REVIEW: Lupin Leaps In: A Breaking Cat News Adventure by Georgia Dunn
Picking up where they last left off in Breaking Cat News, are Elvis, Puck, and Lupin reporting on the breaking news that matters to cats. Cynical, no-nonsense Elvis and shy, sweet, sensitive Puck are the reporter kitties in the field, while the adventurous jokester Lupin serves as anchor cat. Together, they’re back to break headlines on mysterious man “tails,” all things holiday-related, new cat friends, and all the daily happenings in and outside their home.
The super fun “More to Explore” section includes how to draw the BCN news crew, how to draw expressions, how to draw your pet as a reporter, and paper dolls of the crew, along with props and extras!
Dear Ms. Dunn,
Two years ago I read about and became a fan of BCN when your first book “Breaking Cat News” was published. News anchor Lupin (adventurous) and field reporters Puck (sensitive) and Elvis (ever so slightly cynical) are there to bring their viewers and fans all the news about their world, their People, and those noisy Ceiling Cats (with subtitles).
Puck’s also a dab paw at creating charts and diagrams to illustrate the news reports such as about Baby Girls: they’re made up of sugar and spice and chicken fried rice and that constant ankle reinforcement helps the Peoples’ confidence: the closer they are to uneven ground, the more it’s needed. The “facts” chart about the fancy food (“lobster and quinoa with garden greens”) the Woman went out and bought for the Boys is hilarious with the best take-away point being “the price of any cat item directly correlates to the unlikeliness of a cat to use that item” (or eat it).
Watch out for BCW “Naptime Championship Wrestling” with the Prince of Pounce taking on the Cat of Adventure. Yes folks it’s quite a match with kitty elbows, feline rewind, slams and fuzzy flops all announced by Puck with a fetching ensemble of purple feather boa and flashing glasses. Then there’s the touching story of how a lost Elvis helps a neighborhood cat find his way home – which also gains the Boys their cat-about-town reporter Tommy.
Then the Boys try to solve the mystery of “who’s a good boy?” Why, they all are, of course. And one of my favorite strips is “there’s a button under the computer desk that makes the Man scream.” Lupin’s gleeful, accidentally-on-purpose continued pressing of the power strip button is hysterical and tells us cat slaves that yes, they do know exactly what they’re doing when they drive us nuts. The costumes that the Woman sticks the Boys into for the Peoples’ annual sacrificial gourd holiday are hilarious.
But wait! There’s more! Tips for beginning cartooning, how to draw the Boys and (OMC – which stands for Oh, My Cat) paper dolls of Lupin, Elvis, Puck and Tommy along with different clothes and accessories. Whiskers, it’s a bonanza of wonderfulness. A
~Jayne
When you fall in love with BCN, be sure to check if your local newspaper is now carrying the syndicated strip. If not (or even if it is – just so you can see them in color) check out GoComics online every day or Zazzle to buy BCN swag. Yes, I’m a devoted fangirl.
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LOVE Breaking Cat News! I get the daily strips emailed to me from GoComics. Some of these sound familiar but not all of them. Time to see if hoopla has this book. They had the first one.
@Kris Bock: I believe Ms. Dunn is covering all the earlier strips she drew before the comic went into syndication so some of them got reworked a little for the shorter length of the new format. These are also still mainly in the beginning style she started with though there has been a gradual shift in how she’s drawn the cats.