The Walking Cat: A Cat’s-Eye-View of the Zombie Apocalypse (Omnibus Vol. 1–3)

Kitaoka’s offbeat debut manga proves that even a zombie apocalypse can be bearable with a cute cat sidekick. Jin Yahiro is searching the wastelands for his wife when he comes across a white cat named Yuki, and adopts him as a traveling companion (saved narrowly from a pair of kids who try and eat him). Yuki’s feline intuition helps out as the pair make their way to an island rumored to be a safe haven, but which proves perilous when a mother refuses to kill her infected child, and survivors are forced to seek shelter back on the mainland. Gory misadventures abound, drawn often via a cat’s-eye view. Long stretches of silent panels and low angles help readers identify with Yuki’s perspective as he travels through the reanimated-corpse-infested world. Moments of levity inject this bleak survivalist narrative with personality, such as Yuki’s quest for a female cat to mate with, but other attempts at humor (like cats stealing a virologist’s glasses) fall flat. There’s a crowded cast of secondary characters; notably the drama between a teenage survivor and her mom’s abusive new boyfriend feels jarringly out of place. Despite some narrative bumpiness, the interspecies friendship makes for an oddly empathetic entry in the undead-hordes category. (Oct.)