It is Scully the Cat’s first day as the new garden-keeper at a spooky castle. And by his second day, everyone has gone missing. Is it ghosts? Vampires? Goblins? Dark Sorcerers? Something worse?
You now know the tone of Skull Cat (Book One): Skull Cat and the Curious Castle by Norman Shurtliff. It is just off-the-walls bonkers. Scully is a clumsy, loving son, who is not cut out for adventure. But of course, he lands face first into it. And so much more. With his fathers broken sword, lots of gumption and a ghost that might not be giving the best advice, Scully picks himself up, dusts himself off, and runs straight into danger.
The artwork reminds me of “something” that I cannot exactly put my finger on. Of course, it could be not a specific thing, but the idea of things. Such as works you would find on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and even a modern surreal Disney. Our characters are all shapes (a human/bird/creature/thing, cat ghosts) and sizes (tall, short, plump skinny), and colors (green nose, green goblins, yellow cats). They like everything from gold to comic books. Some are nice, some are not nice and some are really not nice. Most do not believe Scully is the hero type, like his favorite comic, HeroCat.
There are a few hints that maybe things are not what they seem, the comics are more fact than fiction, and maybe Scully isn’t the hero we want or need, but he’s all we’ve got. There are extras including an additional comic of HeroCat and more.