Review by Karl Verhoven
Alison Breaking ghost-writes autobiographies, and is offered an assignment from a mysterious person calling themselves Burma who’ll pay three times her normal rate. Despite the misgivings of her friend Reggie she visits London to meet Burma, and discovers a talking cat. From there we’re told his life story, beginning in the trenches of World War I.
It’s a clever hook on Paul Tobin’s part because obvious questions will occur to any reader, and they’ll want the answers. Tobin’s not in the mood to supply them immediately in what becomes a trawl through the past, although he does reveal Burma’s lives extend back at least to 1180 BCE. Burma’s an introspective cat, channelling Tobin’s considerations: “One destiny for each life or one destiny for all nine?” Over the course of I Was the Cat we experience most of those nine lives.
Benjamin Dewey varies the layouts to make the pages look interesting, gives his people personalities, and fills the backgrounds. Cat lovers will especially appreciate the effort put in, with the chapter opening illustrations standing out, recalibrated from subsequent art. However, given the premise of I Was the Cat he’s lumbered with two major drawbacks. The first is it being difficult to give a realistic looking cat any kind of character, and the second is the great difficulty of presenting real world comedy drama in a static form. The lack of movement means subtlety isn’t an option, so starting with Reggie’s disbelief in a talking cat, artist Benjamin Dewey exaggerates the comedy moments to be sure they transmit. The effect is like Jim Carrey or Robin Williams overacting on screen to draw attention.
The thread running through Burma’s recollections of the past is his attempts to take over the world. “Nobody should ever aspire to be a solo god, because then you’re always the one to blame if something goes wrong”, he explains about his time in ancient Egypt. The recurring joke is Burma revealing himself to the greats of the past, and coming a cropper for doing so. It supplies some personal anecdotes such as Napoleon being bitten by Josephine’s dog on their wedding night.
Burma’s plans for taking over the world are suitably daft in a Pinky and the Brain manner, but lapses in logic may annoy the more literal reader, like Burma at first claiming he never leaves his house, but eventually roaming London like a tourist in the company of Alison and Reggie. Some of the historical stories resonate more than others for having greater depth, with Burma’s early 18th century activities promoting the real life Jonathan Wild offering a page-turning story about a now forgotten rogue.
Perhaps you’ll want to know just how a talking cat came into existence. Too bad. You’re not getting an explanation. What you do get is a playful, lighthearted, episodic comedy that lingers a little too long, well drawn with some inventive moments. The 10th anniversary edition contains a new epilogue. It solidifies the original open ending, and shows how far Dewey has come as an artist with some sumptuous pages.
