In the far future, a military-industrial complex reigns over all humanity and actively destroys distant alien worlds. The galaxy’s only hope can be found through an unlikely pair: an astral-projecting cat named Lou and his loving owner Kiara. Trading nine lives for the well-being of billions, their revolt is a battle for love, friendship, compassion, and the soul of humanity. Collects the five-issue miniseries. ”If you’re looking for a story in a league all its own you just found it, now get it and read it!”–Outright Geekery

Do you like stories about kitties? How about space? If you answered “no” to either of those, I have one word for you:

I was turned onto this book by an old friend, and boy am I glad she mentioned it! There’s a lot to explore in this book, but the short story is that it’s a futuristic socially conscious story with an astrally projecting cat as the main character! Did I laugh? Yes. Did I cry? Yes. Did I want to overthrow the chains of oppression that bind our society? Yes, although to be fair I went into it already feeling that way. If you’re an on-the-go blog reader who doesn’t have time to read the rest of this, the takeaway is go buy this book! You can get it on Comixology for $11.99, but also talk to your local comic shop dealer, they might be able to order you a copy! For those of you with time on your hands, let’s delve a little deeper…

Not Your Daddy’s Nyan Cat

So, there will be some minor spoilers in here as to the setting of the book, and the themes, but I’ll leave the major plot points out. Strayed opens with the art, and showcases the talents of Doe right off the bat. I believe Doe uses a mix of hand-drawn art and digital, but that’s just a guess from a non-artist. Either way, it’s stunning. He mixes seamlessly between a more rough style in dialogue scenes, to a highly detailed, really psychedelic style when we’re out in space. Which is a lot, due to the fact that the cat character, Lou, can astrally project out into the cosmos. I don’t know if Juan Doe has ever worked on Doctor Strange, but Marvel should be beating down his door to get on that book, he’d do a fantastic job.

Lou works with a scientist named Kiara, and they are exploring the universe looking for life. There’s a lot more to it, but I’ll leave it there for now, you find all that out in the first few pages. What starts as kind of a cute space cat story quickly spirals out into epic proportions, and this story involves both personal themes like love, loyalty and betrayal, but also sociopolitical themes that are pretty topical to what we’re all experiencing right now in the world. There’s also a good deal of philosophical exploration about the nature of life, death and the soul. So there’s a lot to unpack!

Square Pegs, Round Holes, And Fascism

Strayed was originally a five-issue miniseries that was collected into a graphic novel. I read it in digital graphic novel form, which has the usual goodies of extra covers, all of which are incredible! Doe is really good at context-switching, both between scenes and internally. One thing I noticed is that the people who are the authorities/baddies tend to be boxier, with more straight lines and square shapes, while the protagonists and other gooder creatures are more fluid, and have less defined shapes. I thought that was a really cool touch, and one that more artists should make!

This was a great blend of a lot of different ideas, and was a really fun read at the end of the day! As I said up top, you can find this easily on Comixology, or ask your local local comic shop. Also be sure to check out the links provided above to the individual creators. The comics industry is in turmoil (like most industries), so there may be ways to directly support your favorite creators while they’re having a rocky time of it. And take care of yourselves too! When things get hectic and you can’t handle the chaos of the world, having a good comic like this can be a life-saver. See you in the next post!