{"id":29604,"date":"2024-04-02T08:00:34","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T08:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29604"},"modified":"2024-04-01T13:43:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T13:43:44","slug":"jamie-smarts-looshkin-honk-if-you-see-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/04\/02\/jamie-smarts-looshkin-honk-if-you-see-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamie Smart\u2019s Looshkin: Honk If You See It!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Jamie Smart<\/strong> with Sammy Borass<\/strong> & John Cullen<\/strong> (David Fickling Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-78845-313-4 (TPB)<\/p>\n

Since launching in 2012, The Phoenix <\/strong>has offered humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a traditional-seeming weekly comics anthology for girls and boys. The vibrant parade of cartoon fun and fantasy has won praise from the Great and the Good, child literacy experts and the only people who really count – a dedicated, growing legion of totally engaged kids and parents who read it avidly\u2026<\/p>\n

Devised by Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!<\/strong>; Bunny vs. Monkey<\/strong>, Corporate Skull<\/strong> and bunches of other brilliant strips for The Beano<\/strong> and more) from what I assume is close-hand observation and meticulous documentation comes another outing for Looshkin – <\/strong>a brilliantly bonkers addition to that vast feline pantheon of horrifying hairballs infesting cartoondom – featuring further \u201cadventures of the Maddest Cat in the World!!\u201d This new magnum (sweet, dark, nutty, creamy and constantly making your fillings hurt) opus shares fresh nuggets in the life of a totally anarchic kitty just like yours: cute, innocently malign and able to twist the bounds of credibility and laws of physics whenever the whim takes hold\u2026<\/p>\n

Once upon a time Mrs Alice Johnson<\/em> brought home a kitten from the pet shop. Not one of the adorable little beauties in the window though, but an odd, creepy, lonely little fuzzy hidden at the back of the store.<\/p>\n

The Johnsons are not an average family – even for Croydon. Firstborn son Edwin<\/em> watches too many horror films and keeps a book of spells in his room. Dad<\/em> is a brilliant inventor who needs peace and quiet to complete his fart-powered jet-packs or potato-powered tractors. With a new cat now, those days are gone for good\u2026<\/p>\n

That sweet little daughter isn\u2019t all she seems either: when kitten Looshkin attended her tea party in the garden, the toys all warned the cat of horrors in store. Making allies of teddy bear Bear and glove-puppet Mister<\/em> Frogburt<\/em> Looshkin was soon in his element and even escalated the carnage and chaos. He has found his natural home even though it\u2019s surrounded by weirdoes like Great<\/em> (and so very rich) Auntie Frank<\/em> and her precious ultra-anxious prize-winning panic poodle Princess Trixibelle<\/em> and neighbour\/former TV host Sandra Rotund<\/em> whose own cat Mister Buns<\/em> is a force to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n

Reality is notional at best around here, and many episodes adopt the conceit of being excerpts, articles or ads from magazines: frequently interspersed by hilarious pin-ups\u2026<\/p>\n

This outing spans a week – which is a long time in cat reality – and quite naturally begins with a recap\/origin of sorts as \u2018Looshkin: A Comprehensive Catalogue of His Rise to Infamy!!\u2019<\/em> reminds the regulars and forewarns the new fools and curious what the feline is like via newspaper clippings from The Daily Pickles<\/strong> before \u2018Beef\u2019<\/em> sees kitty in full-annoy mode and testing the force of an unblinking stare, before triggering traffic conniptions, wedding woes, acting anarchy and another trip to the Society of Cat Brain Doctors\u2026<\/p>\n

Oddly, hypnotising the cat to think he\u2019s a chicken is not the major therapeutic breakthrough everyone hopes it would be and results in a riot of farm vehicle spawned carnage\u2026<\/p>\n

With the media mad to find out \u2018Who is Tractor Cat?\u2019<\/em> neighbour Arnold Johnson<\/em> is driven to distraction when Looshkin affixes \u2018Fried Egg Wheels on my Bottom\u2019<\/em> and plays kidnapper in \u2018Family Ties\u2019<\/em>, after which a day dream of deadly \u2018Danger Sausage!\u2019<\/em> prompts the fuzzy blue fool to start \u2018Piggy Piggle\u2019<\/em> races and play \u2018Hide n Seek\u2019<\/em> with a 15 trillion year old dinosaur egg\u2026<\/p>\n

All intent to be good in his alternate ego of cosmic champion \u2018Johnny Rad\u2019<\/em> is doomed from the get-go, so the cat dials back and tries to help party performer Billy Crabs<\/em> retrain for better jobs in \u2018Tears of a Clown\u2019<\/em>. Shame about the guinea pigs though\u2026<\/p>\n

The dangers of Dress-Up-Like-Your-Favourite-Character-From-a-Book day manifest with a vengeance when Jonty-kins<\/em> kits up like the krazy kitty in \u2018Reluctant Reader\u2019<\/em> before Frogburt announces \u2018I hereby declare Looshkin to be an enemy of Frogtopia!!\u2019<\/em> in a daring nautical tale before angry Arnold Johnson declares a poster war and more when Looshkin goes looking for his lost love \u2018Sharon!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

More fabulously funny faux mag articles and ads segue swiftly into the cat and the bear auditioning a scatological skit in \u2018Musical Number Two\u2019<\/em> whilst time runs wild in \u2018Eloh Kcalb Eht\u2019<\/em> and a brief biography of \u2018Bear – Treasure Hunter of the Sahara!\u2019<\/em> broadcasts how to fight mummies, vampires and zombies with chicken nuggets and other party treats before feline goes fowl in \u2018Metamorphoduck\u2019<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

When the cat goes missing we discover why one must \u2018<\/em>Honk if You See It!<\/em>\u2019<\/em> and discover more shocking stuff about pigs \u2018In Which Looshkin Tries to do a Thing but it doesn\u2019t work out and as ever Bear is the One Who Suffers\u2019<\/em> after which Who is the Best Cat is determined by a \u2018Big Race\u2019<\/em> that doesn\u2019t end well\u2026<\/p>\n

Massive amounts of money and power prove no hindrance or help to our cat and his family when they take a turn as \u2018City Types\u2019<\/em> before soap spoofery becomes Weird – and offensive – Science when the cat adopts some \u2018Bum Angels\u2019<\/em> prior to a little literary sabotage and cunning catfishing in maritime madcappery \u2018The Old Man and Harold\u2019<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

Looshkin\u2019s love of melody and his bear overcome him in \u2018Sing Da Song\u2019<\/em> before he dabbles with bodybuilding in \u2018Bros!\u2019<\/em> whilst Frogburt whips up nothing like \u2018A Lovely Dinner\u2019<\/em> and that sweet little girl goes one step beyond with the class bunny \u2018Dongles\u2019<\/em> even as Looshkin evolves into \u2018The Gigantic Head in the Sky!!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

It all gets a bit cosmic on Sunday when the teddy reveals he\u2019s actually \u2018Bear X\u2019<\/em> on a secret space mission before the cat spoofs Speed driving a hijacked passenger vehicle and doing \u2018Bus Stuff\u2019<\/em> after which you\u2019ll learn nothing useful but embrace full daftness in \u2018How a Looshkin Comic is Written – A step-by-step guide!\u2019 <\/em>and enjoy a fake excerpt from a book that doesn\u2019t exist in \u2018The Cat with a Light Shining out of its Bottom.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

The cat faces replacement media property \u2018Marmalade!!\u2019<\/em> as this tome terminates, fighting off corporate ineptitude and media manipulation with one last murder-mitten Halloween swipe at \u2018Telly!\u2019 <\/em>and, Fun Done, surrenders to a selection of handy previews of other treats and wonders available in The Phoenix<\/strong> to wind us down from all that angsty satirical furore\u2026<\/p>\n

Utterly loony and inescapably addictive, Looshkin: Honk if you See It! <\/strong>is a fiendishly surreal glimpse at the insanity hardwired into certain cats and other critters (probably not yours, but still\u2026) and another unruly, astoundingly ingenious romp from a modern master of that rebellious whimsy which is the very bedrock of British humour.
\nText and illustrations \u00a9 Fumboo Ltd. 2024. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Looshkin: Honk if you See It! <\/strong>will be released on April 4th<\/sup> 2024 and is available for pre-order now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jamie Smart with Sammy Borass & John Cullen (David Fickling Books) ISBN: 978-1-78845-313-4 (TPB) Since launching in 2012, The Phoenix has offered humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a traditional-seeming weekly comics anthology for girls and boys. The vibrant parade of cartoon fun and fantasy has won praise from the Great and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Jamie Smart\u2019s Looshkin: Honk If You See It!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[280,42,113,102,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-antics","category-best-of-british","category-comedy","category-fantasy","category-humour"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7Hu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29604"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29607,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29604\/revisions\/29607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}