Getting Sober Drawing Rabbits

MOVE OVER BLINKY –

Jan. 23, 2023 – The 1978 animated film Watership Down comes to mind. The film follows a group of animated rabbits on a bloody journey across the English countryside, and likely still lingers in the nightmares of anyone unlucky enough to have seen it during their childhood. It was a similar schadenfreude of sending a cutesy bunny through the ringer that partially inspired Wasson’s web comic, Sober Rabbit.

“I did a drawing of a rabbit hungover on the toilet throwing up. That drawing is sort of what started the comic.” Started by Wasson in 2019, Sober Rabbit is a webcomic that follows the titular Rabbit and their animal friends through the recovery process. Rabbit works to find life balance after becoming sober and a life-changing accident. Brenda the Pigeon recovers from a history of disordered eating and self-image issues. Shelby the Squirrel relapsed during the pandemic.

“My dad is a bartender and bar owner, so I was in his bar as a little kid sometimes, and I would draw the regulars as characters when I was very little.” Wasson said. “My dad’s friends at the bar were very cartoonish people. There’s always like, bar archetypes you know, I know that from my experience as an alcoholic.”