Customer Reviews

Katman

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cat lovers should definitely pick up this cool graphic novel. Especially if you're the type that keeps taking in strays off the street. You'll feel vindicated!
Highly recommended!!!

and assuming responsibility for the neglected, the vulnerable and the outcast. Heavy themes. But there's a good measure of humor playfully deployed to lighten up the burden of Kit's ordeal by stray cats(for example, the punk kids hang outside of the local "BFD" instead of "KFC"). A forgiving Jainist, an interested, aspiring cartoonist, a cantankerous older brother, and a tea guzzling misanthrope all help Kit elevate himself from couch potato to protector of potato carrying cats. The middle class neighborhood scenes are particularly well drawn and evocative. The story is also surprisingly romantic.
My 13-year-old enjoyed "Katman". But, my 7-year-old really loved it. Highly recommended for readers of all ages.
They both highly recommend Blindspot as well.

I like Katman because there's a soulfulness to Kevin Pyle's work that seems pretty rare. It's like it vibrates up from his lines on the page. He makes you care about his characters, with both words and pictures - makes you feel the loneliness and the need to make connections that drive them. He makes it totally believable that a lost kid in a stark urban landscape can become a sidewalk savior to a pack of stray cats, and in the process, find his way in the world. Visually, thematically, Katman is about a quest to connect. But it's also a fun comic with a light touch. Why, there's even sections that retells the story as a whacky, symbolic, kung-fu fantasy - a kind of manga comic within a comic. Throw in a crazy cat lady and a well-placed reference to "Planet of the Apes" and Katman had me completely. It's hard to imagine pulling this off without getting sappy at some point - it's a YA teen romance for chrissakes - but this book earns all its heartfelt emotions.

This book is not just for kids.

I'm a real grown-up, the vice-president of a nonprofit, no-kill animal rescue & adoption organization. We run a highly successful, citywide trap-neuter-return program for feral cats. I'm deeply involved in street cat rescue, and fight these battles, the exact same battles that the main character in this book deals with, every single day. I don't have to steal cat food, and perhaps I operate on a somewhat more adult level - fundraising, volunteering for pet adoption events, selling our humane approach to various politicians, donors, shelter officials, irritated neighbors, etc...

I also help provide daily care and feeding for a "crazy cat lady" exactly like the one in the book, even looks like her! I do late-night trapping in tough neighborhoods (like my own) and deal with weird feline emergency phone calls at 2am. I'm a "street level" animal rescue volunteer, and I've seen every kind of pain and abuse and crazy situation you can imagine.

I'm a lot older than Kit in the story, but I was a LOT like him growing up. I was an alienated, nihilistic punk-rocker teen from a broken home. This character could BE myself. But, as in the story, as his brother tells him to do, I found something to care about, a cause to live for. I found it the same way he does - I just started noticing the stray cats around the neighborhood, and caring about them, and feeding them, and found myself led into an entire "secret society" - a tight-knit network of eccentric characters who feed and care for feral cats. They're sometimes called "Shadow Keepers", and they exist in every city, but you've probably never seen them. This nocturnal world, this silent service provided to unloved, homeless, and neglected cats, is every bit as alien as wizards and hobbits to the average person, and their stories are just as riveting.

This book should be in every school library. Every junior high kid should read it. It teaches resistance to peer pressure, respect for animals, respect for different religions and spiritual beliefs, and teaches that it is "cool to be kind". And, it teaches that being different, sticking to your convictions, and demonstrating unusual compassion can win hearts, minds, and sometimes even the cute girl! I speak from personal experience.

There are practically no stories about animal rescue which involve boys or men, but believe me, we are out there! We need far more examples like this for young men in our society, who too often grow up to be cruel and mean to animals (especially cats) simply because it's somehow "weak", "wussy", "gay" or "not cool" to show caring and compassion.

My interest in reading Katman began with seeing a mention of it on a local blog. The author lives in my town and the subject of cats, especially feral cats, is rather important to me. Granted, I'm not in the target audience of teens or young adults but I found it very entertaining, well written and with a breezy illustrative style. A good choice for a gift for any young person.