Grumpy Cat, Volume 1 by Ben McCool

Grumpy Cat, Volume 1
by Ben McCool, Royal McGraw, Elliott Serrano, Ben Fisher, Steve Uy (Goodreads Author) (Illustrations), Ken Haeser (Illustrations), Tavis Maiden (Illustrations), Agnes Garbowska (Illustrations)
Pages: 104
Date: February 16 2016
Publisher: Dynamic Forces
Series: Grumpy Cat

Review
Rating: 3.80 out of 5.0
Read: January 28 2016

*I received this book from NetGalley in return for a fair review.*

Grumpy Cat, the comic, is often times cute and funny. And really really short. A lot of the stories are quick little adventures. The kind where everything is set up, certain things happen, then poof off to the next story – all seemingly within a few pages.

Some of the ideas might be interesting to have seen followed through, like detective Grumpy; haunted house Grumpy; superhero Grumpy.

Characters
Grumpy - as might be expected, the cat that became a meme on the internet for having a permanent grumpy expression (a genetic condition) is, in fact, the star of this self-titled comic series.

Pokey is a hyperactive constantly in motion, constantly wanting to play house mate of Grumpy’s. Oh, and a cat. I forgot to mention the cat part.

Others - the above are the two most common characters to appear, though occasionally others appear, like a dog, and ghosts, and . . . others.

Plot
It’s hard to discuss/describe the plot since this is a collection of many very short stories. Mind you, some authors have become super famous for writing stories so short that they can be contained on one page. So super short stories, in and of themselves, are not a ‘problem’.

It’s not always easy to see in a collected volume, but there appears to be three or four stories every 26 pages. Most of these stories are, to a certain extent, interesting. Humorous at times. The problem, as I think I’ve mentioned before, is simply the fact that the stories get me interested in a certain topic/theme then . . . that specific topic of theme is suddenly over before I could ‘get my thrill.’

Overall
I think, I’m not sure now, but I do believe that I had recommended people to try at least the first comic way back when it appeared. I don’t remember if it was cheap, free, or what my rationale was, but simply that the comic was a humorous way to spend a few moments out from the overall hard working life many people suffer. That’s harder to say in regards to a complete volume, at least in terms of talking about how ‘inexpensive’ it all is. Still, I’d recommend Grumpy the volume. As long as you like cats. And mild humor.

I did something I rarely do – I looked at some of the other reviews before I started my own review. Therefore I saw a somewhat reoccurring theme, that being ‘Garfield’. Well, sure, both involve cats. Garfield is more lazy than grumpy, though that can, at times, come across as grumpy. And both Garfield and Grumpy have somewhat annoying younger cats that they kind of dislike (I can’t recall exactly the name of the cat, Nerman? Nermal? Norman? Something like that). Though the hyperactive, always cute cat in Garfield is somewhat a rare addition to the storyline, while Pokey is in, I think, all the stories.

In looks and temperament, I might have thought of comparing Grumpy and Bucky. I could be wrong, but they might be both the same breed of cat. Though, if I recall what I’ve read in the back story to the Bucky series, the writer/author there didn’t base the cat on any specific breed/cat. While Grumpy, obviously, is based on Grumpy. In looks mostly. I’ve some vague understanding that the real Grumpy might actually be a sweet little kitty, though again, I could be wrong there.

Oh, one thing I was going to mention – I didn’t actually realize, until I saw this on Netgalley that this series was for kids. See, here I was having fun reading a comic that had mild humor and involved a cat, and suddenly I learn that it was designed for kids. Mmphs. Heh. Would this hold a kids attention? Would a kid just absolute love this collection of comics? No idea, I’m not a kid and I do not have full time responsibility for any kids, so I am not sure. Would an adult enjoy a comic designed for kids? Well, I did.

I probably would give the overall collection of comic issues, I think they collect four or five issues?, a combined score of around 3.8 out of 5.0 stars.

January 28 2016