A review of Fantastic Cat Volume 1 |
| First Published: 2005 |
| Format: A5, Perfect bound. |
| Number of pages: 96 |
| Age Rating: 12 |
| Price: £5 |
| Availability: Purchase at the Sweatdrop Studios website. |
|
Introduction Fantastic cat volume 1 contains the complete Fantastic cat story previously told in five separate small comics, and some of the smaller bonus or omake comics related to Fantastic cat.Fantastic cat is about a young guy named Oskar who has totally forgotten who he is and everything about himself. He even has a noose around his neck, so I can only imagine he tried to hang himself for some reason but failed. There is also believe it or not a fantastic cat in this story as well. A cat with wings that Oskar allows to escape and ends up putting himself in other dangerous situations in order to find and catch it. As he does this he remembers more and more about himself including the things he'd rather forget. It seems like one event lead to another and this caused Oskar to try and kill himself, but he got a second chance at life, and some new and rather strange friends. The cats' purpose is still a mystery to me though. It's a dark tale, but it does have a happy ending! Art & Design The first Fantastic cat comic was created way back in 2001, about the time when Selina first developed her now trademark cute but angsty chibi style. The style itself is still pretty much the same now as then, with no real improvements to it either way; if it ain't broke don't fix it so they say. It's simple but that's the beauty of it. Because of this it's totally consistent all the time whether it's page one or fifty.Selina is very good at making manga, especially telling stories visually. There are plenty of examples of good frame layout, background management and other manga techniques. Screen tone is applied sparsely in most cases usually, but then too much detail would probably spoil the minimalist look of the comic. The story is for the most part easy enough to understand although what about the cat? What's it's purpose in the story? Unless it's something to do with the sister that kills herself. Overall the comic as a whole is ok, apart from not being able to understand the cats' role in the plot totally other than to be caught. The artwork is cute and consistent; the volume itself is of a very high quality in terms of the paper and card used.
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF SWEATDROP STUDIOS, & SELINA DEAN. Review by Wayne Hallows |
