Thursday, June 23, 2016

Breaking Cat News: Cats Reporting on the News that Matters to Cats by Georgia Dunn



I just got into Neko Atsume and it's really fun, like having a zen garden of virtual cats. Cats are just really cute, okay? And they get a bad rap. People think that cats are jerks because they aren't unconditionally loving, like dogs. Cats are individualistic - they have different personalities, like people, so you never know what you're going to get. They're the chocolate variety box of pets. That's one of the things I like about Neko Atsume: the cats play with different toys and warm up to you at different rates. It's what I like about this book, too. The cat main characters - Lupin, Puck, and Elvis - are all completely different, and react to various scenarios in different ways.

I got this as an ARC from Andrews McMeel over a month ago but haven't been able to read it until now. Honestly, BREAKING CAT NEWS is like the cat version of Anchorman. You have these three cat bros who run their own news station "cat news," where they report on events like "there's another cat in the window," "there are fireworks in the sky, the world is ending," and "the human bought a new kind of cat food, the horror." As someone who has owned cats for the better part of a decade, I can attest to the accuracy of this comic, and I've definitely had my shoes puked in when a change in cat food was found unsatisfactory.

The illustrations are round and soft and very good, and I always found it hilarious when the artist drew them puffed up with rage. Lupin, the white one, is probably my favorite cat because he's the calmest. Puck is curious and mischievous and Elvis is quick to anger and kind of mean-spirited. Elvis also has a rivalry with one of the neighborcats, who likes to press against their windows and get belly rubs from the humans - something which makes him fluffy with rage.

BREAKING CAT NEWS is definitely a book for cat owners and cat lovers. If you don't own cats or like cats, I don't think you'll be able to appreciate this in the same way, just like how I wouldn't be able to properly appreciate a comic that was dedicated to the love of dogs. I don't hate dogs, but I've never owned any, either, and I don't always understand why people are so crazy about them. A dog comic would be a very poor choice of entertainment for me. But if you're a cat lover, this will definitely make you smile - it captures the furry idiosyncrasy that is cat pretty well.

P.S. At one point, one of the cats said, "CN News." Cat News News? That seems a bit redundant, like saying "ATM machine," or "estimated ETA."

3 out of 5 stars.

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