Inkblot #14 // Review
There's no question that an ordinary house cat is capable of being a serious nuisance. Can a cat destroy an entire town, though? Probably not on its own. Given the right momentum in the right realm, the strange black cat with the big, adorable green eyes might just be able to just that in Inkblot #14. Writer/artist Emma Kubert and co-writer Rusty Gladd continue to expand on world-building for the world of Seeker and the strange cat who was inadvertently summoned through an inkblot in a library of magic. The issue manages a balance between story, backstory, and adorability in one of the more satisfying stories in the entire series.
Illivanos and Stormlocke are clashing. They're both powerful magic users. They're both quite unaware of a little black cat and its capabilities. They are far too locked into their conflict to notice much of anything. The little black cat does its part in bringing down to floating town of Bargeburg. What can one little cat do against the backdrop of an epic mage battle? It turns out quite a lot. The people of Bargeburg are powerless. One little cat may be all it takes to change things in a big way. Two wizards battle on the high seas amidst a little black cat.
There's been some challenges in grasping the scope of the story that Kubert and Gladd are crafting sword-and-sorcery fantasy sagas tend to have a problem with contrasting the intensity of the conflict with the power of characters in and around the story's periphery. In focussing on a humble, little cat of indeterminate power, Kubert and Gladd have an opportunity to view an epic fantasy world from a rather unique perspective. They may not manage that in spectacular form with the fourteenth issue, but the nature of the story that they're telling feels cleverly strange as the tiny black cat darts around a floating city.
There are distinct visual challenges inherent in a story taking place in a floating town. Kubert manages these challenges well. The perspective is kind of fun in places as Kubert focusses-in on the little, wide-eyed cat in the midst of a major battle between magic users. The large-scale battle of magic never really feels like it's quite as vividly overwhelming as it should be when contrasted against the tiny traipsing of a single, unsuspectingly powerful feline. The cat is as cute as it's always been, and Kubert's distinct fantasy-style DOES draw emotion to the page with distinction.
The larger perspective on the story still hasn't really had much of a chance to show itself through the strange pacing of a story that could, at any moment, shoot off in one direction or another at the whims of a cat. The strength of a single cat could be so much more powerful, but Kubert and Gladd continue to have fun with the world of Inkblot, and that fun continues to connect well on both sides of the page. Kubert and Gladd still seem to be searching for the right pacing and momentum.
