SAMMY THE MOUSE #1

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS/COCONINO PRESS
CARTOONIST: Richard Sala
978-1-56097-865-7; 8 1/2” x 11” softcover; saddle-stitched
32 pp., Duotone, $7.95

Ignatz is a line of comic books co-published by Fantagraphics Books (Seattle, Washington) and Italy's Coconino Press.  With an international roster of cartoonists and creators, each individual Ignatz comic book is printed on heavy paper with cardstock covers in an oversized two-color format.  Ignatz titles are part book, part magazine, part comic book (pamphlet), and part serialized graphic novel, and like a book, each edition in the line has a dust jacket.  The oversized publishing format makes this look like a magazine, but the contents are all comic book.  Sammy the Mouse #1 by Zak Sally (Recidivist) is the 21st entry in the line.

Sammy the Mouse lives alone and has conversations with disembodied voices.  When he decides to converse with actual people, it’s usually between drinks with Puppy Boy (a canine) and H.G. Feekes (blowhard duck) at a bar in the form of a giant baby (complete with an interior column built to resemble a human spine).  Puppy Boy has a secret that he has misgivings about sharing, but when he does share, it leads to strange things.

THE LOWDOWN:  Zak Sally earned two Eisner Award nominations for Recidivist #3, so that makes him an indie artist with the kind of heat most alt-comix creators rarely see.  Sammy the Mouse features anthropomorphized animals and resides in that surreal area of funny animal comics that is home to titles like Fuzz & Pluck and The Adventures of Captain Jack.  Honestly, it’s hard to make anything of the first issue.  Sally is a skilled draftsman and the two-color process he uses for Sammy the Mouse gives the first issue the illusion of being more colorful than usual duotone books are.  Sammy is imaginative and clever, but the second issue will give a better idea of whether this will be a hit or a miss.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers that enjoy titles published Fantagraphics Books, Drawn & Quarterly, and Top Shelf Productions are the target audience for Sammy the Mouse.