Prince of Cats

Reviews / Votes

BOOK RIOT -- This book is gorgeous and textural and
incredible. Set in the '80s with a neon color palette to match, Wimberly's work,
according to Professor John Jennings who wrote the introduction to the collected
edition, "...isn't just a mishmash of things he digs. Yes, it's Romeo
and Juliet meets Kurosawa meets The Warriors meets Planet
Rock. However, what makes Prince of Cats so innovative is the fact
that it acts as a reified index of that Hip Hop culture would manifest itself as
visually...deals with notions of class, race, and gender through this unlikely
courtship of comics, Hip Hop, and the works of Shakespeare...a black speculative
space that explores the construction of black masculinity, notions of good and
evil, and the nuanced storytelling methods that are totally part of the
affordances of the comics medium."

The
characters are almost as kinetic as living actors, with almost impossibly
nuanced facial expressions and movement. The language is pure Shakespeare and
pure Brooklyn, the connection of past to present, of sonnets to hip-hop
flawless.

In case you've ever wondered about
the book's title: Tybalt shares a name with the character Tybalt/Tibalt, Prince
of Cats, from the medieval Reynard
the Fox tales. In them, Tybalt is often
outsmarted, and falls prey to, the clever fox. Mercutio uses the sobriquet as an
insult when he hurls it at Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, foretelling
Tybalt's rather inglorious end.