Day of the Gib-cats
By Verwho? (a.k.a Katherine Verhoevan)
I wasn’t sure what a gib-cat was so I looked it up…kind of. There were a lot of not helpful links on the first couple pages of search results, but eventually I found that this was an old term for a castrated or elderly male cat. Sure…Close enough.
When I first picked up this book I thought the title should be read like it was a momentous day of uprising for the gib-cats. A day that would be written in gib-cat history forever. But no. It’s more of a “day in the life of the gib-cats story. A slice of life.
The story follows the Norse goddess Freya’s cats through a day in some sort of palace. They’re taunted by Odin’s ravens for no good reason. The ravens seem to enjoy teasing the cats, calling them lazy. The cats don’t give a shit. The cats in turn taunt Odin’s stallions for their lack of freedom. Trapped in the stables until Odin beckons for them.
One of the cats appears to be in charge, as much as any cat can be in charge of other cats. Perhaps this is either Bygull or Trigul, the cats who pull Freya’s chariot, but it’s never called out by name. The cat in charge is sent out to gather the rest of the herd as Freya has need of them. The rest of the book shows the gathering of the other cats from around the palace. Some from the arms of adoring maidens, and even one from the clutches of a barrel of ale. On their way to meet Freya, the cats decide to stop for a small lunch of milk and fish.
The cats take their on time to get up to the balcony to meet Freya, but they arrive too late. The ravens are flying off along side a chariot pulled by a golden boar, taunting the cats from the air saying how foolish it is to get cats to do work. The boar is most likely Gullinbursti, the forged boar of Freyr, Freya’s twin brother. It looks like a woman on the chariot, so the implication is that Freya got tired of waiting for the lackadaisical cats and took the other chariot to run her errands. The cats are show, once again, not giving a shit.
This book is very short. Seven pages in a CD case sized chip board cover, but it’s done really well. Illustrated in four or five spot colors. The style is bold and expressive.
I need to find a good way to store these odd sized comics that get from alt-comics shows like CAKE. It’s too easy to lose small books like this when they’re loose in a box with other traditional sized comics but a smaller box might not contain some of the larger but still odd shaped comics.
Comic read on 11/06/2017 on a lunch break at a large chicken themed fast casual restaurant.
