Ursula Vernon Books in Order

Selected sketches and illustrations offer a look at Ursula Vernon's visual imagination and working methods. Interviews and commentary accompany the artwork, exploring her artistic ideas, techniques, and approach to creating the unusual characters and images collected here.

Wombat engineer Digger emerges from a one-way tunnel into an unfamiliar land and searches for a route home. A talking statue, an outcast hyena, a shadow creature, and an oracular slug complicate her practical response to a magical world.

Digger's attempt to understand her displacement grows more complicated when a fossil attracts suspicion. At the request of Ganesh's talking statue, she ventures underground with an unstable acolyte, confronting mysteries beneath the strange land where she remains stranded.

Captain Jhalm's pressure drives Digger from the healer's protection and back into the world outside the temple. Encounters with old and new acquaintances challenge her judgments about good, evil, and whom she can trust while seeking home.

After surviving the massacre of her family's estate, bookish Lyra travels with a dog-soldier and two elves. Their mission draws her into an elven nation's struggle against a powerful sorcerer, where she discovers unexpected abilities and confidence.

Quiet shrew Nurk receives a mysterious plea for help and sets out inspired by his warrior grandmother. Rescuing a kidnapped dragonfly prince demands more courage than he thinks he possesses, but he is determined to try.

Digger faces Boneclaw Mother, the intimidating leader of a hyena tribe, and a ceremonial feast where her vegetarian principles pose awkward problems. Her wish to return home competes with increasingly tangled obligations involving gods, acolytes, and unusual allies.

Danny Dragonbreath cannot breathe fire, but a poor school grade inspires him to seek firsthand help for an assignment. With his sea-serpent cousin and cautious friend Wendell, he embarks on an underwater adventure told through prose and comic panels.

A beret-wearing chupacabra ventures out to confront monsters in this early comic. Using the creature as a stand-in for herself, Ursula Vernon explores irrational fears and the courage required to face the things that frighten her.

Exchange student Suki catches Wendell's attention, then becomes the target of ninja frogs trying to kidnap her. Danny joins his friend in a rescue attempt, hoping their enthusiasm for martial-arts movies will translate into useful skills.

A school hot dog bites Wendell and begins turning him into something decidedly unnatural. Danny races to locate the Alpha-Wurst before the transformation spreads, with help from an unlikely enemy of the sinister sausages: living potato salad.

Digger accompanies Murai toward a mountain monastery connected to the god imprisoned underground. Grim Eyes, an unusual guide, and Shadowchild join the journey, while a prophecy threatens their progress and the destination holds fewer answers than they hoped.

Returning from the monastery, Digger learns that religious forces threaten the temple and its allies. As Murai prepares to defend it, Digger and Ed descend beneath the building to confront the imprisoned god's servants with very limited equipment.

Danny and Wendell visit a bat-specialist cousin in Mexico, where a gigantic bat creature carries Danny away. Usually cautious Wendell must track down its lair and rescue his friend before the monster adopts him as her own baby.

Danny and Wendell's carefully planned Halloween candy expedition is disrupted by an unwanted companion and a bully's dare. Inside a haunted house, a frightening clown and a candy-obsessed ghost turn trick-or-treating into an unexpected escape problem.

Lyra and her companions flee the House of Diamond carrying urgent information about an impending attack on the elves. Her developing command of natural magic and concern for dog-soldier Trent complicate a dangerous journey toward battle and difficult choices.

Danny's western summer camp plans sour when he must look after his younger cousin Spencer. Spencer's friendship with a jackalope reveals a kidnapping operation, giving Danny and his companions a mystery that threatens the horned creatures' survival.

Fairies kidnap Danny's mother, prompting him, Wendell, and Christiana to travel into their realm. The rescue becomes difficult when the creatures prove far more dangerous and deceptive than familiar fairy stories have led the children to expect.

This omnibus collects the complete Digger graphic story, following a practical wombat's search for home through a land of gods, hyenas, and strange magic. Additional material includes author commentary, a new travel story, and artwork from the original volumes.

Wendell's recurring nightmares leave him exhausted, and Danny and Suki venture into his mind to find their cause. The rescue requires navigating his fears and embarrassing secrets while hunting the Dream Wasp that threatens his sleep and sanity.

Danny takes on a bizarre investigation involving toxic sludge, mutant creatures, and a missing set of enormous dentures. With Wendell and Christiana alongside him, his familiarity with unusual monsters becomes useful in a case that grows increasingly strange.

A message carried by a pigeon reveals that knights have kidnapped Danny's younger cousin Spencer. Despite finding Spencer irritating, Danny sets out with Wendell and Christiana to rescue him from a castle, facing imprisonment and an unexpected family connection.

Twelve-year-old Molly arrives at Castle Hangnail claiming she can fill its vacancy for a wicked witch. The resident minions need a master to keep their home, but completing the required magical tasks may expose secrets behind Molly's confident claims.

Princess Harriet learns that a curse guarantees she will live until her twelfth birthday, when enchanted sleep awaits. Interpreting this as temporary invincibility, the adventurous hamster embraces dangerous exploits before the curse takes an unforeseen turn.

A fairy sends Harriet to help twelve mouse princesses cursed to dance through the night. Armed with an invisibility poncho and her battle quail, she reaches their kingdom and discovers that the apparent rescue conceals a more complicated problem.

Harriet joins Prince Wilbur's search for a stolen hydra egg, following the trail to a witch and a tower. Inside is Ratpunzel, whose extraordinary tail and captivity add another rescue to their fairy-tale adventure.

Danny's inner fire goes out, leaving him dangerously cold. Following his great-grandfather's advice, he and his friends journey far north for a magical remedy, encountering ice worms, an exposed bridge, and a bewildered young phoenix along the way.

A magical bean produces an enormous beanstalk, which Harriet climbs to a giant rabbit's castle. Discovering a captive harp-hamster and a huge goose, the hamster princess plans a rescue in this reworking of Jack and the Beanstalk.

A pack of weasel-wolf creatures asks Harriet to investigate frightening events in their forest. A mysterious girl wearing a red cape lies at the center of the trouble, challenging familiar assumptions about monsters and innocent-looking fairy-tale heroines.

Harriet reluctantly attends a formal ball, then becomes intrigued by a beautiful stranger's sudden appearance. Her investigation leads to an unexpected stepsister, an inconvenient lizard, and a fairy's troublesome magic in this hamster-centered version of Cinderella.

Princess Tatter cannot fit the polished role expected of her and her twin sister. When monsters descend on the castle at Yuletide, she recruits a goddess, a goat and an enchanted spoon to defend her family and kingdom.