Brubaker, Charles – Ask A Cat

February 9, 2015

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Ask A Cat

This is one of those cases where your tolerance level for the subject matter is going to be key to your enjoyment. I have a cat and she means the world to me, so I’m much more tolerant of most forms of cat humor than people who don’t have cats (probably). So the idea of a fictional cat answering fictional (?) letters had me intrigued from the start, and Charles also nailed it with the execution. This is a collection of single page answers to these questions, and subjects include whether or not humans landed on the moon, what should they do with a drunken sailor, what are their favorite places to puke around the house (I loved how they had an intricate process in place to determine the best places to puke to maximize the chances of their human stepping/sitting in it before seeing it), how to properly pet a cat, what they see when they appear to be staring off into space, why they’re so obsessed with that little red dot from laser pointers, what is the deal with those strange seasonal trees that are brought into the house, and where do cats go when they die. A solid chunk of these made me laugh out loud, which is always the goal for funny books like this, and a few of them might have even incidentally made me understand cats a bit better. So yeah, I’d say that this book is worth checking out. Unless you’re hopelessly cynical, and even if that’s the case this might make you thaw out a little and see a little bit of joy in the world. $2

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Brubaker, Charles – Smallbug Comics #2

December 2, 2014

Website

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Smallbug Comics #2

13 years into me running this website, do you think it’s too late for me to put some of these comics into categories? Yeah, I figured it was too late too. Anyway, this comic would be considered “all ages,” and I tend to review those a little differently than other comics, as I no longer have the mind of a child <insert obvious joke about my mind here>. I think kids would probably enjoy this quite a bit. The basic story involves a king who is so unremarkable in every way that he finally comes up with an idea to get people to remember him: he has a special crown made of a golden cat. It’s such a ridiculous crown, the theory goes, that people are bound to remember it. And it works, but it doesn’t exactly cast him in the best light, for obvious reasons. As this is going on a young brother and sister are arguing, as the younger one wishes more people would pay attention to him. Things happen and, as this is a comic, the crown ends up falling on the head of the younger brother. Soon people are paying attention to him, but it ends up being unwelcome attention in some cases, and the king is also soon on the lookout for his missing crown. Hilarity ensues! I liked the attention to detail on some of the panels, especially the one full page panel of an outdoor market. All kinds of stuff going on there if you look for the little things. And it looks like Charles has done a good job of building up a credible world with interesting characters in it, or at least a wide variety of people. So there, it has been established that kids would probably like this just fine. What about adults? Um, probably? It might be considered a little cutesy by some people, as some people are very cynical, but I consider myself pretty cynical and I liked it. I even laughed a few times, which is always welcome. So yeah, I’d say it’s worth a shot for everybody. For $2, why not?

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