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
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