Toasty Cats by Magda Boreysza
This is my favorite zine comic of all time. Sadly, there are only 6 issues, but each is packed to the hilt with feral children, talking vermin, and sinister characters of all persuasions. Magda Boreysza’s magically creepy world is inventive like Marcel Dzama’s work, but with a heavy Paxton Gate store vibe. You know what I mean?
The series starts off with a few strips that continue for several issues—“Meet the Vermins,” a story about two seemingly prehistoric vermin who gang up on a weasel, “The Seed,” a dark and messed-up tale about violent child-gangs. The last issue tops them all, and is a single, wordless story that runs the length of the comic. It’s about the cosmos, biology, evolution, cooperation, seduction, and love. Or at least that’s what I got from it.
Boreysza sells her zine comics online, but appears to be taking a break this summer. If you pester her enough, though, you might be lucky enough to buy your own copy of Toasty Cats.
-Monica Johnson
