Review: King-Cat Classix

King-Cat Classix
John Porcellino

Drawn & Quarterly
Street: 05.01

King-Cat Classix is John Porcellino’s memoirs as told in REAL-TIME (even though you are reading past recollections, he turns moments into instants). Caught somewhere between biography and journal (a la American Elf), King-Cat Classix is something like this with wirey panel drawings and an honesty you couldn’t even find in This American Life: I was taking a road trip up north with a few friends, traveling northwest from Salt Lake headed towards Washington. Half-way to our destination, tired and hungry, our entourage stopped at a Flying J to stretch, rest and a bite to eat. Thoroughly exhausted and toxic, we all got some food except for one; who got a cheesecake. The cheesecake itself looked as if it had been sitting in the rotating pie holder for ages, slathered with unnatural flavors and artificial preservatives, and after one rich, artery clogging bite after another it was finished. If stomach ache and sweet tooth willing, we thought that was the last of that disgustingly old, rich slice of death; oh no! Without looking back, and as a pact between friends, he bought another piece and in two minutes it was gone. –Erik Lopez