Image Comics 2020
By Emma Kubert & Rusty Gladd
This new ONGOING SERIES follows a powerful sorceress attempting to correct her greatest mistake—the creation of a magical cat that can travel through time, space, and reality. The cat threatens to unravel the fabric of the universe, doesn’t care, and just won’t listen!
Talent runs in the family, if you hadn’t already known this, and when we’re lucky that talent turns out to be as good and strong as we hope they would be. Emma is just amazing here and the idea of the story, it’s execution and the artwork here is beautifully rendered. The collaboration between her and Rusty is pure gold in these pages. I really enjoy finding new series and new creators to follow and this one is definitely going to be the series you need to keep your eyes on. I love finding these unique, interesting and outside the box thinking when it comes storytelling.
I really like the way that this is being told. How we see the story & plot development move forward through the way the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is presented beautifully. How we are introduced to the world, the major players that formed this world and our lead character is extremely well done. The character development we see is fantastic! I am incredibly intrigued by the Seeker and the fact that she has no name and that as we learn about her, her family and we see her personality begin to emerge precisely when her world turns upside down. The pacing is fantastic as well as it takes us through the pages and introduces us to this world and at the beginning of her adventure. As we see how the book is structured and the layers with the story and seeing how well everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow it has this wonderful effect on people.
There is something about this book that is warm, inviting and welcoming that you just cannot help fall in love with, well maybe not love but love you get what I mean right. I like that it takes us to this other place and opens up the pathways of your imagination and brings us to this place of magic and mystery. It is nice to see a story that can be engaging, entertaining and full of hope and light.
I have to say I am really rather impressed with the interior artwork here. There is a beautiful strength to the linework and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail work. It almost feels all-ages through the innocence of the scenery though we know it is anything but and to be able to convey feelings through the work shows talent. I appreciate the way that we see how the backgrounds are being utilised as they enhance the moments, flesh out the word and bring us depth perception a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show us this marvellous eye for storytelling. I mean that library with the shelves stacked so high and the living tree’s incorporated into the buildings structure, this is the epitome of utilising the page to its fullest. The colour work is divine! I love the varying techniques we see here from some colour blocking, packed in and gradation effects and they all manage to work together and really highlight what we see. The way that the hues and tones within the colours are being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is exquisitely rendered.
Fantasy is a delightful genre and it can incorporate so many variations into it. I cannot wait to see what is going to happen with this cat, Mow for now, and the Seeker. Is this the catalyst she needs to feel less a slave to her siblings and to finally discover who she is? I don’t know but I do know I am in for the long haul and you should be too.