Review by Frank Plowright

Into which genre does Jim Woodring’s wordless weirdness fall? Is it fantasy? Is it horror? Allowing for the parameters of the world Woodring sets his creatures in, it could even be plain slice of life. After all, the goofy-toothed, cat-like Frank just wanders around and things seem to happen to him. In that there’s even a connection to the wacky world of Krazy Kat. Whatever the possibly unclassifiable genre, there’s a strangeness to Woodring’s work that has a timeless quality. Readers of Poochytown fifty years into the future are likely to have the mixed cultural responses prompted in today’s reader.

Any plot Woodring introduces can seem just a means to an end, enabling his strange creations to be presented as part of a narrative rather than startling individual images. And these are startling individual images. It might pass you by, but Woodring composes one hell of a panel. Wacky 1930s animation is an obvious influence, but almost every single panel could be isolated and framed as some form of puzzling statement, and when Woodring arrives at his decoratively patterned nightmares they astound. However, Woodring’s repertory cast almost meander into small moral fables. In this case it’s Frank befriending his old foe the Man-Hog, accompanying him through most of these episodic interludes.

It leads to an interesting conundrum. Frank is extremely accepting of every strange environment he explores and of everyone he encounters, but he’s also very much a fairweather friend, accepting the Man-Hog’s company only because his regular companions aren’t around at the time. He watches the Man-Hog indulge in some disgusting behaviour without comment, yet as soon as his usual friends return Frank is happy enough to see them chase the Man-Hog off, so perhaps not as innocent after all.

Like all Woodring’s work, Poochytown is about the wonder of exploration and something to let wash over you. As such it’s another fine entry in a remarkable canon.

Poochytown can now be found in expanded form in One Beautiful Spring Day, accompanied by Congress of the Animals and Fran, from which it’s “discontinued” according to the title page notification.