Captain Ginger

In a universe where humans have gone extinct, an evolved cat named Captain Ginger struggles to keep his ship of cats working together as they scour the universe for other evolved felines.Stuart Moore and June Brigman served up this entertaining morsel. "What if cats ruled the world?" is the core premise. Except that the world is a starship built by humans.One of my pet peeves about science fiction is when the alien characters are just humans with a lick of paint. Captain Ginger isn't that. The cats actually act like cats. They have petty spats, enjoying killing mice, and hate dirty litter boxes. Captain Ginger trying to herd the cats toward the same goal is the main struggle of the book, although his relationships with Deena and Sgt. Mittens also fuel the fire. Ginger tries to adopt the ways of the vanished Feeders, although his catlike nature still shows through.Ginger's search for other cats will undoubtedly propel the series forward. June Brigman's art is perfect for the series. Her cats are cute but still believable as killers, much like real cats. It's not easy to convey emotion and individuality when all the characters are humanoid felines but June knocks the string across the hallway on this one.On a side note, it was hilarious that our old lady cat, Cashmere, kept headbutting me and walking across the book while I was reading it.Ahoy Comics has another winner on its hands with Captain Ginger. I'm ready for book two right meow!

Lots of cats, lots of kitty litter references. But it was different and fun. Yes, I read it before gifting it to my son who has a Cat Café. So we truly get the 'litter' references. (all the Café cats are spayed/neutered)

Great storytelling!

As a confirmed crazy cat person (5 at the moment), the premise of sentient cats trying to discover their way in a universe left empty by the humans who engineered them is full of promise. These cats exist between the “feral” lifestyle of un-engineered cats and the knowledge they are winning, piece by painful piece, from the tech left behind by the Feeders (humans). A plague or bio weapon killed off the human race, and all that’s left is a partial reflection in feline form. The bipedal, talking cats who inherited the starship Intrepid are a few generations removed from their ancestors who knew the last human keepers. The cats don’t really know how the ship works, are running out of food and living space, and don’t know if there are any other cats left in the universe. There is a lot of pathos, but some great characters ( I especially love Ramscoop, the hard-working chief engineer, who takes motherhood in stride as she fights hazards and keeps the rickety old ship running.) One of her kitten daughters gets artificially evolved by a sort of mad-scientist human hologram into a strange but winsome mutant with a huge brain and big eyes full of stars; the art isn’t quite up to the wonder of all this, so some readers may find her creepy. But she’s supposed to be cute; her mom still loves her and, with her mutant intellect, she helps the ship out of an impossible jam before departing to a higher plane of pure intellect. There is humor, horror, friendship, and a big quest for survival; enemies from within their nature, such as a natural tendency against teamwork, and enemies from outside their experience, in the form of mysterious hostile aliens called the Lumen. Not everything is perfect; the art, in particular, could get a little more graceful and refined, but there is a lot to like and a bit to love about these feline characters, doing the best they can with the paw they are given. I hope for a nice litter of sequels.

I really wanted to like this - something different and perhaps fun and interesting. I had hoped for different stories: perhaps a space opera, a quirky and humorous play on the love of cats, or just a fun yarn. But this is unfortunately something else that never manages to understand what it wants to be or what it wants to say. But worse of all, it feels like it was written by someone who never owned a cat and doesn't understand all the quirks and ticks that could have made this title lovable instead of clodding. So many cheap shots at the obvious and not enough sly winks at the species.Story: Captain Ginger is one of several modified (anthropomorphic) cats trying to figure out their 'feeder's' space ship. Along with the crew of the sentient cats, they are being overrun by feral, unmodified cats, who are suddenly (and inexplicably) breeding beyond capacity and destroying the ship. Captain Ginger is trying to hold it all together while also facing off an enemy determined to destroy them - the Lumen. At the same time, the 'Feeders' ended up destroying themselves and their remnants would like to see the cats not do the same to themselves.Did you ever see a dog lover approach a cat at a friend's house - trying to either avoid it, do the cliche type of petting, or just make bad cat jokes to avoid having to touch it? That's what this book feels like. From how cats walk, how they socialize, how they communicate, the purring, the cat fights, dominance, etc - it's all missing here. Instead, we get the ponderously obvious litter box jokes, cats being distracted by lights on the monitor and not tracking the enemy, and a giant scratching post in the center of the room used to climb to higher levels. Then a lot of clueless sentient cats not really doing much except setting up suspicious 'cat humor' jokes that fall flat. Then the second part kicks in and I think that must have been written by a pure cat hater, because it gets weird and ugly fast.The illustration work also felt very off to me. The grace and elegance of the cat form, even when walking upright anthropomorphic style, was clearly missing. These cats looked awkward in nearly every page, making the characters look very ugly. It was hard to get into any of the characters when they were often indistinguishable. The colors were bland and conventional and felt out of date with what could have been a fun or interesting concept.The real killer was logic here. From the author not recognizing that cats are born with their eyes closed and unable to start 'scampering' toward teats, to the more recognizable question of where all these cats came from and if it is from a seed of a very small number of pets that turned into the thousands eventually. And if there are cats, where are the other pets such as dogs or lizards, etc.? There's a hint at the end we may see a dog ship - but are we to believe they were segregated, the ships separated, and then they were given sentient life to some but not all? It's just weird.The irony for me is that I had the same thought as another reviewer - I also was wishing for a CJ Cherryh Pride of Chanur story rather than this disjointed and chaotic mess of bland cliche "Star Trek archetype" characters. Complete with buffoon captain, ship scientist who is 'alien' to the rest (hairless species - the only one on the ship apparently), and engineer with tricks up his sleeve (or, in this case, an engineer who keeps breeding kittens spontaneously that inexplicably know perfect English and start fixing the ship within minutes). Don't get me started on the horror of the second half with the weird mutated kitten. I'll have nightmares about that one. You have to really hate cats to do that storyline. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

This is a great book, with both excellent art and story. Lots of talent on both sides behind this, and looking forward to the next chapter. I really expected this to be a one note wonder, but turns out I’m hoping this title has 9 full lives!

Glorious! Hysterical, warmly engaging and beautiful art from the vastly underrated June Brigman.

Se lo regalé a mi novia que es un poco "loca de los gatos" en potencia y ha triunfando. No soy muy fan de comics pero como historia de gatos está interesante y podría prometer. Eso sí, es corto y todavía no ha salido el siguiente. Habrá que ver como evoluciona.Aunque la historia en sí es corta tiene bastantes extras de diseño de personajes y una historia separada adicional.