King City Manga Volume 1

Overall Rating: A
Synopsis: King City, by Brandon Graham, follows Joe, a man with little going for him aside from his cat. Fortunately for Joe, his cat is a super cat. With an injection of cat juice, he can be anything from a weapon, to a tool, to a snuggly companion. Joe carries the cat everywhere in a bucket. He's a sweetie like that.

I kept picking King City up in Chapel Hill Comics, but wasn't sure whether to buy it or not. It had an interesting concept, the art looked awesome, and it seemed like a fun read, but I would end up putting it down for the next volume of one of the series I read regularly. Then, I saw Brandon Graham at Comic Con and heard him talk about the book. I immediately went out and bought a copy.


What originally seemed like a joke that would get old fast (A cat that can do anything with an injection of cat juice? Really?) was actually just one aspect of the story, and I quickly fell in love with King City. There is an insidous drug called Chalk, that turns users into the drug, so they have a steady supply until they're dead. There's zombies, gangs, and spies. It kicks ass.

Side note: I wanted to take a second to give a shout out to Chapel Hill Comics, my not so local comic book store. The store is about a 30 minute drive, and there are closer comic shops to me, but Chapel Hill Comics is easily the best comic store in the area. They are woman-friendly, have a great selection of indy and mainstream comics and manga, and are genuinely cool people. If you're in the area, be sure to stop by.