King Cat Comix: Brandon Graham

JAMES BOND HAS his Aston Martin. Maxwell Smart has his shoe phone. Joe has his cat.

Joe is at the center of a strange, offbeat espionage epic by Brandon Graham called "King City" (Tokyo Pop). In lieu of crazy gadgets and flashy weapons, Joe uses his cat, which with the help of some injections, becomes more versatile than a Swiss Army knife. Need a screwdriver, give him a shot. Periscope? Give him a shot. He can even deliver a cat autopsy on a dead body when needed.

Joe, a street-level crook by trade, gets caught up in the middle of a caper with pretty women, violent showdowns and a supernaut Sasquatch. Graham's story takes an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach, with a variety of unusual and imaginative ideas that would make David Lynch pant.

The initial volume of "King City," the first of a planned two graphic-novel set, builds on a cast of abnormal characters like Joe, his cat, and Joe's buddy Pete who wears a Lucha Libre-style wrestling mask, to tell a story as strange as its inhabitants.

Graham, who draws in a style that blends graffiti, manga and traditional American comic art, discussed "King City" — and just what his fascination with cats is.

» EXPRESS: Where did the idea for "King City" come from?
» GRAHAM: The main dude in "King City," the cat master, was a side character in an old short story I did about a gang dressed in owl costumes starting a riot. Originally, he was a much more reserved button-up type that carried the cat in a brief case. When I did the longer story, I wanted someone I could relate to more. Plus, at the time I was reading a lot of old "Conan" magazines and Raymond Chandler books. It was kind of a mix of all that.

» EXPRESS: Why a cat?
» GRAHAM: I like the idea of a cat as a weapon — taking a fat sleeping cat and injecting it with a syringe and using it to kill. I think it's mostly that I like to draw the cat. Lots of my stories come from what I think I'll enjoy drawing. It's important to like what you draw if you have to draw it every day for a couple years.

» EXPRESS: What are you working on next?
» GRAHAM: Right now I'm finishing a 48-page book called "Multiple Warhedz" for Oni Press about a Russian girl, [who] smuggles magic organs, and her werewolf boyfriend. They've got a car named Lenin — because it's not Stalin. Each time the car breaks down they replace its mechanical parts with animal parts, eventually turning it into a living creature. It's my science fiction, child-raising, sex and death road trip, Russian, werewolf epic. Then by the end of [June] I'll be [moving on] to the next "King City" book.

Illustrations courtesy Brandon Graham/Tokyo Pop