Cat Shit One #1
Antarctic Press 2020
Written & Illustrated by Motofumi Kobayashi
Translated by Jacob Yomtobian
Translation Check by Sakari Boström
Kobayashi Motofumi Kobayashi's renowned war manga, filled with painstaking detail, returns to the printed page, but at full comic size for the first time ever! In this semi-fictionalized rendition of the Vietnam War, Sergeants Perky, Rats and Botasky comprise the special forces unit named Cat Shit One, risking their lives daily in re-con patrol, jungle ambushes, tactical assaults, rescue operations and more. These soldiers may look soft, but their combat tales hit hard!
My first thought after finishing this issue was damn it's a perverted version of Watership Down, and I mean perverted in the best possibly of ways. Between the language, violence and how you see the characters here and feel for them the more we get to know them it is without a doubt the second most powerful piece of work featuring Rabbit that I have ever had the pleasure to read. Then when you factor in that it's basically a history lesson of the Vietnam War, yes War not Conflict, as seen through the eyes of Motofumi and it goes to a whole new level of amazing. I wanted to see what this was about because let's face it Cat Shit One is the kind of title that makes you immediately curious about what's inside.
The second thing that comes to mind is how mindbogglingly awesome these interiors are. I mean the linework is exquisite in ways I wasn't prepared for in what I thought was a Manga but then again never ever think you know what something is. After all Akira was detailed too. From the era's clothing, military gear and the way we see the world, maps and all we see a complete world here and it's all visual. This could be told without words the work is that strong. Sure the words help and it gives us so much more context but I'll be damned if the illustrations aren't strong enough to carry this alone. The strength of the linework and how the varying weights are utilised to create this level and quality of attention to detail shows such a marvellous strong and steady hand. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The way we see backgrounds being utilised and how the work within the composition of the panels brings this brilliant sense scale, depth perception as well as that overall sense of size and scope to the book.
How we see this being told is amazing. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is presented beautifully. The character development is phenomenal and the way we see the characters act and react to the situations and circumstances help shape who we see them as. Also that in such a short amount of time that we become so invested in these characters is a testament to how well this is being written. This is far from a straight up revisiting of the war itself as Motofumi is infusing life into these characters and doing so in a way that strips away the racial stereotypes and shows the horrific realities of war.
I will continue to scream from the rooftops about the quality of work that comes out of Antarctic Press and why you need to be paying attention to this! I know this has been around for a while but to see it in this format in North America this way is bloody marvellous. There is a beauty and grace to the way we see this that balances itself out against the way war is depicted. I think this is what the medium of comics was made for.
Antarctic Press 2020
Written & Illustrated by Motofumi Kobayashi
Translated by Jacob Yomtobian
Translation Check by Sakari Boström
Kobayashi Motofumi Kobayashi's renowned war manga, filled with painstaking detail, returns to the printed page, but at full comic size for the first time ever! In this semi-fictionalized rendition of the Vietnam War, Sergeants Perky, Rats and Botasky comprise the special forces unit named Cat Shit One, risking their lives daily in re-con patrol, jungle ambushes, tactical assaults, rescue operations and more. These soldiers may look soft, but their combat tales hit hard!
My first thought after finishing this issue was damn it's a perverted version of Watership Down, and I mean perverted in the best possibly of ways. Between the language, violence and how you see the characters here and feel for them the more we get to know them it is without a doubt the second most powerful piece of work featuring Rabbit that I have ever had the pleasure to read. Then when you factor in that it's basically a history lesson of the Vietnam War, yes War not Conflict, as seen through the eyes of Motofumi and it goes to a whole new level of amazing. I wanted to see what this was about because let's face it Cat Shit One is the kind of title that makes you immediately curious about what's inside.
The second thing that comes to mind is how mindbogglingly awesome these interiors are. I mean the linework is exquisite in ways I wasn't prepared for in what I thought was a Manga but then again never ever think you know what something is. After all Akira was detailed too. From the era's clothing, military gear and the way we see the world, maps and all we see a complete world here and it's all visual. This could be told without words the work is that strong. Sure the words help and it gives us so much more context but I'll be damned if the illustrations aren't strong enough to carry this alone. The strength of the linework and how the varying weights are utilised to create this level and quality of attention to detail shows such a marvellous strong and steady hand. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The way we see backgrounds being utilised and how the work within the composition of the panels brings this brilliant sense scale, depth perception as well as that overall sense of size and scope to the book.
How we see this being told is amazing. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is presented beautifully. The character development is phenomenal and the way we see the characters act and react to the situations and circumstances help shape who we see them as. Also that in such a short amount of time that we become so invested in these characters is a testament to how well this is being written. This is far from a straight up revisiting of the war itself as Motofumi is infusing life into these characters and doing so in a way that strips away the racial stereotypes and shows the horrific realities of war.
I will continue to scream from the rooftops about the quality of work that comes out of Antarctic Press and why you need to be paying attention to this! I know this has been around for a while but to see it in this format in North America this way is bloody marvellous. There is a beauty and grace to the way we see this that balances itself out against the way war is depicted. I think this is what the medium of comics was made for.
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