gets her into sticky situations due to the level of pragmatism she shows. She is the speaker of candor and sincerity about the realities that exist in our world.

Apple is a sassy girl at heart, but really she sees the world for the entirety rather than just the good everyone wants to see. While she is insightful and precocious in gaining knowledge, her pragmatism comes out and stomps on the “peace of reality”.  Her certainty in herself and independent nature makes her the epitome of down-to-earth.  Some readers will find her personality to be too crass or quite overbearing for them to handle.  But I think everything about her makes her the greatest comic book character to date. She is a no-nonsense girl who will do whatever it takes to make people see a different version of reality through her eyes. The fact that she is even willing to speak about all of the issues that are wrong in this world makes her revolutionary in my opinion. Though she could never be a leader because of her sharp tongue, she is certainly an inspiration as she gives everyone around her a wake-up call. 

The main topic the story deals with several important topics such as racism, poverty, substance abuse and education all in just one issue. Although I cannot relate to all of these issues, I can appreciate how the creator highlights them in the story and brings awareness to audience members who are not familiar with these issues. Although the creator does get Apple to take action on some of these issues, it isn’t what the majority wants. When she tries to speak the truth, she lands herself in a lot of trouble with the people around her and the people she speaks to are personifications of the situations that exist today.  I bow down to the creator for their ability to pack so many issues just by their use of storytelling alone.

The art style is a nice cartoonish style that puts 75 percent of its focus on the characters and 25 percent of its focus on the background and colors.  The art style is unique enough that I know the person who drew this style. It’s also distinctive enough that I can recognize subtle influences or connections to other cartoons from the past decade. The art style isn’t the most important aspect of the story, but it definitely has a nice appeal to it.

If there was one thing I could change about the entire story was the number of perspectives it focused on. I love seeing Apple as the main character, but what would happen if there was an added subplot about someone with a disability or of another race. How would Apple address those issues? Also, I want to see a direction in which the story will go toward. I love seeing the world through Apple’s eyes, but how does she react to everything in the world and not just in her vicinity?

I would highly recommend this comic as a game-changer to my usual stories. It has a slice-of-life feel to it yet everyone ends up gaining more awareness about ideas they’ve never really focused on every day. This story is not for someone who is not able to recognize and realize what our reality is. Rather, this is for someone looking for a wake-up call by putting chocolate and salt in their favorite drink.

Score: 4/5

Little Apple vol. 1
Self-Published