Captain Ginger-- cool surprise from...Ahoy!

Captain Ginger starts off good, with heft: thicker, heavier than most; 35 non-stop story pages with 8 pages of back-up material, all for the now-usual $3.99 cover-price. Starts, unfortunately, in the midst of that Star Trek/Star Wars/Everywhere Battle, shields barely holding, the enemy ship vulnerable in just one spot--but they’re cats.

And then, battle won, cleverness over force, the story takes some smooth steps out of the box. A space station/way station replete with rats (they’re cats) and cushions causes everyone to leave the ship’s Captain Ginger pondering his fitness to command, how to herd his cats back to the ship, how to behave like a cat—he visits his unpleasant mother; holds an extended cat-fight with first-mate Mittens; naps.

The story’s told by Captain Ginger to an off-panel listener, but there’s only the sparest narration. Story and background all neatly fill in through dialogue: the Feeders (us) created a plague to defeat invading aliens, which captured the virus and used it to exterminate humanity. Now, cats; at war with, or fleeing, those same aliens. Battlestar Catlactica. There’s enough newness, though, that the frameworks are plain, but not intrusive. The cats are an interesting mix of feline and human, interesting too in that they themselves are still working this ‘mix’ out.

A very cool start to what I hope will be a long series.