Review: Humanoids’ ‘Black Cat Social Club’ Punk ROCKS

Welcome to the table,

When you spent as much time with your players as I have, you learn their tells. You learn to sculpt and shift story elements so they have the best time possible. You learn how to push the right buttons as NPCs to cause them to attack the rude elf at the bar or save the bugbear who just wants to make hats and got pulled into a life of crime through peer pressure.

When you have that bond with your table, you trust them when they tell you things. When one of the players at my table, Bob Quinn, told me he and the team on a book he had finished worked really hard on it, I knew this was going to be nothing short of spectacular… and I was not disappointed in the slightest.

Black Cat Social Club is an original graphic novel published by Humanoids arriving in bookstores and comic shops across the land today. Written by the talented Christopher Painter, lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, with colors by Meg Casey and Fred C. Stesing, and illustrated by the always impeccable Bob Quinn, this book is an absolute delight from cover to cover.

The story follows Alice, Hazel, and Maggie, three punk rock witches who use Spellsong, a type of magic in the world of Black Cat Social Club that is tied to a larger webwork of performance-based spell casting that is seeded, but never fully spelled out (HA! pun!) in the story. There is always something charming to magic systems that you never fully have all the rules for. It allows the mind to wander into all sorts of places and only enhances the impact of the work.

And this work is IMPACTFUL!

Black Cat Social Club is anything but formulaic, it shrugs off the trappings of expectation, and just when you think “Oh, this is going to go here.” something unexpected happens and you find yourself even more amused and delighted by the chain of events as they unfold.

For me, it’s the little things that make this book special. Like when one character says, “Stop touching parking lot garbage.” it’s just so perfectly delivered that everything feels natural and conversational. This continues through the book making sure the dialogue never feels awkward or out of place. Even when the story veers into some seriously weird and otherworldly territory, the characters still talk like real people, and it’s just charming as hell! (HA! pun!)

I have to admit, I’m already a fan of the artist’s work. Bob draws some of the coolest stuff I have ever seen in my life, and his addition to the greater artistic conversation only makes the legacy of the artform better. But what he does with Black Cat Social Club is an elevation of the already dizzyingly high benchmark he has set. There are scenes in this book that showcase why comics are so rad. Bob makes perspective choices and lays out the pages in such a way that the work never feels flat or stagnant. Even the quiet moments have a depth to them that guides you along on the journey from cover to cover. One moment early on is one of my favorite scenes of the whole book, and the way it folds into things in act three is nothing short of brilliant.

Black Cat Social Club is a fun and frantic frolic through dive bars and demon dens with a collection of lovable characters who are the driving force behind this story of rock, ruin, and redemption that is sure to be a fan favorite for years to come.

Black Cat Social Club hits comic book store shelves today.

Until next time, believe in yourself!