King City

King City

by Brandon Graham

Joe is a catmaster, trained to use his cat as any tool or weapon. His best friend, Pete, falls in love with an alien he's forced to sell into green slavery, while his ex, Anna, watches her Xombie War veteran boyfriend turn into the drug he's addicted to. King City, an underbelly of a town run by spy gangs and dark dark magic with mystery down every alleyway.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

424 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 2012

About the author

Brandon Graham (born 1976) is an American comic book creator.

Born in Oregon, Graham grew up in Seattle, Washington, where he was a graffiti artist. He wrote and illustrated comic books for Antarctic Press and Radio Comix, but got his start drawing pornographic comics like Pillow Fight and Multiple Warheads (Warheads would go on to become its own comic published by Oni Press in 2007). In 1997, he moved to New York City where he found work with NBM Publishing and became a founding member of comics collective Meathaus. His book Escalator was published by Alternative Comics in January 2005, when he returned to Seattle. His book King City was published by Tokyopop in 2007 and was nominated for an Eisner Award. In May 2009 Graham announced that King City would continue publication at Image Comics and his Oni Press title Multiple Warheads would resume publication after a delay, this time in color. Also at Image he is the writer on Prophet, the return of a 1990s series, with the rotating roster of artists Giannis Milonogiannis, Farel Dalrymple, Simon Roy, and himself.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Ken-ichi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part of the magic of comics (well, independent comics) is that in some ways they are more immediately personal than prose. The labor put into creating them is more obvious, as are the many quirks of the artist. It's like conversing with a stranger who isn't treating you like a stranger, who assumes a level of intimacy that you may not share. When it works, it's magic. When it doesn't work, man, it's awkward.

Sadly King City landed in the latter camp for me. Graham clearly put a lot of himself and his love of comics into the visual style, the city, and the endless puns, but a lot of the book's potential went unrealized. In a book about a totally zany scifi/fantasy city where anything can happen and everything IS happening, there was a ton of empty space. In worlds like this I feel like a Hieronymus Bosch / Geoff Darrow / Where's Waldo approach would better convey the mad claustrophobia, and not the manga-style minimalism Graham employs. There was also no plot, or character development, which can be ok if there are other things to explore in a book, but the novelty of a cat that can be used as a weapon wears off pretty quickly. I think my favorite part of the book was his innovating cussing, "fuck a shit sandwich" being one of my favorites.

[Sabrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather than try to write a book-column-worthy compare and contrast proper review, I'm just gonna make three lists:

What I liked:

The story was not predictable. That's always a good thing.
The artist has a clear knowledge of anatomy and movement, and he wasn't afraid to break the rules. The figures are well-drawn and never stiff.
All the characters have distinct personalities. That's also always a good thing.
A great deal of creativity went into this book, from the weird use of a cat as an all-purpose-weapon to the endless puns and tricks in the backgrounds.
The backgrounds. I'd carefully study each one, looking for all the little drawn jokes to be found in fliers pasted on telephone poles, store displays, T-shirts on characters, wall and sidewalk graffiti, and little sketches and labels intended purely for fun.
The characters actually changed clothes. The lack of this irritates me to no end, and manga is just as guilty of it as comics.
The use of other languages in the background and sound effects. Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and some French and German. That's cool.
Sound effects. The artist has a wide library of hand-lettering fonts, and I liked his unconventional FX-ing. For example, as a sound effect for someone tying a shoe, the FX was a dress-shirt-tie in a little FX bubble. Neat!
The omake, like a full-page crossword or two-page-spread board game, complete with character pieces you can cut out and use.
Neither the hero nor his BFF get their chosen girls, romantically. No conventional love stories, here!
Panel layouts are interesting and varied, and changed to fit scene mood and action. Nice.
The uber-plot ending to defeat the big Cthulhu monster wasn't the main point of the story at all, and how the author resolves the problem reflected that. Because...
This story is about the characters. It's completely character-driven, and you all know how much I love that.

What I noticed but don't have an opinion about:

No use of screen tone or pattern. Everything is white, black, or a shade of gray.
The oversize book printing is great for finding hidden details, but makes the book heavy and unwieldy.
No use of crazy exaggerated expressions. I kind of like this, because it shows that emotions can be portrayed with less cartoony art. But crazy exaggerated expressions can be VERY funny and effective. It's an interesting toss-up.
The characters. I didn't like or love-to-hate anyone. Ouch.


What I didn't like:

This is not in any way an equal-opportunity fanservice book. That's true for almost every manga and comic I've read, but this book is particularly noticeable because there is SO VERY MUCH FANSERVICE for those who like women. Literally 2 out of 3 pages will have fanservice on it. Girls in skin-tight clothes, boob shot, butt shot, crotch shot, panty flash, finger-sucking, gratuitous female mouth close-up, etc. In contrast, fanservice featuring men gives us a handfull of pages with a shirtless supporting character who is at least nicely built, then a couple shirtless moments with the rather stick-thin male lead character, and one comedic butt-shot of same. Also a handful of background/FX-y funny little cock-and-balls drawings. *points to the first adjective in that last sentence there* Granted, this book IS drawn by a straight man, and granted, the double-standard of entertainment industry says fully naked women are fine, but fully naked men--particularly "are-you-happy-to-see-me?" ones--are not allowed. Humph.
All the women in this book but two are drawn the same way: thin, beautiful, shapely butts, large if at least somewhat normal-sized breasts, full-lipped Angelina Jolie-type mouths...usually open. Oh, and wearing skin-tight pants. If they ARE wearing pants, of course. There are two--TWO--women in the book who do not fit this type. One is a plump waitress who is in two panels, and whose face we never see because her hair is in the way or her back is to us. A supporting character insults her after she walks away, but at least he doesn't say something about her weight. The other is a supporting character's supporting character who never says a word in the entire book. The top half of her face is covered with a cloth mask. All we see of her face are two blank round circles for eyes, and lipsticked lips. (Not Angelina Jolie lips, though.) At one point, this woman gives the skinny MC a kiss on the cheek, and he makes a disgusted look and wipes it off with his cat.
Too much toilet humor. Ugh.
Needs more world building. The setting and events raise a lot of questions that remain unanswered at the end.
Supporting characters need more development. Aside from the three main supporting characters, we barely know anything about the others. Particularly the deus ex machina ones. If they're going to save the day, I'd like to know more about them...then they'd be less deus ex machina, hmm? And WTH was with the "owls" gang, anyway?
Blah main characters. I'm listing this here, too, because I didn't like not having a strong reaction to anyone. They were sort of interesting, but I didn't particularly care if the hero won or not, or if the ex kept her current angsty boyfriend, or what. On the other end, there was no one I wanted to see go down in a blaze of satisfying defeat, no one be creeped out by, nor feel disgust towards whenever they appear because they are so very repellant. Everyone was just...*yawn*


I've been trying to think of what else I didn't like for the past five minutes and can't come up with anything, so I guess that's mostly it. Hmm. The likes list has more individual items than the dislikes. But the first two dislikes are really big in my mind, and I'm actually pretty philosophical about fanservice. There's just SO MUCH OF IT in this book, and it's so completely in your face. *gags*

Overall, I did like the book and don't regret reading it. I enjoyed the backgrounds and the creative elements to the story. Oh, and one thing I will give a definite star: the MC's BFF wonders to himself if he'd be so fond about the damsel in distress (and I quote) "if you looked like a plant with teeth?". It's nice to see some non-comedic acknowledgement that attraction is a driving force behind a lot of guy's actions.

So. King City, by Brandon Graham. Go ahead and read it. The art is fun, and the story has its moments. Be prepared for prodigious amounts of womanly T&A. *snort*

[David Katzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one helluva kickass graphic novel. It collects the twelve individual issues of King City released in 2011. Brandon Graham creates a fantastical sci-fi/fantasy realm where just about anything goes. Beautiful black and white illustrations with a touch of manga and a whole lotta quirky. Outrageously inventive. Thoughtfully constructed, frame by frame. Packed with more puns per page than a novel by Flann O’Brien.

King City stars an … uhm … Expert Thief/Escape Artist/Cat Master/Dude. I said Cat Master!!! What more could you possibly need to know?!?!? He was selected, you see, to … train with these Cat Masters and was …adopted by this cat who … when he injects the cat with … these drug things … well, the cat can do just about anything you can imagine. Cat Periscope, Cat Machine Gun, Cat Cleaver of Death, Cat-a-chute … I mean, seriously. Do you need any other reason to run out and buy this? I think not. It’s just about the coolest comic of all time. Admittedly, the main character is a bit overly obsessed with the female anatomy. Admittedly. He’s a bit juvenile. But HE’S A CAT MASTER!!!! And he did have his heart broken. And his best friend is a one-woman/water-breathing-alien kind of guy, so they sort of balance each other out.

It’s just … one last time … CAT MASTER!!!!

[Seth T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've written before about expectations and how they cheat us of our reading experiences. Whether a positive or negative bias, these prejudices do unquestionable damage to the natural formation of opinion. A strong positive predisposition toward a book can push us to massage problems in a work to reflect our existing good will toward it—or, if the work too abruptly veers from our expectations, those expectations can lead to a sense of betrayal that wouldn't otherwise come about. A negative feeling toward a book can likewise either sour us unfairly toward the work or too easily endear us when things turn out better than we might have guessed.

And this isn't just a dynamic that exists before a book is opened. Expectation is interlaced throughout one's experience of a story in a manner both complex and largely unpredictable. What we expect of a book is a force that plays in every moment of a book's consumption, from taking in its cover to its method of introduction to its characterization to those characters' arcs to plot points along the way to its use of thematic elements to its climax to its conclusion. And to any number of other parts and pieces along the way. While reading a book, our expectations will naturally shift as we assimilate new information with our experiences and awareness of other stories and formulae.

So while we may try to give books a fair shake, it's impossible to approach things from an entirely neutral vantage. This is all very elemental critical theory of course and probably doesn't surprise a single one of you. I only mention it so that you'll be well on alert to my own predispositions in regard to King City.

Among the myriad tastes and experiences that influenced how I would approach reading King City, there were two major (and conflicting) things that exerted some force me. The first was the excitement/praise cycle that caused me to buy the book. If it wasn't for tremendous word of mouth, I wouldn't have been aware of King City in the least—let alone have been persuaded to spend of my limited budget to secure a copy. That right there is the kind of good feeling toward a book that I mentioned earlier, usually a boon but sometimes an albatross. In any case, I was excited for King City when the package arrived in the mail. Opening the book, however, led immediately to a sense of betrayal, as Brandon Graham's visual sense conjured a whole host of predispositions—none of which were conducive to a just approach to his work.

So I took a couple weeks to let those dueling expectations dim before I read a single page of King City. I think that was probably the right decision.

King City is a wonky, sly-futuristic extrapolation of a ton of implausibilities caked in that kind of alt-formal art style I (rightly or wrongly) associate with a skate-punk, indie DIY aesthetic. It's the art style that made me put down the book for two weeks. Generally, this visual method means cluttered, cacophonous pages filled with too much Stuff and disastrous visual storytelling. The characters are cartoony and not always super consistent. There's nothing necessarily wrong with the style save for the fact that I just don't have the patience for it.

But Graham's work in King City, though often busy and often manic, surprised me by being easy to follow and sometimes even a raucous joy to experience. There's a lot going on in this book both visually and narratively, but it doesn't bog down in overly detailed renditions of scenery. It may be that the importance of King City as its own kind of character gives meaning to all those flourishes that would otherwise be decorative trivialities.



While King City is principally concerned with Joe, a spy-thief and cat master, and his feline companion Earthling, the city he's returned to on Page 1 is nearly as important. King City in Graham is like L.A. in Chandler or Tokyo in Murakami or New York in Auster—only hopped up on two fistfuls of crazy. The city is populated by ninjas, mercenaries, spies, hoods, thieves, cults, aliens, and weirder things. There are secret passages into even the most mundane places. There are hideouts and tentacles and drugs made from humans. And puns. There are a lot of puns. If puns aren't your thing, then King City is not your thing. For that matter King City might not be your thing either. A knack for wordplay may be low-ball humour, but that's only tip-of-iceberg here. Graham has built a world that, while thriving on sex and violence, glories more than anything in a sense of humour and comic timing. Personally, I found very winning the particular joy Graham exhibits in giving his characters the stage and ability to make so consistently with the funny.

So far as story is concerned (and it really isn't too concerned), King City reflects on cat master Joe as he returns from a couple years away. He had fled the city after a bad break-up and holed up on The Farm, where he learned the Way of the Cat and received his boon companion, Earthling, whom he carries around in a bucket. Joe is doing some sneak-thief work to ingratiate himself to the locals while he tries to find his feet in a city that's changed while he's been away. Meanwhile, his old friend Pete Taifighter (who wears constantly from a collection of wrestling masks) has decided to cross his employers Transporter-style after having grown a conscience. Meanwhile still, Anna Greengables (Joe's ex) is painting graffiti moustaches and worrying over her drug-conflicted ex-mercenary boyfriend, who's got bad PTS from the last Xombie war. And then, on top of that, there's a death cult and tentacle monster and the fate of the world. Or at least King City.



It's a good mix of everything and kitchen sinks and bathroom scales and old-timey refrigerators. King City boasts a healthy menagerie of wild abandonments and ridiculousness and tempers it with a lot of heart. More heart than I would have expected from something that wallowed in so much indie-skater-punk aesthetic. Brandon Graham, in a word made of three words, defied my expectations. In a good way. Or maybe in the best way. King City was a wonderful experience.

Note
If there's one major issue with the book (and by major, I really just mean a triviality that's kind of a shame), it's with the printing. Most pages are crisp and lovely, but a good handful show easily-visible jpeg artifacting. It gives the linework on those pages a blurry feel that dims the enjoyment slightly. Below, I've provided an example of what I'm talking about. I've upped the contrast a little to take into consideration monitors that are too bright:



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[Review courtesy of Good Ok Bad]

[Koen Claeys · Rating 2 out of 5]

Talking about a missed opportunity... All the elements for a brilliant comic are present (beautiful art, impressive pages, strong humor,...) but sadly Graham neglects to hold the reader's attention. The story just isn't compelling enough dispite all the original ideas. The further the story progressed, the more my enthusiasm dissapeared like snow before the sun. In the end I just couldn't give a damn and quickly went through the last 20-30 pages.

[Kyla · Rating 2 out of 5]

King City came recommended by a reviewer I've grown to trust, so you can imagine my disappointment to find that this graphic novel fell flat for me.

In concept, this story is something I should've enjoyed greatly: a cat is used as a multi-function weapon/tool and there are lots of visual and linguistic puns heavily sprinkled throughout. I think the reason the book fell flat for me, though, is because there's a great universe here to explore and expand upon, but the story focuses on four central characters without fleshing out (for all except Max, arguably) who they are--their histories, what makes them tick, internal dialog, etc. Even the brief look back at the cat master's training doesn't enhance his character. It doesn't explain how he was chosen, what his life was like before that, or anything else that puts the King City world into a more personal context. If I can't connect with the characters, I can't connect with the story's universe.

The concept for the series is solid, though. If there was ever to be a reboot, I'd give it a try.

[Eric Mesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you go to http://www.comicpow.com/2014/02/05/li... you can read the review with accompanying images. Here's the text:

Regular readers of Comic POW know I’m a huge fan of Brandon Graham. When I discover a new creator that I like, I tend to binge on their works. Fortunately for my bank account, Brandon Graham has a pretty small canon of work in which he is both writer and artist. Prior to working on Multiple Warheads his major non-porn was was King City.

King City started off on Tokyo Pop and then the American division went belly up. The story was left untold until Image Comics picked it up for the second half. The story is, in my eyes, a cross between Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Brian Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim. From Pulp Fiction it takes a couple low level gangsters – a professional burglar and a human smuggler who are best friends and then spends a large portion of the story dealing with their lives outside their jobs. From Scott Pilgrim it borrows a world that’s ALMOST, but not quite our world. One of the characters is a veteran of the Korean Zombie war. The cat burglar literally uses a cat that can become nearly any device with the right injection.

Where King City benefits from the blending of the two is that it ends up able to be a lot more serious than Scott Pilgrim even while residing in a strange (at times silly) world. While I thought the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels did a good job of having a climax that showed growth in the character as well as the reason why he acted like an ass, it was, in the end, a silly book for adults who grew up playing video games in the 80s. King City is, first and foremost, a book about living in a big city. I’d known a big about Graham’s past and I correctly guessed that this book was written while he was living in New York. The book constantly leaves the reader feeling that the city doesn’t care about its inhabitants. You’re left to look out for yourself or hope you have some good friends to help you out. There’s also the feeling that there’s a lot more going on in the city than you can know. Part of this is communicated through Joe’s story. Who would guess that in their city is a burglar who gets around by injecting his cat and giving it special powers? Additionally, he’s constantly entering secret hideouts of various gangs and crime families in King City. He even lives in a complex rented out by a Bigfoot that’s only known to others in his line of work. Finally, whenever Graham does two-page spreads you can often see lots of extraneous things going on in the city – no matter what happens to our main characters, there are others with their own lives doing their own complex dances before their lives end.

The war against Korean Zombies may be ridiculous, but Graham uses it to examine how war leaves us damaged. Not only does Max have a busted leg, but he’s become addicted to chalk as a way to forget the crazy things he saw during the war. And the drug causes its users to become brittle like chalk. When they die, the dealers come and collect the person to sell the chalk. It’s a poignantly tragic story in the middle of silliness, but it doesn’t feel out of place. All the characters in King City are young adults with young adult problems – exacerbated by the weird world they live in. It could also almost be compared to Rent in the tone and the age of the characters (although with less AIDS).

Interestingly, I found the most serious story to involve the secondary character, Pete. Remember that character Dumb Donald from Fat Albert? (Image of Dumb Donald and Pete)

He spends a lot of the beginning of the book wearing that toque and we never see his face. He starts off the book picking up a girl he’s going to sell into human trafficking as he always does. For some reason he falls for her and after he delivers her to his bosses, he starts having regrets. And we end up seeing his face for the first time. Brandon Graham really makes that moment mean something to us just with that simple act. And he spends much of the rest of the comic with the toque on, until another key moment. It’s Brandon’s attention to the effects of these small moments that really transforms King City from yet another (admittedly awesome) wandering book full of puns (as Multiple Warheads has thus turned out to be since its time as a porn comic).

Surprisingly, I found Joe’s narrative to be the least compelling. That’s not to say that it wasn’t good. It definitely hangs with the other narratives like Anna dealing with Max’s drug addiction and her desire to help him even more than he wants to help himself. But Joe seems to have the least true adversity. He is getting over a breakup with Anna, the perfect girl for him, and his memories tell us it was all his fault. He’s doing burglar stuff, but that’s mostly secondary to the story. He’s our conduit to Pete, Anna, and Max and he’s our reader stand-in, explaining the world to us. He eventually hooks up with someone involved in an organization that’s trying to stop some evil form taking over the world, but it’s wonderful and meaningless sex. He never has any true obstacles. He’s still a fascinating character and insight into a world in which people fight with cats, but I quickly found myself wanting to spend more time with Pete and Max.

If you want to be transported to somewhere that’s just slightly not here and see the story of a few young adults and how they deal with this crazy world, I highly recommend checking out King City.

[Adam Castro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the greatest graphic novel ever written. Every panel has a visual gag or written joke, but despite that the story itself is just INHERENTLY interesting. I hope you take the time to peruse the genius that is Mr. grahams magnum opus

[Stephanie Griffin · Rating 1 out of 5]

How much did I dislike this book? A LOT. Should have read the notes in the back where the author states he started out writing PORN COMICS. Also, he’s not as clever as he thinks he is.

[Alex Sarll]

An afterword confirms this as the first time Brandon Graham could really cut loose, just giving himself license to draw whatever he felt like in that intricate, vibrant, fleshy style of his. Meaning there are a lot of monsters, cats, and nice butts in this story, yet it does still hold together at least as a sort of mosaic novel. The loose focus is on deadbeat master spy Joe and his weaponised cat, but often it'll drift to his supporting cast, or just the sprawling city around him. “There’s so much of this town that I never think about. All this city going on all at once. You can spend forever in a place like this and still see hundreds of new faces everyday. All of everyone piled up on each other. I wonder how much is going on in all those windows. There’s a gazillion stories in this nudist of a town.” And on the page which carries that summary, exploded panels zero in on those windows to show us spearplay, sex, an elephant and a cat playing chess. The backgrounds, as loving detailed as an old Calamity James strip, take in everything from fish in artificial legs to ninja sports, dinosaurs on leashes and terrible/brilliant visual puns. Compared to which the ostensible A-plot (secret societies, aliens, ancient sorcery) very sensibly takes a back seat. A love letter to the craziness of urban life. And to butts and cats.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overly juvenile and crude in its objectification of women King City (KC) really failed my expectations. While the book is good in parts (clever puns, funny dialog and a few likable side characters), overall KC didn't stick this one. Not only is the plot's dénouement horribly resolved but after the story is over Graham continues to basically blabber in a phudo intellectual meta-level appendix for 30 pages (some of which is interesting when seen as supplementary materials, but the bulk of which is fluff). The story was fundamentally anticlimactic. It does not surprise me that Graham wrote this while also writing porn because Graham can't go a page without falling back to something sexual. For the cat master idea and clever puns 4 stars at 25% (being generous) for the rest 1 star. (4*0.25+1*.75=2). So over all it was, if I am being generous, ok, 2 stars.

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rambling, charming, and slyly funny throughout, Brandon Graham's opus involves a Cat Master, chalk addiction, water-breathing sex slaves, pesky tentacle demons, and the utter devastation of your former significant other finding someone new and moving on. There's more whimsy than drama, but Graham keeps the story ambling along and knows when to throw in a welcome digression. He's particularly brilliant at world-building, drafting accomplished cityscapes and laying out pages in consistently inventive ways. Weirdly, he seems challenged when drawing human forms and faces. I'm not normally fond of puns, but they're one of the main pleasures here and pulled off - like everything else - with an assured light touch.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Marmoset there'd be days like this."

Awesome artwork, zany story, ridiculous puns. SO MANY PUNS.

On the artwork: one can spend a long, long time digging through backgrounds for jokes.

My only gripe is that while the art on the male characters is fun, varied, and interesting, the female characters are all essentially T&A, with the same face, pouty lips, curvy bodies, and only minor distinctions. Ok, maybe this doesn't apply to the one character that was designed by the author's girlfriend, but even she gets an ass shot.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love cats, or action, or sci fi, or adventure, or life, this is the book for you.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just utter insanity in the visuals, in the characters and in the plot. Wild crazy fun that is as good as it gets.

[Jesús · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great indie sci-fi comic. A great indie espionage comic. A great indie action comic.

In many ways I’m glad that I read this after I’d read Brandon Graham’s later work (his take on Rob Liefeld’s Prophet, his editing work for Island, and his most recent creation Multiple Warheads) because King City stands head and shoulders above his subsequent work.

This blends East Asian comics style with street art in the way that late ‘90s and early ‘00s American pop culture loved, but at the same time, the world and history that it establishes give his style a justification beyond just artistic indulgence. He’s never above taking a detour for a goofy pun, and the world he creates seems as alive and detailed as any long-running fictional setting.

His characters are instantly recognizable. His drawing style riffs on any number of international styles. And, man, this is just fun as hell. It’s a shame, though, that Brandon Graham has yet to hit again the same high notes he hit with this book. It’s really good and a really tough bar to match.

[b · Rating 5 out of 5]

Came to this after Multiple Warheads, and after Rain Like Hammers too.

I was kind of shocked by just how much of a plot and more traditional kinda guardrails were going on here than in those other two titles.

Here, the protagonist sitting out the end of the world plot affair seems like respite, human and wise. In RLH that same gesture felt so much more like a wound, like fear. I wonder what I would have thought if I’d read this title first.

I liked the restricted setting. I missed colour.

BG’s endless punning + poetics are very sophisticated and I loved them.

This might be my fav by him, which shocks me for a variety of reasons, but there’s something that coalesces here and feels like a project that has made a nest of itself and fell into it without apologizing.

Very special, all and all.

[Jorge Ponce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best things that I’ve ever come across. Wow. Just wow. I can’t remember the last time I read/saw/experienced something where it was so palpably obvious the writer/drawer/creator was just having so-much-f*king-fun! “Multiple Warheads”, you’re next.

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar to Multiple Warheads. Enjoyed the world that Graham built for King City.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. There is a lot of charm to this book. Some beautiful and detailed art - interesting and engaging story. Lots of potty humor. Hardly perfect but a fun read.

[Andy Zeigert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was late to the Brandon Graham train. I first encountered him on Image's recent PROPHET reboot, where his writing (along with Simon Roy's fantastic art) impressed. I only later discovered that Graham was an artist as well, and that Image had conveniently collected his Catmaster opus into an impressive tome just in time for me to want it.

Graham is endlessly creative here. Each page is packed with jokes and sci-fi goodies, and following King City's signage and graffiti is fun. He even includes crossword puzzles and board games.

The overall tale of Joe the Catmaster, his friend Pete, and their various romantic entanglements and adventures is a weird, meandering sci-fi epic involving various gangs and aliens and ancient evils. That none of these threats seem to faze the inhabitants of King City is taken in stride. Although the story is interesting, the focus here is on having fun with each page, whether it be a crazy new use for the cat, a pun, or a fart joke.

Lots of comics are good at making jokes, but not many have the kind of heart and fondness for the medium that KING CITY displays.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every panel of this book. This is comics at it's best.

Brandon Graham uses the medium here to its full potential. It really feels like he has had a ball creating every panel. This book is a total joy to read. Its full of jokes, imaginative plots and action, sexy women and even a crossword and board game!

The idea of the cat masters is brilliant and hilarious, and is not the only star of the story. The city of King City itself is greatly imagined and realized, lovingly bought to life with every panel.

Grahams art does not hurt the eyes either. It is amazing.

Do yourself a favor when reading this and really take your time. There are jokes and fantastic puns scattered all thought this book, in near every panel.

I have not had this much fun reading a comic in a while. I wish I grabbed this in singles, though I cannot complain with this great, slightly over sized (though I believe its the same size as the singles) collection.

If your a fan of the medium or just looking for something different, pick this up!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This delighted me so much--all the weird little details of the city, the casual alien inclusion, the never-explained SUPER CAT WEAPON--I loved it. I wanted to play this game so badly, to run around in this world and go on these missions. As a story, though, I didn't adore it--not to add fuel to the "comics aren't literature!" fire, stupid (and wrong) as it is, but maybe it was the literary choice not to have an epic squid monster battle of kablooey proportions and much fight, bang bang kaboom and instead have the surly protagonist tell off the ultra-hot girl he'd been sleeping with (not to be confused with other super hot girl who "doesn't try to stick her butt out that far, honest!"--a little I'm not bad, I'm just DRAWN that way)--so maybe that was the nuanced choice, but it disappointed me immensely. Isn't half the fun of comics drawing what would be awful to read? I wanted to see these Cat Masters in action, and instead I got a lot of butt-ogling and some shoegazey boy-finds-his-voice-in-the-face-of-pussy, wow congrats. Still, super fun, even if the story's problematic.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very entertaining science fiction story from an author/artist with a unique vision and a lot to offer. Where else are you going to read a near-future urban-dystopia sci-fi epic that revolves around harnessing the hidden powers of cats? There are a lot of silly, fun things going on in here too--young men bugging out about pretty women, fart jokes, etc--but in the end the three main characters are highly fleshed out, flawed, believable humans and all of them are both sympathetic and imperfect. You root for them all to do well, even as you are forced to admit that sometimes they're idiots. And the extremely detailed and highly imaginative sci-fi/fantasy background is both brilliant and totally unobtrusive. The fact that the characters are always the important thing even as the worldbuilding shows an incredible amount of skill speaks to Graham's talent as a storyteller. Oh man, and his art--it's incredible. Conclusion: you should read this. You won't regret it.

[Peter Derk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow.

I didn't know what to expect from this one, a collection written and illustrated by a dude who was making his nut drawing pornographic comics, but wow.

If you're into punky, Transmetropolitan-type stuff, this is a great read. It's creative, new, and almost every page has something new to offer, whether it be a zombie war in Korea or a cat that can duplicate a key by swallowing it.

With this kind of comic, I often worry that it will just come out like a bunch of nonsense, a bunch of cool ideas jammed into a tiny space. But King City holds it together. The supplementary material at the end of this volume isn't quite so coherent and really did a job showing me how this could have turned out in less careful hands.

This was my biggest surprise of 2012, and it was a great one.

[Emily Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brandon Graham has a singular skill for world building that I think is one of the best in the graphic novel/comics arena. Every page is full of detail and allusions to a universe that I can only glimpse but I know lives in full detail inside Graham's head. King City has a stronger narrative voice than other works I've read by Graham, including Multiple Warheads and Prophet, but as always the art is brimming with dizzying jokes and messages that leaves me investigating pane by pane. There's so much creator personality alive in his work. If you like nicely drawn butts and cats, you'll enjoy King City.

[Sol · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art in this book is incredible. I love the little adolescent moments that jump out of the endless sci-fi adventure romp; like two people sharing a soda on a rooftop, or of a group of friends reading and watching TV on a couch. King City is brilliantly realized as a place, and has a constant over-packed high-concept chaos swirling around it at all times. To me, this chaos makes the simple parts of the book stick out, the little human moments. If I were to have one complaint it is that King City is so limitless and insane that I never felt any sense of risk for our main characters.

[Tad · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, ironically, the best part of a graphic novel is what you read: the dialog. But it was hard not to get distracted by the stylistic art in this book. The dialog was realistic and great, but the tiny details in every panel made you believe you were in a bustling futuristic metropolis. Amazing book -- and a true steal for the price.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story of a "cat master" and his almost catatonically lazy feline--who, with a special injection of "cat juice", can become a deadly superweapon.

Filled with intricate illustrations, surreal scenes, and rapid-fire puns and wordplay, King City is a real treat for any graphic novel reader.

[Jamil · Rating 5 out of 5]

on this, my fourth complete read, I am less moved by its depth of cartooning & barrage of puns, than its bared heart, the ballad of Anna & Max, and how sometimes, rather than the world, its more important to save your friends.