The updates for Tracy J. Butler’s Lackadaisy are fairly infrequent, and a couple of reasons for that are the hours spent on it and the sheer attention to detail in almost every aspect. Among them is the artwork, which is impressive to say the least. The use of sepia tone increases over the course of the storyline, and not one character looks the same in the slightest. This even transfers to some of the artwork she’s done of her gangster cats as human beings.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this is a comic about talking gangster cats running a speakeasy. If that’s not a concept too weird for you, you’ll find a lot to like here. Though the only reason the characters are cartoon cats is to help their expressions stand out more, so aside from their tails puffing up or a quick hiss, these are essentially your typical mobsters except covered in fur. There’s no milk in those bottles, just straight hooch.
The Lackadaisy crew surprisingly isn’t doing so well in the storyline. Mitzi, the widow of the title nightclub’s late owner Atlas May, tries her best to keep her husband’s business running and protect his assets through careful negotiation and Bambi eyes, while violinist turned Lackadaisy rumrunner Rocky Rickaby relies on the power of his remarkable stupidity. With times being tough all around, he tries to get his naïve cousin and police reject Freckle some work, something he eventually grows to regret.
Rocky is charming and just enough of a moron to remain lovable- at least to me, I don’t think I can say the same for how the rest of the cast sees him. Atlas’s goddaughter and college student Ivy Pepper seems to tolerate him to a degree, something perhaps she eventually grows to regret.
Lackadaisy’s meticulousness extends to even minute details in the story and its setting. St. Louis isn’t used in fiction especially often, and Butler, a native, clearly does a lot of research both for the narrative and the visuals- anyone else from here would easily admire her accuracy. Her writing style leans towards dramedy and dark humor, though the character interactions and the punch lines are maybe the only two things here I could call anachronistic.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the wordplay and the interactions (everything with Mitzi and Zib is gold, and the Rocky/Viktor stuff is hilarious), but I did detect a lot of genre-savviness from the cast, something I wasn’t expecting from an otherwise devoted genre piece. But when the storyline needs to get a little heavier, that’s handled well also.
Basically, if you like Boardwalk Empire but feel that it could use some more laughs, or if you also have a cat who does more fed watching than bird watching, Lackadaisy’s probably something to look forward to. Highly recommended, so click here and let your jaw drop over even more pretty Butler artwork.