Zicky
Wrath of the Rat King
A boy is sent on an exhilarating adventure when his dream life bleeds into his waking one in the imaginative graphic novel Zicky.
A boy’s fantasy world invades his real life in Darin S. Cape’s delightful graphic novel Zicky.
Five-year-old Zackary has a vivid dream life in which he becomes Zicky, an older, more athletic, wisecracking hero who fights against the rat king, Zooky, his evil alter ego. But then Zooky captures Zicky in Zackary’s dream.
When Zicky is captured, Zackary fails to return home by dawn, and his parents notice that he is missing. Meanwhile, Zooky enacts his plan to transport himself and his rat soldiers into Zackary’s reality and poses as Zackary. Zackary’s family is endangered by Zooky’s invasion plans. Zackary, his family, and their allies work to defeat Zooky and return their lives to normal.
Two different illustrators, using different art styles, contribute to this book, one attending to Zackary’s waking life and the other to Zicky and Zooky’s world. The fantasy world is vivified via bold and dynamic manga-style art, while the real world’s art is subtler and more realistic, with muted color tones. Details as of Zackary’s old pacifier, which serves as his magic ring, and his small, ragged Tickle Robot toy that grows much larger and more capable in his fantasy world pay homage to children’s imaginations. In both cases, the style complements the storytelling well, infusing excitement and enabling clear transitions between the worlds.
Unlike Zackary, Zicky is cocky but noble. Both exhibit cleverness throughout. Toward the end of the story, the line separating the two begins to blur, showing the leadership and budding maturity inherent in Zackary. Zackary’s parents, sister, and brother, meanwhile, are present to provide intelligent, sympathetic support.
With flashes of tongue-in-cheek humor, the book moves at a breezy pace, encouraging interactivity in spots. For example, one full-page illustration shows the family eating, even as the invading rats hide around the room; the caption suggests that the audience count all nineteen rats. At one point, the book also breaks the fourth wall.
Literary allusions strike a more sophisticated tone, as when Zicky and his allies encounter a group of lost souls and one asks, “Beatrice, dove sei?” Elsewhere, “The Ghost in the Machine” appears to return the fantasy characters to their world and erase the memories of Zackary’s family. And a clear moral is pronounced by the book’s conclusion, in which mistreated characters deliver justice upon their oppressors.
Zicky is a spirited graphic novel about the runaway imagination of a five-year-old.
Reviewed by
Peter Dabbene
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
