Sunday, February 21, 2016

REVIEW: Grumpy Cat Volume 1 by Ben McCool, Royal McGraw, Elliott Serrano & Ben Fisher

*** (3) out of 5 stars

The action of this graphic novel focuses on Grumpy and her brother Pokey.  Before reading it, I was aware of Grumpy Cat as a character and had seen some of the related memes, but that was about all I knew.  First of all, I wasn’t aware that Grumpy was a girl, so seeing her referred to as “she” threw me off a bit.  And while I expected the character to be (obviously) grumpy, maybe rather surly and rude, possibly fairly sarcastic – I didn’t expect her to be as mean and vindictive as portrayed in the book.  I was especially disappointed in how poorly she treated her darling brother Pokey, not to mention Dog.
 
That being said, the many and varied story-lines of the different tales were unique, somewhat unpredictable, and definitely entertaining.  The book was much longer than I had anticipated, and contained a lot more stories than I expected. 

The graphics were excellent.  Even utilizing fairly minimalist backgrounds and a somewhat limited color palette, the pictures came across as fresh and vibrant.  And it is amazing how much emotion can be expressed in even rather basic drawings and a few simple words!

There were just a handful of times when I couldn’t make out the image in a panel, and that probably had more to do with the fact that I read it on my phone.  There were also occasional instances where I felt as though I was missing something.  (Like when they take out one too many panels from the extended version of the Sunday comics and you are left having to fill in the blanks between big jumps in the action sequence.)  And there were a few times also when I felt as though the characters were discussing something as part of an inside joke of which I was unaware.

So, overall, I found it an okay read, definitely entertaining, but nothing spectacular.  But probably for people who are fans of Grump Cat beforehand, this would be an excellent read!


I received a digital ARC of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

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