Inkblot #11 // Review
There’s a black cat in the Paleolithic tundra. It’s a simple, modern domestic cat. It seems to be chasing a butterfly. Little does it know that as it chases its prey there’s also a monster lurking in the snow which doesn’t show-up on geological record. A small family of sorcerers that seems to be moving through the area as well. Several impossible things collide in Inkblot #11. Writer Rusty Gladd and writer/artist Emma Kubert continue a journey into a strange and magical world that is fueled by an adorable black cat with huge green eyes.
The little black cat is merely chasing a black butterfly through the Paleolithic tundra. The cat has been generated by an overturned inkwell in a magical library. In time it has become apparent that the cat can open portals between time and dimensions. So what is the significance of the fact that it’s chasing a butterfly through the Paleolithic era? And why does a very familiar group of magic-users just happen to be right in the area as this is happening? These questions may have to wait as the cat’s chase seems to have caught the attention of a rather large tundra monster.
Gladd and Kubert keep the mystery about the black cat somewhere simultaneously in both the background and the foreground of the action while following the family drama of a group of siblings who are all very close to magic. The balance between cat and family is mirrored by the balance between action and drama in another well-rounded issue that expands a bit on a series that has already been a great many places in its first ten issues. The action has a fairly firm hold on the sense of wonder in the magical realms it has come to inhabit. Nowhere is this more apparent than the cat itself, which manages a tremendous amount of nonverbal story entirely on its own.
Kubert allows many of the chapter's visuals to rest quite squarely on the cat, which has a remarkably sophisticated emotional life for something that’s essentially nonverbal. The fact that it’s really, really cute doesn’t hurt either. The story elements outside of the cat have been a bit hit or miss in the past. In the 11th issue, Kubert manages a very captivating atmosphere around the cat. The action sequence set in the Paleolithic era has more than enough energy to push the story along from cover to cover in a way that balances the visual appeal of the issue between the cat and the family of magic users.
An ambiguity has surfaced around the edges of every panel in the series so far. The ambiguity is a really nice hook. All of the little questions that restaurant the edges of the story make for interesting thought. The cat is of the void. It is the same color as the butterfly it’s chasing, So what does it mean that it is able to eat that butterfly? Is it hunting down the rest of the void? Why is it drawn to the movement of something else that looks just as dark as it is? A lot of little questions pop up around the edges. It’s fun.
