The Cat with a Really Big Head is a collection of short stories, poems if you will, from Lenore artist and author Roman Dirge. Lenore is kinda cute, kinda morbid but The Cat with a Really Big Head is far darker and it is easy to believe stories like Monsters in my Tummy were written post-breakup.
There are three stories in total; The Cat With a Really Big Head and The Monsters In My Tummy with A Big Question squeezed in between the two.
The cat’s life is not a happy one. It has a freakishly large head, so large that it struggles to eat and is terrorised by Mr Stinky and the army of mice. What’s there to hope for? Readers will swiftly catch on that this isn’t going to be a story with a happy ending… but there is in reincarnation there for one last throw of the dice.
My second favourite of three is The Monsters in my Tummy. These are the strange feelings like Sir Anger, Love in Vein, Alone and He Who is Pain who arrive after the heart is stabbed in the back. Heroes emerge; Esteem and Ambition, who’ll do battle to help you heal.
The battle that pits Esteem and Ambition is a fierce and brutal one. Both sides are armed and willing to fight to the death. The outcome, I thought, was always in the balance.
It’s actually A Big Question, the tuck in story, which is my favourite. Here we deal with a little dead girl… and I’m left to wonder whether this story was part of the history of Lenore.
I think I liked The Cat with a Really Big Head. It’s odd. It’s weird, sad and morbid. It’s well told, wonderfully drawn and very different. I can’t imagine reading this when you’re feeling glum would be a good idea unless, perhaps, you’re the sort of person who cheers up watching a British soap opera – life’s bad but at least you don’t have that life.
The video tour below was produced by Google Photos. It uses my bad photograph, colour filters and effects.
My copy of The Cat with a Really Big Head was provided for review. Titan Books, Roman Dirge, Hardback 112pp £13.99
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