{"id":33493,"date":"2025-08-07T08:00:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T08:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33493"},"modified":"2025-08-06T16:50:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T16:50:41","slug":"star-cat-unicorns-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/08\/07\/star-cat-unicorns-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Cat – Unicorns in Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy James Turner & Yasmin Sheikh <\/strong>(David Fickling Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-78845-356-1 (TPB)<\/p>\n

Never forget: all the best cats are ginger, and especially so if space is their back yard and litter box\u2026<\/p>\n

Way back in January 2012, Oxford-based David Fickling Books made a rather radical move by launching a traditional anthology comics weekly aimed at under-12s. It revelled in reviving the good old days of picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in style and content.<\/p>\n

Each issue still features humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. Since then The Phoenix<\/strong> has established itself a potent source of children\u2019s entertainment as, like The Beano<\/strong> and The Dandy<\/strong>, it is equally at home to boys and girls, and has mastered the magical trick of mixing amazingly action-packed adventure series with hilarious humour strip serials such as this one.<\/p>\n

One of the wildest rides of the early days was Space Cat<\/strong> by James Turner (Super Animal Adventure Squad<\/strong>, Mameshiba<\/strong>, The Unfeasible Adventures of Beaver and Steve<\/strong>). His yarns entertained us for ages before, eventually Yasmin Sheikh (Luna the Vampire<\/strong>) joined in – a hopefully unendingly collaboration to amuse us all for years to come\u2026<\/p>\n

Like an animalistic Red Dwarf<\/strong>, the premise is timeless and instantly engaging, detailing far-out endeavours of spacefaring nincompoops in classic mock-heroic manner. There\u2019s so very far-from-dauntless and possibly neurotic Captain Spaceington<\/em>; extremely dim and utterly unschooled amoeboid Science Officer Plixx<\/em>; inarticulate, barely housebroken feral beastie The Pilot<\/em> and disdainfully arrogant Robot One<\/em>, who quite erroneously believes itself at the forefront of the cosmos\u2019 smartest thinkers. The colossal, void-busting vessel the Captain and his substandard crew traverse the universe in looks like a gigantic ginger tom, and that\u2019s because that\u2019s what it is: half cat, half spaceship. What more do you need to know?<\/p>\n

After briefly reconnecting with the interstellar imbeciles via info spread \u2018Welcome Aboard\u2019<\/em>, the ramshackle roving resumes in \u2018Chapter 1: Deity Dishes\u2019<\/em> as our stellar sentinels are tasked with testing a breakthrough in cosmic power production and storage. Omega Toroids are so potent and jam-packed with energy that they can\u2019t be used in series or left together, but as the Captain and Plixx install a single unit in the Star Cat\u2019s engine, overconfident know-it-all Robot One\u2019s craving for donuts creates a mix-up of potentially devastating proportions after mistakenly stuffing his metal maw with all the remaining toroids and getting an inadvertent upgrade to all-conquering star-god status. Sadly, despite the boost, he\u2019s still intrinsically him and becomes the cause of his own downfall while ravaging the Pixie planet…<\/p>\n

Supervising chicken-on-a-mission The Space Mayor<\/em> then despatches his top team (no, Spaceington & Co…) on an urgent mission to end a rubber chicken shortage on Clowntopia-8. So desperate is the crisis that, against all advice and common sense, they consider a short cut through the notorious Spooky Quadrant… and literally live to regret it after encountering all the horrors of the damned at sinister Space Castle Spaceferatu in \u2018Chapter 2: Nothing to Fear Except Fear Itself\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Just purely coincidentally, the creepy citadel in space that is reputed to hold the most unimaginably priceless treasure in the universe has no impact on the team making that diversion<\/span> short cut. However, even with Robot-One\u2019s \u201cMoral Dilemma Mode\u201d activated, they make the wrong decision and it proves as useless as all the rest of R-1\u2019s upgrades in dealing with the terrifying and sneaky Space Vampyr<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Deplorably deranged, terrifying two-dimensional tyrant\/archenemy Dark Rectangle<\/em> reappears in \u2018Chapter 3: Flat Out\u2019<\/em>, when his trusty hench-being Murky Hexagon<\/em> begs Spaceington\u2019s aid in curing his master\u2019s dose of 3-D Flu. That noble deed demands the idiots invade the 2-D \u201cFlati-verse\u201d Dark Rectangle came from, and leads to odd adjustments, bizarre doings and a very nasty clash with the villain\u2019s ghastly family…<\/p>\n

After crashing on an unknown world, the Star Cat crew are accused of cultural sabotage and sundry misdemeanours in \u2018Chapter 4: Rhyme Crime\u2019 <\/em>but soon get the hang of talking for better or verse… all except Robot-One of course…<\/p>\n

That mini-armageddon is as nothing when measured against the chaos generated by the Massivitis germs that transform and utterly embiggen the boss of space in \u2018Chapter 5: Mega Mayor\u2019<\/em>. Thankfully, self-identified chicken-biologist (and closet proctologist) Robot-One has a plan, but it does require golden wigs, giant automatons in drag, extremely invasive incursions by medically untrained volunteers and biscuits, Many, many biscuits…
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\nThat fantastic voyage successfully concluded, \u2018Chapter 6: Crab to the Future\u2019<\/em> details how all but The Pilot are flash frozen on the coldest planet in the galaxy and eventually defrosted in the far future. Ten thousand years of progress – and the occasionally case of time-meddling – have created an odd yet ideal utopia, but the Captain, Plixx and especially the annoying Robot soon fix that, prior to returning to their own lethally enthralling era…<\/p>\n

Eventually, even the dimmest crewmember realizes the robot is getting more arrogant, nasty and dangerous, but that doesn\u2019t stop the Space Mayor sending him and his comrades to the Lovely Sector to fetch a crystal flower from the most pure and good planet in the galaxy. \u2018Chapter 7: Unicorns in Space!\u2019<\/em> reveals how Unicornia initially takes the wild rovers to its collective hearts and bosoms, but it\u2019s not long before the abhorrent android taints even this rainbow hued paradise…<\/p>\n

As a result of the tragedy he triggered, Robot-One earnestly seeks to change and \u2018Chapter 8: A Light Year in Your Shoes\u2019<\/em> has the crew indulge in a spot of body-switching and mind transference that only causes more chaos. The Space Mayor gets accidentally involved in \u2018Chapter 9: Change of Mind\u2019<\/em> when the Chook in Charge pays a visit to the ginger starship just as Robot-One starts editing aspects of his digital personality and memory…<\/p>\n

Closing – for now – on an even-more lowered tone, acronym layered \u2018Chapter 10: Fair-Weather Friends\u2019 <\/em>finds the crew supervising the mayor\u2019s new project – a B<\/strong>inary U<\/strong>niversal M<\/strong>anipulator constructed for the F<\/strong>ederation of A<\/strong>llied R<\/strong>epublics and T<\/strong>erritories. Uncannily, the freshly modulated, good-as-gold & nice-as-pie Robot-One is no help at all when Dark Rectangle sabotages the test and causes climactic calamities so all that good work must be undone to unleash the old personality if the obnoxious oblong is to be defeated…
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\nWrapping up the sidereal silliness are a bunch of pages of related activities: a swathe of features offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club<\/strong>. Bring paper, pencils and you to a compact online course in all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by James Turner & Yasmin Shiekh, expounding on how to draw the crew, absorb the basics of page-craft and learn professional terms. With features on lettering, layouts and composition, colouring, example panels\/pages and even some page blanks to go wild in, plus an extensive plug for the Phoenix Comics Club <\/strong>website complete with instant access via a QR code. What are we all waiting for?<\/p>\n

Text and illustrations \u00a9 The Phoenix Comic 2025. All rights reserved.
\nStar Cat \u2013 Unicorns in Space<\/strong> will be published on August 14th <\/sup>2025 and is available for pre-order now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By James Turner & Yasmin Sheikh (David Fickling Books) ISBN: 978-1-78845-356-1 (TPB) Never forget: all the best cats are ginger, and especially so if space is their back yard and litter box\u2026 Way back in January 2012, Oxford-based David Fickling Books made a rather radical move by launching a traditional anthology comics weekly aimed at … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Star Cat – Unicorns in Space”<\/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":[291,191,262,42,113,125,97,225,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activity-book","category-adventure","category-anthropomorphic","category-best-of-british","category-comedy","category-humour","category-kids-all-ages","category-mystery","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8Id","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33493","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=33493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33497,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33493\/revisions\/33497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}