The Eyes of the Cat - Jodorowsky and Mœbius

Simplicity, minimalism, and restraint, are not usually words you would associate with a comic written by Alexandro Jodorowsky. The man who usually fills each page of his sci-fi adventures with more ideas than most writers come up with in a lifetime, on this occasion, managed to pare it down to just one. The Eyes of the Cat, his very first work with artist Mœbius, allows the drawing space and time to breath, and the result is much more akin to Mœbius' solo work than their other collaborations (most famously The Incal).

The narrative is straightforward enough; in some future or alien city an eagle soars above the streets looking for a cat at the behest of a blind master, to whom it then returns to with the titular 'eyes of the cat'. What makes this work stand out is how this tale is presented. The art and story split into two separate parts; on the left hand pages is a simple silhouetted image of the master in the window, taking up perhaps a third of the page (and it also also here that the rare, sparse, narrative text appears), on the right hand pages is the journey of the eagle in full-page single-panel highly-detailed images. The result is a feeling almost like an illustrated novel, even if many pages don't even feature any writing at all.

The lush monochrome hatched images of Mœbius are a delight, and so richly detailed they hint at the bigger sci-fi world that lurks just off page. There are over a dozen pages where the eagle features prominently, yet he never duplicates the angle or perspective that we see it. He's taken the most basic elements and put a slant on the depiction of them that makes a short story much richer than many longer comics. The black pen work is also printed on yellow paper lending an eerie luminescent glow that only adds to the mysterious atmosphere of the story.

The Eyes of the Cat may be much less well known than Jodorowsky and Mœbius' other work - and considerably shorter - but it shows such a different side to both of them that its a worthy inclusion to their catalogue. M.

The Eyes Of the Cat

Alexandro Jodorowsky and Mœbius

Humanoids

Comments

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Fun Home is the somewhat depressing memoir-cum-analysis of cartoonist Alison Bechdel's childhood and teenage life, linking her own discovery of her sexual identity with the death of her father and the subsequent revelations of his sexuality. Contradiction and ignorance lie at the heart of this story. Bechdel's childhood is portrayed as the product of a cold and loveless marriage, where the children are treated more as school pupils and free labour than beloved offspring. Yet Bechdel and her siblings for the most part come across as happy and content with their lives - at least until the confusion of puberty and sex rears its head in the later years. The narrative revolves around the death of Bechdel's father - hit by a truck whilst crossing the road from a house he was renovating - which she adamantly maintains throughout the story was an un-confessed suicide driven by his secret homosexuality (or bisexuality - he never articulates any specifics) in their local sm

Sub-Mariner: The Depths

One big trick I think Marvel is constantly guilty of missing is that they’ve created this huge and popular universe, filled with vibrant characters and a rich history, yet they only really use it to tell superhero stories. Sub Mariner: The Depths , originally published in five parts under the Marvel Knights banner in 2009, is a rare exception. This claustrophobic psychological thriller, written by Peter Milligan with art by Esad Ribic, is loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness (which also served as the basis for the film Apocalypse Now ), and is one of Marvel’s best comics in recent years. The tale is a fantastic little examination of what it must be like to live in the Marvel universe, however unlike Kurt Busiek’s Marvels which tackled the same issue, The Depths is more about what we don’t see than what we do. Set in an art deco Marvel universe before the advent of the super-heroes, Dr Randolph Stein - scientist and ‘profession

Pulp - Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

Clearly writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips realised they'd found success - both artistically and commercially - with their modern noir series Criminal and whilst that recently relaunched series continues in its rich vein of form, the pair have also cleverly diverged into projects that put a twist on their formula; the Lovecraft influenced Fatale, super-heroes with Incognito (and the excellent Sleeper , which pre-dates Criminal ), the Hollywood setting of The Fade Out , and the supernatural in Kill Or Be Killed. This time around the USP is a tale set in the Wild West, although in typical Brubaker/Phillips (Bruillips? Phillbaker?) fashion things aren't all that they initially seem to be. Behind the gorgeous sepia-ish cowboy cover by Phillips lies a story set in New York City 1939, where lead character Max Winters is a down-on-his-luck comic book writer. Now, granted almost all of the characters in these Brubaker/Phillips stories are down-on-their-luck. but we'

Give Me Comics Or Give Me Death!

Search This Blog