As a dog fan, I’d say that Trish Forstner and Tony Fleecs didn’t need to do much to hook folks with Stray Dogs. Yet they were able to tell a decidedly brutal horror story a la Silence of the Lambs, and to use our connection with those canine amigos to get us to really think about horror tropes and our relationship to genre at-large.
Now, the same duo (rejoined by artist Tone Rodriguez and colorist Brad Simpson) are trying their hands at similar story with Feral. Here, a trio of house cats must survive their own kind of “zombie apocalypse” when a massive rabies infection ravages their hometown. Can the kitties make it home, and tell an equally meaningful story, or is the rot of rabies ultimately bound to consume their aspirations?
And maybe I’m no cat guy, but man oh man does this book already have some major claws.
It begins, of course, with the art team. You can see and feel a lot from Stray Dogs in this book; Forstner’s whole approach perfectly marries the cute and creepy that this book needs to really excel. And then you toss in Rodriguez and Simpson, and Feral has both a pronounced sheen of cartoon-like joy and romanticism and overall grit and heft. It’s the perfect vehicle for getting us to engage with this book in a really fundamental way — the premise and execution scream Homeward Bound, and the art uses that innate connection to both engage and confront the reader in some really powerful ways about the familiarity of horror, nostalgia, and the terrors of everyday life.
There’s the quaint moments where we connect deeply with our trio (Elsie, Patch, and Lord) remixed with some robust explosion of horror (like a snarling, bloody racoon for instance). Or, the tenderness that undercuts something horrific (like the aftermath of a car accident that sets our heroes on their journey home). Either way, it’s about leaning into and subverting the innocence of this story simultaneously, and to show us what happens when a horror skeleton is wrapped in the warm flesh of something beloved and familiar.
The Feral main cover (L) and variant cover (R) from Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner. Courtesy of Image Comics.
The end result is a really effective visual identity and larger experience for readers — a commentary on some shared obsession with the past and what we can learn about our views of identity and family when confronted in this very specific configuration. It’s everything weird and joyous about horror and ’90s cartoons all wrapped up into one context-spanning super-experience, and the book works so well so quickly because it tries to play with our hearts and minds with such brutal efficiency and profound intent.
There were so many times in this first issue where I let out an audible “aww” only to then shirk away from the page a second later, and I love that this book does so with a purpose and intent. It’s that look and feel that tells me this is horror as it was intended: deeply and unwaveringly human, and totally unafraid to claw your eyes out.
Still, there’s a sense from the visuals that, as deeply effective as they may be, there’s still some horror tropes and tendencies hanging just over our heads. Sure, great horror references other properties all the time, but there’s likely going to be people who can’t see that Feral references things like Cujo, Homeward Bound, and The Thing in a way not to generate a cheap and sudden connection, but to explore our relationship to these stories and what we can learn about them and us when we approach in a new angle/perspective. Luckily, the story/script of Fleecs adds some new elements and tidbits to make this book more than just a really smart bit of satire and celebration.
Some Feral Variant covers by Dennis Culver (L) and Ken Haeser (R). Courtesy of Image Comics.
Without revealing too much, I think one of the most important aspects of the story is the overarching approach it takes. There’s lots of kinetic energy and intent across #1; it moves with breakneck speed to get us caught up and into the journey ahead ASAP. There’s a little bit of disorientation to deal with from this technique, but then it mostly just does a solid job of putting us into the hearts and minds of our hero cats. It’s a way to make us all feel equally prepared (or not at all prepared), and from that we’re starting off the story with a mix of uncertainty and anxiety that is only going to serve us well as we move across the peaks and valleys of this forceful and deliberate tale.
Similarly, the story isn’t just about the cats’ survival. There’ an aspect of this story that, while I don’t want to touch on too much here, feels like it adds a bit of mystery to what’s otherwise a slice of survival horror. It gives these cats some stakes and purpose that moves them beyond the initial reference points that I or others have attached to this book. I’d say it’s a plot thread that’s David Lynch-esque in its overarching feel and scope, and that not only adds points for this book’s sense of novelty but also shows the infusion of certain feelings and energies that make this book so much more than a simple case of lost cats. If anything, it makes us question some key things and to reevaluate these cats, and that’s an exciting prospect to an already thrilling little story.
Yes, Feral could be seen as a kind of sibling or spiritual successor to Stray Dogs. At the same time, though, it’s very much its own thing, and Feral tries to use our relationship with cats, cartoons, nostalgia, and family dynamics to tell a story about what we’d to go home again and what that place still means when the world’s gone off the rails. I still prefer dogs for the most part, but these cats have the emotionality, depth, body horror, and general fiery purpose to make me a quick convert.
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