King City by Brandon Graham

     Just like any other superhero characters, Joe is a adventurous guy who goes all around the city to save people and fight the evils. He has special abilities, he is smart, powerful, cool and he has a good heart. These characteristic made him the most out-standing character from the book - there are a lot of protagonists like him who exist in the market. However although  similar genres may have been published repeatedly for a long time, the authors never fail to fascinate people with his enriched imaginations. The core of this piece of work lays in its design. I could not resist but to say that King City is really a place I would want to visit some day.

     King City is a place where imaginations, adventures, and wildness all gather. Usually a setting is just a setting, doesn't matter if it's New York city or Sarasota county or Tokyo. Some people won't even remember the name of the setting, what's important is what happened in the setting. I think Graham really made King City a unique place. From a point of view, this is more of a story for the city itself over the adventure of Joe. If Graham were to illustrate another book based on the setting of King City, the protagonist can be anyone, doesn't matter if it is Joe or not. Joe is just a person who was leading the events of the city. It takes much more to illustrate an unique place rather than illustrate an unique person.

     The true superhero in the book is actually the cat. The cat is just like the spinach for Popeye, it has to be activated in order to perform its powers.  The way the author design the cat is very interesting. First of all, it's an animal that act like a weapon. It can do pretty much anything you can imagine but yet still contain characteristics of a regular cat. Secondly, it's cute, any guy with a lovely huggable fluffy cat would appear to be quite a lovable person as well. I believe Joe has to give some credit for the cat for making him look better in the comics.