Zicky: Wrath of the Rat King

by Darin S. Cape, Zeno Decrux (Illustrator), Hiorsh Gabotto (Illustrator)

160 pages, Paperback

Expected publication March 10, 2026

About the author

Shawn Hainsworth, AKA Darin S. Cape, is the founder of SHP Comics. He writes and publishes comic books, novellas & shortstories and screenplays, and is a documentary filmmaker. The Disciple is the first volume of The Hand of God. This story is an expansion of the comic book series, The Killing Machine: Book One of The Hand of God.

Other comic book series include Woodstake and EroTech.

Woodstake: Three Days of Peace, Music and Blood
When a vampire descends on the Woodstock Festival in 1969, hippies, anti-war protesters and music lovers try to survive three days of peace, music and blood in this comedy of horrors. The first novella in this story will be released in January, 2024

EroTech: Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers, and Sex Robots. What could go wrong?
Join Samantha Jenkins as she rallies her team of misfit engineers and out of touch managers to release a new sex robot on time. The only problem is that the robot doesn't know when to quit.

Darin is also the author of a number of award-winning screenplays, including an adaptation of EroTech as the short film, Technical Support starring Courtney Pauroso, Davey Johnson and Aparna Nancherla.

Reviews

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Copy provided by the publisher

Zachary is almost five years old and lives with his parents and older brother and sister. He has a very active imagination, and spends his nighttime and nap hours fighting the Rat King in a fantasy world where he is an older character called Zicky. When he goes missing one morning and the police have to be called, it's clear that his two worlds are mixing. He has rats in his bedroom, and a dog he has in the imaginary world appears and his sister adopts it. The Rat King wants his ring (actually a binky), and there's lots of fighting. The rats eventually come in to other parts of town in the real world. An exterminator is called, but he is no match for giant rats. Zachary has a potion that will make the rats larger and even turn him into Zicky in the real world. When his family experiences the giant rats and Zicky, they are suitably alarmed, but when Zachary is done having the Rat King in his real life, a Deus ex machina called The Ghost in the Machine comes in and cleans up all of the messes so that Zachary can go back to his regular life.

This was a rather trippy, comic book style graphic novel that was a bit like Kochalka's The Glorkian Warrior books or Angleberger's The First Cat in Space; I just don't get the humor. The rats kicked me out, and the Manga style Rat King world was deeply unpleasant as well. Readers who aren't grossed out by Savage's Laser Moose and Rabbit Boy might pick this up. Even though SHP Comics is an independent publisher, this is available through Follett Titlewave and was reviewed by Kirkus. I'll put this copy in my library (I don't put all books I receive in my library!), but I don't know that I would have purchased it. I'm not afraid of rats in general, but THESE rats require a warning! I'll have to see how this one does with my students.

[Viola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for giving the opportunity to read this ARC. I really enjoyed this and I read it all in one sitting. This was a fun adventurous comic for kids. This story tells the tale of Zicky and what transpired after a visit to The Rat Kings world. One thing I personally really liked was the different art styles. When Zicky is transformed and in another world the art style is one way but then when he is living his normal life at home the art style is completely different. I really like that difference. I think the story was good and something I think some of my relatives kids would enjoy reading. It kept a good pace and had some humor in it. I loved the reoccurring batman joke. It had a satisfying ending as well that also sets things up well for future books.