There are certain artists and creators working in mediums ranging from film to music to comics that have tendency to follow their particular muse to the bitter end, logic and retail sales be damned. I’d count Brandon Graham, the creator of King City, and equally wacky Multiple Warheadz, as one in that category. King City is a story of a young man who, for all intents and purposes, is a slacker. Except, that he has a the specialized skills to utilize cats as weapons whenever he sees the need. The story starts as he comes back home from training and finds a lot of wackiness going on with his friends, ex-girlfriend and the people around him.

While the story is somewhat important to get you from point A to point B, the pleasure in reading this book is derived from the small details in the characters and the artwork. Graham’s art style is deceptively simple, reminiscent of manga and graffiti art, but with a clean line, a clear grasp of scope and perspective, he effectively creates an alternate world that is both fantastic and believable as well. His style also reminds me of Kevin O’Neill on Judge Dredd or Marshal Law in that he adds little in-jokes and asides in the corners of panels, on bricks in building or folds of clothing. Those little nuggets make King City worth reading more than once. Graham’s storytelling is very spontaneous. Again, plot seems secondary to throwing out as many ideas, and ways to use a cat, as possible. You get the sense at the end of the first issue that things are just getting started, but that there’s definitely a lot to chew on and many places he can go with the characters and this world he is in the middle of creating.

One note: Image Comics has chosen to reprint the first volume as the first six issues of this series and in a larger format form the current comic size. If you’re desperate to get caught up early on the awesome book you can look up out-of-print volumes online, but it would behoove you to pick up the issues now. The larger format allows you to savor the details in Graham’s artwork like you might not have before.