King-Cat Classix
For 18 years, Porcellino has self-publishedKing-Cat Comix.Two books of extracts,Perfect Example(1999), about his stressful eighteenth year, andDiary of a Mosquito Abatement Man(2005), about a summer gig during college, vaulted him into the front ranks of autobiographical comics creators. Now here's a heaping helping of the rest ofKing-Cat,with 15 pages of annotations (including more comics) appended to make the book as impressively self-reflexive as Andrew Boyd and Ryan Yount'sScurvyDogs (2005--hard to beatthosenotes). The book contains many more of Porcellino's dream stories, some of the most dreamlike in all comics (Rick Veitch develops his dreams much more elaborately--seeCrypto Zoo,2004--but they're much more diffuse). Porcellino startedKing-Catintending never to censor himself or record things unimportant to him. He is as unabashedly unzipped as James Kochalka (American Elf,2004), though not as often. Some stories are fictional, such as the adventures of Racky Raccoon, and all are drawn with a bold line and lots of white, likePeanutsdrained of detail.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved