Review #22: "Are you the Beer Baron?"

Part of a nutritionally-balanced breakfast!

Title: Lackadaisy
Artist: Tracy J. Butler
Collective/Studio: N/A
Genre: Hard to classify.
Updates: Whenever
Link: http://www.lackadaisycats.com

“Woah…” I muttered, the booze giving me that floaty buzz in my head, “This is some good stuff. Didn’t think you could get such libations these days.”

“Well, I got connections,” said the woman next to me, “Connections that continue to please my customers, even in this era of Prohibition.”

“Wow, when did the world start turning into a sepia tone?” I wondered aloud, staring at the bottom of an empty beer mug.

“Honey, you sure you just had one beer?” The woman asked, and as I looked up at her, she had turned into some freaky, anthromorphic cat. “What’s wrong?”

“Get away from me!” I muttered, jumping off the barstool and backing towards the door, “I’m a doctor! You don’t wanna know what I can do to your organs while I’m drunk!”

“You okay, man?” I turned around to notice a bouncer walking towards me, who had also transformed into a cat-person, “I think you’ve had one too many.”

“No.” I muttered, looking around the speak-easy, to find that the patrons of this establishment had all somehow taken on the form of anthromorphic cats, “I’m not crazy, the world didn’t just turn brown and filled with cat-people! It’s not true! It’s not true!”

My eyelids sprung open in an instant as I woke in a puddle of sweat in my own bed. The covers were unbearably warm. As I turned my head to face the nightstand and check the time, I saw a review I didn’t remember writing lying next to my alarm clock.

The semi-popular August J. Pollak once wrote that this comic “is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” While that might be a bit of an exaggeration, this comic is still pretty freakin’ awesome.

Sorry, that wasn’t very analytical language, was it? Let’s get serious for a brief moment:

This comic is set in Prohibition-era St. Louis. For those of you un-American folk reading this, it was a tragic moment in our nation’s history when alcoholic beverages were outlawed by a constitutional amendment, later repealed. The story is set around a speak-easy from that time, basically a place that secretly defied the ban to deliver booze to those who knew where to look. The only difference is that all the characters are anthromorphic cats, instead of people.

The story involves a big cast of characters, from a cold, Slavic cat with an eyepatch, to the feline equivalent of hillbillies, to the quirky, um...protagonist. In any case, it is interesting the way these varying personalities bounce off of each other, and makies for some pretty good writing.

The art does seem to have a Disney-ish quality to it, if you look at the very impressive drawing of the characters. Also, like a Disney movie, you have guns, explosions, a cat with the hugest-freakin’ smile I’ve ever seen (yet doesn’t stretch to un-anatomical proportions, a la The 19th Century Industrialist) almost getting run over by a train.

Sure, the artist does take a long time to release new strips. But the end result is more than worth it. The comic is well-drawn, the characters are well-developed, the humor is funny, and the action sequences are cool, what’s not to like about this comic? Well, if the idea of a world populated by cats turns you off, then maybe you should stay away from this. But otherwise, you’ll probably find something to like from this comic.

"Dr. Haus," shouted a man from outside my bedroom in a strange accent, "I got me half a Heineken with yer name on it!"

Upon hearing this, I reached under my pillow and pulled out a syringe. Something tells me I should've tipped that bartender from the other night.

To be continued...

[UPDATE: This post now has a title, and the review itself has an extra paragraph. The Doctor regrets the accidental omission.]