Manfried the Man

Cats run the world and have tiny, naked pet humans in this graphic novel spin-off of the viral hit webcomic. Steve is a humanoid cat who works at an IT call center, lives in a messy apartment, and can’t seem to pull his life together. He dotes on his pet man, Manfried, a tiny naked person whom he shoos off his keyboard and feeds hamburgers and hot dogs out of cans of “man food.” Steve’s life goes from bad to worse, with neighbors and coworkers pegging him as a “crazy man cat,” until Manfried runs away from home and forces his owner to break out of his routine. In the process, readers get a glimpse of an entire feline-run world, rife with animal puns and little nude men yelling “Hey!” If the plot sometimes gets overly self-serious for a comic that’s fundamentally about how weird the world would be if pets and people switched places, Bastow’s charming, rounded artwork lightens the mood. (May)