Boreysza, Magda – Toasty Cats #6

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Toasty Cats #6

Warning: there are no cats in this comic. Not that it needs them, and you probably wouldn’t expect to find any in here after seeing that gorgeous cover, but I thought I’d throw that out there all the same. The main story in this comic deals with a community of… moles? Creatures that burrow underground to sleep at night in small holes, anyway. These creatures are having a nice evening playing with fireflies and sitting around in a circle, and finally they all get tired and go to sleep. A snake comes down and pulls one of the moles out of its hole (but gently, not waking it up) and eats it. From there it veers off into a totally unexpected direction that I’m doing my best not to spoil. Next we get a few illustrations of fantastic creatures (at least I hope they weren’t related to the previous story, as they would have made no sense in that context), then a short story called “Fox & Comet.” I’d say it stole the show if the previous story wasn’t so engaging. The short version is that a fox sees a comet in the sky and thinks that it sees a fox at the head of the comet. This fox then spends all of its nights staring at the sky, hoping to see it again, even as it raises children and time passes. It’s a simple story, but Magda still makes it utterly engrossing. I haven’t seen any past issues of this series so I don’t know if the past issues were as good as this one, but #6 is well worth checking out. It’s a peek into the worlds of these creatures at times when their defenses are totally down and, even in a fantasy setting, it’s not something that we get to see too often. No price, but I’m guessing $6.