One day Elsie, Patch and Lord Fluffy Britches were living the good life of pampered, domesticated cats - now they’re locked in cages along with other animals in the back of a truck driving away from their home! What’s going on - and why’re all the humans suddenly afraid of them…?
Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner, the creative team behind Stray Dogs, reunite for another animal horror comic: Feral. Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near as good as their breakthrough hit.
Stray Dogs was brilliant because it was a fresh and unique take on the serial killer story: seeing it from the perspective of dogs in the killer’s house was original and exciting for that. Feral is simply your generic zombie story we’ve all seen a hundred times but with cats and other animals instead of humans. Bo-ring.
It’s intriguing at first because there’s the mystery of what’s going on - and then you realise the formula and it gets repetitive fast. The group encounter rabid/zombie animals, then run away from them - rinse and repeat. Some get bit - oh no, now they turn! Ho hum. The usual beats.
I liked the subtle way Fleecs introduced the larger story happening around the world with occasional glimpses of notices and snippets of dialogue from the humans - until he gave up in the second half and just had the TV news come on. I really hate this hackneyed cliche in comics: the news reporter explaining everything to the reader. It’s artless and clunky. And unnecessary - you got it by that point anyway.
I wasn’t taken with any of the characters either. Elsie’s secret regarding Lord was underwhelming at the end while Lord’s not having claws was a weird detail. It was a big problem in one scene and then not again after that - barely an inconvenience!
Trish Forstner’s art is still fantastic. It reminds me of classic animated movies like Lady and the Tramp, The Aristocats, and Don Bluth’s pictures - really beautiful linework and expressive imagery.
Apparently this is a first volume in a proposed series for what I’m guessing Image is hoping will be the feline Walking Dead? Ugh. I’m not coming back for more after this one. I wasn’t that into it to begin with and it lost me long before the end - just another dull zombie comic. I wouldn’t say it needs to be put down, like Will Ferrell, but Feral, Volume 1: Indoor Cats is still a disappointingly long way from the heights this creative team reached with Stray Dogs.
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